The Role of Institutional Support in the Implementation of the Project: The

Drawing on my fieldwork experience and role as a community architect and participant in an Earth Architecture project through the Nka Foundation, this section discusses how the process of selecting building materials addresses the significance of institutional support in the implementation of the project. Two weeks into the construction project and having done no visible work on site besides digging the foundations, I realised that the use of earth in building was proving to be a complicated and complex task, and that the Nka Foundation’s global narrative of using earth in the construction of new projects needed to be adapted and translated into the local reality. Most importantly I became

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more and more perceptive of the significance of institutional support in the implementation of any project using earth building techniques in this context. In Abetenim, amongst the Nka Foundation members, both locals and others, there was little understanding or awareness, if any at all, of the institutional options available for providing backup support to rural communities in relation to building/construction and training.

Further, the research makes use of the praxis of ‘collaboration as methodology’ (Marcus 2008) in the implementation of such a project (see 3.3.4). The process of selecting building materials addresses two distinct layers of collaboration: one among the members of our group affiliated to the NGO, and another between this group and a local institution. The visit to, and subsequent collaboration with, the Building and Road Research Institute (BRRI), in Fumesua near Kumasi was deemed vital to the realisation of the canteen. The BRRI conduct research into all aspects of building, training and technology transfer in the construction and transportation sectors (see Chapter 4). The main reason of our visit was to talk to one of the experts at their Materials Division and find out about the production and use of pozzolana locally. Pozzolana is a low-cost and low-carbon material, which partially replaces cement (see 7.3 Materials). The BRRI, through laboratory trials and field tests, produces Pozzolanas from clays and bauxite waste that can be blended with Portland cement to produce Pozzolana cement for housing construction, which is a durable and cheaper than cementitious material. Both clay Pozzolanas and bauxite waste Pozzolanas can be used to replace 30% to 40% of Portland cement for both concrete and ordinary construction (Atiemo, 2005; Manu et al., 2009). Pozzolana cement is much cheaper and environmentally friendly than Portland cement; therefore by using the former, housing delivery will become more affordable, while at the same time reducing the environmental impact. Yet, the cement used in Ghana is either imported or produced from imported clinker and gypsum; thus, encouraging the use of Pozzolana-cement would still support imported materials and would benefit the construction industry further. This would have detrimental effects on the rural communities and cause long-tem harm and dependency on external help, whether monetary or technical, or both. The imperative is to create awareness within communities in all the regions about building materials produced locally, such as pozzolana and other earth-based materials, the impact these may have on the local economy, and necessarily about other local low-cost materials that could replace cement entirely when mixed with earth; at the same time there should be capacity building in

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terms of training local masons to use these materials correctly, so they have the power to choose responsibly.

Two BRRI experts, the research architect and materials scientist visited us on site every week in order to offer advice on the use of different materials, quantities needed, and most importantly testing the soils for the making of the earth bricks. They showed willingness and intention of collaborating with the Nka Foundation further stating that, ‘this is the first time we are in Abetenim but definitely not the last, we will be coming here and offer advice and transfer the technology to the local masons now that we know about the Nka Foundation and their work in Abetenim.’ The support from BRRI would provide assistance with the ongoing training of the masons and would not be limited to traditional notions of (technical) operation and maintenance. Hence, the collaboration with the experts at BRRI was fundamental and rather a prerequisite especially for Western-trained architects and technologists. This form of external support would not intend to engender long-term dependency, rather its aim would be to empower and sustain community capacity and resilience over time.

The masons and carpenters in Abetenim, and presumably elsewhere in rural Ghana are both the designers and makers of their buildings. With the intervention of the NGO though, it was ‘us’ and other groups involved with the NGO who carried out the design of the buildings. Our group endeavoured to simultaneously improve the building methods, previously perceived as straightforward, through the collaboration, help and mentoring from the experts at BRRI. We sought to enhance the locals’ know-how not by Western knowledge or technology, but by enabling knowledge locally developed through ongoing research at local institutions, to inform the choice of materials, the construction and consequently the design of the canteen. Neither the local builders nor any of our group members had ever used pozzolana or made stabilised compressed earth bricks with pozzolana-cement mix before.

In light of the above, this section explores how the research on local building materials undertaken at the BRRI relates to rural Ghana; if the artisans (carpenters and masons) in the rural areas know how to and are able to use these materials in construction projects; whether training is required in order to enable this. The BRRI have set up the National Artisan Centre where they offer a training programme for the duration of two to five weeks against a very minimal fee. They look at the artisans’ level of skills and offer

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them training on what they would lack and they take it away to their district, to their locality. The research architect and I discussed the possibility of proposing to the NGO the training of the Abetenim group of masons and carpenters at the BRRI as they could work out some tailor measured fee for the entire group.

How would the masons in rural Ghana get to know about this training program? The BRRI advertise for about two months before the start of the program and also write to the district assemblies as most of the artisans are registered with their district assemblies. The latter are ‘supposed to relay back to their contractors’ and then their foremen relay to the artisans. The lack of funding restricts the BRRI from organising training at each district so the artisans could receive training at their own locality. Echoing participant A1, the research architect at BRRI whom I interviewed in Ghana:

“We are looking at, later on when we have funding, it will make it a lot

easier for us to move out and organise this training. It can be regional, it can even be at a district level depending on how the funding is and how and where the resources are. We could have done that but now we are restricted so we are doing it at the centre where we have the resources because we are able to manage with the limited funds that we have.”

The participant A1 during the interview at his office in Fumesua spoke to me about the relation between possibilities of external collaboration(s) and the implementation of a training program for the masons in rural areas:

“The government is not helping much; most of the work that we are doing

with the district assemblies has been on our own initiatives. Initially the district assemblies used to have their own funds and could take their own decisions. But now everything is going back to the central government who is still controlling the money and they can be directing any district authority. So the concept of the district assembly project has already been defeated. It becomes difficult when you want to persuade them to do some initiatives on their own. As we (BRRI) are a government supported/ subvented organisation, there are no funds for us to go and do some of these things and there are some legislations which also restrict us as to how we can even go for partnerships. This is what we have come out with, these are

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the findings of our research. But it’s left on the shelf. So you are praying that somebody will come and pick it up and go and implement them.”

The above quote demonstrates how changing people’s thinking about what knowledge is and about what intelligent performance is, manual skills and manual labour, is critical. Handicraft has deteriorated in terms of status and practice particularly over the last century and it is often understood that this happened because of industrialisation, globalisation and technological development which would replace the need to do things by hand (Marchand, 2009).Another important factor for the deterioration of handicraft is that it attracts a low social status. It is generally believed that those who work with their hands, those who are involved within even skilled labour are those who did not make it through school or did not have the academic credentials to go on. This is elaborated further in the following chapter on the actual fieldwork in Abetenim. I will now turn to another part of my fieldwork, which emerged out of the encounters I had in Ghana.

3.3.6 The Architects’ Project (TAP) as Virtual Field Site: The collaboration with TAP

From the encounters that I had in Ghana, both in Abetenim and Accra, my research has continued to develop in a most serendipitous way. After coming back from Ghana and during my fieldwork year in the UK, I was invited by the Architects' Project founder, whom I met in Accra, to become their online Editor. The Architects' Project (TAP) is an Accra-based non-governmental organisation involved in Architectural Research and Design in Africa and mainly Ghana. TAP is an autonomous initiative set up to boost the education and practice of architecture. It is local in context and global in agenda. TAP is a lively virtual network which is vital for my doctorate as it continuously keeps me informed about and engaged with the political and housing situation in rural and urban Ghana. Its founder and director is a female architect of Ghanaian origin who received her architectural training in the UK and returned to Accra in order to practise locally as well as set up the initiative. Thus, from a rural geographical site my fieldwork has now moved to a virtual site through social media networks, mainly those of Facebook and WhatsApp. The Architects' Project have a company page on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter which act as means of networking with active professionals in and outside the

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architecture and planning industry. Here, I have enhanced my relationship with locals I met when I was in Ghana and it is proving to be an exciting and creative aspect of my methodology. This fits within the flexibility of the multi-sited ethnographic approach, as I explained above.

My role as the online editor entails research on African architecture with specific reference to the following: housing schemes, planning related issues, vernacular architecture in various parts of the African continent, ongoing and/or completed projects by community-driven initiatives, and generally schemes that make use of local resources, local materials and labour. I undertake research on the above daily in order to be able to post on the TAP’s Facebook page. Posting on social media presupposes that I have read the material and have also written a short introduction to what the ‘online audience’ is about to be presented with as soon as they click on the post. The Architects' Project and my research area may share characteristics which express abiding intellectual interests including my aspiration to conduct community-based research and a focus on issues of community training and participation, low-cost and low-carbon materials in construction, sustainability, and approaches to resilience and adaptation.

Most of the NGO’s members affiliated to TAP, thirty six in total at the time of my fieldwork, are based in Ghana with only a handful of us working from outside Africa. Hence, we have set up a group account on WhatsApp Messenger13 _{in order to be able to}

communicate with one another on a daily basis and instantly. The use of technology and specifically ‘WhatsApp’ has enabled us to work together as a group, have insightful and intellectual conversations, hold official meetings and take strategic decisions in relation to research, design, management, and operational issues.

Additionally, my ongoing involvement with The Architects’ Project (TAP) has given me the opportunity to organise and facilitate events, which are directly related to my PhD. For instance, I co-organised together with the founder of TAP an event as part of the ‘tap:Exchange’ series of events at London Metropolitan University, the CAAS

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WhatsApp Messenger is a cross-platform mobile messaging application which allows you to exchange

messages at no cost because it uses the same internet data plan that you use for email and web browsing. WhatsApp Messenger is available for certain mobile phones. In addition to basic messaging WhatsApp users can create groups, send each other images, video and audio media messages.

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Centre, on 4th December 2015. This event titled, ‘Transcultural Praxis: Tapping local resources for sustainable development - localising foreign through cross-cultural praxis’, entailed a workshop and seminar titled. I co-facilitated the workshop titled, ‘Revisit the Reinvented’ exploring the difference between ‘architecture before’ and ‘architecture after’ its context is experienced, where I also presented a paper entitled,

Ethnography and the Architecture of Situations. Both this type of involvement as well

as being the inline editor of the non-governmental organisation has given me the opportunity to put some of the ideas which emerged from the research to test. The feedback I receive at the TAP events and the online forum has informed my thinking and writing process in a meaningful way.