[a]FA staging apam: A Stage for the Haduwa Arts and Culture Institute, Apam (Ghana) 2015
University of Applied Arts Vienna
Located on the Atlantic Coast of Ghana´s Central Region, the Haduwa Arts & Culture Institute is an open institution for independent artistic, cultural, and pedagogic experimentation. [applied] Foreign Affairs has been investigating stages and stagings in 2013, in a transdisciplinary approach. The aim has been to conceptualize and design a stage. The resulting project is a roofscape and floorscape located at the seafront borderline of the terrain. The large scale bamboo structure is a significant landmark in its context. It is a giant dome with three open arches facing in different directions, inviting visitors to enter a typologically new form of open space. It combines protection from and inclusion of external elements such as sun, wind, humidity, and rainfall. The primary structure is a grid shell solely consisting of bamboo – one of the most versatile and strongest materials on planet Earth. Its geometry has been informed by the material quality of bamboo and its structural, technical, and spatial potentials. Constructing with bamboo should also foster the reputation of sustainable architecture in Ghana. In 2014, the project was built by its authors themselves, together with local experts and workers.
Client: Haduwa Arts and Culture Institute
Concept and architecture:
[applied] Foreign Affairs, Insitute of Architecture, University of Applied Arts Vienna
Project head: Baerbel Mueller; Consulting bamboo construction: Jörg Stamm; Structural engineering: Klaus Bollinger, Bollinger-Grohman-Schneider; Consulting construction: Franz Sam; Performing Arts: Daniel Aschwanden; Textile: Manora Auersperg, Christoph Kaltenbrunner
Project student team design and realisation:
Christian Car, Joseph Hofmarcher, Ilias Klis, Joana Lazarova, Ewa Lenart, Ioana Petkova, Philipp Reinsberg, with Antonella Amesberger, Stephan Guhs, Frida Robles, Andrea Sachse, Jürgen Strohmayer
Collaborations:
School of Performing Arts, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, Lab DC/ Petra Kron
Institute of Art Sciences and Art Education, University of Applied Arts Vienna
Research Question: How to work in a truly transdisciplinary and transcultural manner? How to build Bamboo architecture in Ghana?
Ghana, Client-funded, Permanent, 0-10, Architecture, Self-funded, Semi-permanent, Postgraduate, Years, Collaboration, Curricular, Students with tutor, Vienna Arts Univ
