Recently I came across University of Illinois, Urbanana Champaign's offshoot materials science technology firm Lamboo Inc. Lamboo Inc. has a patent on a laminated bamboo material that is used for structural components of residential and commercial construction.
I was struck by the fact that the bamboo specie that is used for Lamboo is imported from South America and southwestern Africa. It made me pause to think about this fact:
The two companies that produced cement in Ghana, Ghana Cement Works Ltd. and Diamond Cement Ghana Limited used imported clinker, gypsum, and limestone for the manufacturing of cement. About 2 Mt of clinker was imported in 2003 for the production of Portland ceme
Not only is it unsustainable economically for any country to import basic materials for it construction industry(which accounts for a bulk of economic activity), but concrete structures are not architecturally and environmentally and healthwise the best for the local tropical scene.
I, therefore, embarked on a journey to find out what the creative community in tropical regions are doing about innovative local materials for the residential and commerical built scene. I wanted to find out if architects in the tropics with abundant materials were thinking along the lines of Lamboo Inc.
I came across Joe Osae Addo, an architect, a modernist architect I must emphasize, who coined the phrase "inno-native" to mean innovative art that relies on locally inspirations.
In pictures, here is a comparison of a typical 'modern' suburban home in Ghana and Joe Addo's inspired inno-native home in a suburb of Accra, Ghana.
Below: Joe Addo's home in Suburban Accra, Ghana
source of image: dwell.com
Above: Typical Middle Class home in suburban Accra, Ghana
No comments:
Post a Comment