African project
Kente House – Ghana
Upcycling was an important concept followed by the Kente House Building Workshop
team. Steph Townsend, Interior Designer from USA, designed the interior spaces along with
producing the upcycled kitchen furniture, which incorporates blue in its design following
the traditional, local meaning of togetherness and love, provided by that colour. Alma and
Steph also designed the bathroom and bedroom furniture reusing wooden pieces from
the formwork. CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO Danish Architect Stine Kronsted along with
Matthew Chantzidakis, designed and coordinated the upcycled playground for Kente House.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO
Rammed Earth Walls
Several rammed earth tests were carried out by architects Eve Williams and Sam Clagett,
from England and USA respectively. CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO These tests enabled
them to accomplish the final mix of 1, 19, 1 [sand, laterite and cement]. The tests included,
among others, chamfer strips, expansion joints, erosion lines, palm tree oil, different
proportions of aggregates for stabilisation, different water content, plastic for surface
finish and pigment. Chamfer strips, expansion joints and mortar stripes were successfully
incorporated in Kente House. Additionally, the architects coordinated a great part of the
building process on site, along with designing a formwork system, which reduces the
amount of metallic rebars used, decreasing production cost. CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO
Water Recycling
Peter O’Brien, Architect from Ireland, designed and constructed, among others, a drinking
water collector, following the concept behind Warka Water. CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO
An interwoven bamboo tower collects drinking water extracted from the atmospheric water
vapour, following the concerns of water scarcity in Ghana, particularly in Abetenim, along
with other African countries.