Oasis in the Void

About The Entry

In an era of rapid urbanization and population growth, the global spread of informal settlements and overloaded urban environments has led to many unfinished property developments, which serve as visible testimonies to stalled capital. Accra, the capital of Ghana, is a city with ubiquitous abandoned structures. Rusty rebars and bamboo scaffoldings, remnants of unpredictable construction, form the voids and frame the street views. Residents here suffer from severe food contamination problems due to unsanitary street water treatment on vegetables.

Oasis in the Void is an innovative, affordable residential design, aiming to reclaim the void in forgotten structures and create a habitable oasis along the street. By utilizing local materials, this bamboo structure forms an intimate two-floor, 24-square-meter house within four exposed columns. Layers of semi-transparent materials blur the boundary between interior and exterior, public and private. The building itself is self-sustaining; a productive planting envelope is introduced with rainwater harvesting and solar panel system. Using an abandoned structure in the Nima District of Accra as an instructive example, the cluster of our small living models defines a new community above the existing market, and an urban oasis that reaches out far beyond.