ArchiAfrika-April-Magazine-English-final-v2

Osei Agyeman
“Architecture is part of the beginnings of
civilization, when man sought to have a
home. Having come this far, it is obvious that
architecture is an expression of the people’s
identity and culture. So as a nation, if you
take us back to the 1950s you will realize that
the icons of our development were closely
related to architecture. They translated into
what our visions were as a nation. Take the
black star square, children’s library, national
museum, coco board building, etc. All these
buildings represented various aspects of our
vision; as far as education, as far as finance,
as far as government and they serve to be of
some purpose.
Somehow between the 70’s and early
80’s onwards, we seem to be lost as far as
architecture as the medium of translating
national heritage. And forgive me to say this
but those footprints that you probably see in
the national theatre, in the conference center,
in the jubilee flagstaff house and the most
recent foreign affairs building are done by the
Chinese or the Indians. So you need to ask
yourself using architecture as a medium to
transform nations, where are we. Once you use
once, you use it throughout. And that is why
we seem to have some amount of discourse
in respect of the arts, in respect of fashion,
in respect of food. You see architecture is
the about the best medium to really aid
civilization, because the only functional icon
that survives beyond time.”
Previous Page : Central Library, Accra
Left: Electricity Department Headquarters
Above: The headquarters of the Industrial Development
Corporation (left) and beyond it the newly opened Cooperative
Bank in Accra, 1957
Images Courtesy of the UK National Archives
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