Haduwa Arts & Culture Institute
[a]FA is a lab at the IoA (Institute of Architecture / University of Applied Arts Vienna) investigating spatial, infrastructural, environmental and cultural phenomena in rural and urban Sub-Saharan Africa.
[a]FA Staging Apam / HADUWA ARTS & CULTURE INSTITUTE is a project located in Southern Ghana that has taken on the task of designing a stage on the Atlantic coast for a future cultural institution. The design process has been conceptualized in a truly transdiciplinary and transcultural way.The resulting project is a large scale bamboo structure - a giant dome with three open arches facing in different directions, inviting visitors to enter a typologically new form of open space. Constructing with bamboo should also foster the reputation of sustainable architecture in Ghana.
In 2012, [a]FA started collaborating with the Haduwa Arts & Culture Institute Ghana, an open institution for independent artistic, cultural, and pedagogic experimentation. With students from the School of Performing Arts of the University of Ghana, [a]FA investigated stages and stagings. The aim was to conceptualize a stage for future initiatives of Haduwa. The resulting design is a roofscape and a staging ground located at the seafront borderline of the terrain. The project is a significant landmark in its context, and invites its visitors to enter and explore a typologically new form of open space. It is a bamboo dome with three open arches facing different directions, large enough to accommodate a variety of programs. Its spatial quality combines protection from and inclusion of external elements such as sun, wind, and rainfall. The primary structure is a grid shell consisting solely of bamboo - one of the most versatile materials on Earth. Its geometry is informed by the material quality of bamboo and its structural, technical, and spatial potentials. Constructing with bamboo should also foster its reputation in Ghana. In 2014, the project was built by its authors themselves, together with local workers. It was handed over to Haduwa for appropriation at the end of the year. Further projects steps, such as the design and realization of moveable, vertical elements and the construction of the projected floorscape, are planned for 2015/2016.
Images and Plans
Technical Description
The appropriation of the terrain was conceptualized in a slowed-down manner. It was identified that the piece of land would need to be intensely interrogated, both in and of itself and in its environmental and cultural context. A small team of (Vienna-based) students of architecture and landscape architecture, together with (Accra-based) students of performing arts, met in February 2013 in order to explore the site, first with one’s own body space and all one’s own senses. The transdisciplinary approach allowed the group to intensely test real site conditions and to simulate spatial outlines through a feedback system between the two professions. A set of parameters could be catalogued based on these body spaces, which later deeply influenced the size and location of the stage. Back in Vienna, the project was mainly developed with physical models of various scales, which were digitalized, and structurally optimized as 3D models. Additionally, two 1:1 outdoor workshops were organized in Austria in order to understand the pure scale of the project and test material properties, such as the structural behaviour of bamboo.
In January 2014, a team member mobilized the site and supervised the construction of three large foundations with a group of local workers and fishermen. A month later, the whole [a]FA team travelled back to Ghana. An international bamboo expert was invited to run a workshop, which was attended by both the [a]FA group and the workers. Participants learned how to work with bamboo professionally, and to create bamboo arches. Together, the construction of the largest arch was executed. With few logistical preparations, it was raised, in a communal action. In order to relate to inhabitants, and to capture the cultural specificities of the bay, artistic interventions have already taken place during this first construction phase. Also the textile department of the University of Applied Arts Vienna got involved on the ground, researching local textile techniques, recycling materials, and vernacular roofing. Back in Vienna, the aim was to come up with artistic translations of the local findings, driven to nourish the design process of the roofing of the bamboo dome. Parameters were defined, and students worked on a variety of 1:1 samples of similar materiality, and in hybrid techniques. Later, a technical and feasible roofing solution and an adequate material needed to be found in order to fully protect the bamboo from UV irradiation and water, which happened in the course of another intensive workshop. From August 2014 onward, the project has been realized on site with a shifting [a]FA team and a regular group of local workers. 41 bamboo arches had to be produced in a few weeks. With some geometric challenges, they were finally raised and joined. In parallel, part of the team worked on the roofing membrane. The prefab tarpaulin strips were pushed over the roof and mounted in a specific lacing and knotting technique. Later, additional pieces were welded on top to fully protect the bamboo dome and its edge arches. By early December 2014, the work had been finalized. In 2015, collaboration with the textile department continued with the aim is to design and produce moveable, wind-protecting, vertical elements that mediate between roofscape and floorscape, architecture and art.
Project: Haduwa Arts & Culture Institute / Location: Apam, Central Region, Ghana
Program: Cultural institution / Concept and Architecture: [applied] Foreign Affairs
Project team (design and realization): Christian Car, Joseph Hofmarcher, Ilias Klis, Joana Lazarova, Ewa Lenart, Ioana Petkova, Philipp Reinsberg, with Antonella Amesberger, Andrea Sachse and Jürgen Strohmayer
Project head: Baerbel Mueller
Bamboo construction consultant: Jörg Stamm
Structural engineering: Klaus Bollinger, Bollinger-Grohman-Schneider Consulting
Construction consultant: Franz Sam
Collaborations textiles and performance arts: School of Performing Arts, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, Lab DC / Head: Petra Kron / Institute of Art Sciences and Art Education, University of Applied Arts Vienna: Roof membrane and textiles: Manora Auersperg, Christoph Kaltenbrunner; Performance arts: Daniel Aschwanden; tex_[a]FA interweaving 2015: Barbara Putz-Plecko, Manora Auersperg
Team: Clelia Baumgartner, Frida Robles, Tanja Happel, Afra Kirchdorfer, Sarah Steiner, Julia Galimova
