{"id":19070,"date":"2018-06-14T10:41:16","date_gmt":"2018-06-14T14:41:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/?p=19070"},"modified":"2018-06-14T10:41:16","modified_gmt":"2018-06-14T14:41:16","slug":"architecture-students-design-for-ghanaian-school-comes-to-fruition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/architecture-students-design-for-ghanaian-school-comes-to-fruition\/","title":{"rendered":"Architecture Students\u2019 Design for Ghanaian School Comes to Fruition"},"content":{"rendered":"

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T<\/span>hey say it takes a village \u00ad\u2014 and for one town in Ghana that couldn\u2019t be truer. Over the past decade, the people of Okurase have been working together to transform their community for a more prosperous future by constructing the Nkabom Centre, the area\u2019s first-ever educational facility.<\/span><\/p>\n

The 18,000-square-foot structure has electricity and running water and is the first of a 17-building complex completely designed by Clemson architecture students studying at the Clemson Design Center in Charleston (CDC.C).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Cynthia Swenson, a professor with the Medical University of South Carolina, approached the CDCC for help in 2008. As the co-founder of Project Okurase, a nonprofit that develops sustainable, replicable solutions for disadvantaged villages, Swenson had been working in the Okurase community for several years and following the vision of the community, wanted to help construct a complex that would house educational and medical facilities with water and energy. But money was limited. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSomeone suggested Clemson because the students do hands-on service projects as part of their work,\u201d Swenson said. \u201cI knew after speaking with Ray Huff and Rob Miller that I\u2019d found true partners in the CDC.C for this effort.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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“Everything we designed was built around local craftsmanship and skills we saw on our trip to Ghana.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It was paramount that the buildings convey the local culture, so before undergraduate and graduate students began to tackle designs, students Kyle Keaffaber and Lindsey Willke traveled to the region to research. \u201cThey saw firsthand how the land, water and sun played into the structure\u2019s dynamics. It was fascinating,\u201d Swenson said. \u201cWe originally envisioned the medical center at the front of the complex with a school behind it, but our research indicated that would be a huge mistake because air flow would carry communicable diseases through the medical complex and toward the school.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The trip provided another valuable lesson: The buildings needed to be constructed with compressed earth bricks. \u201cTo allow the community to play an active role and become invested in building their own community, everything we designed was built around local craftsmanship and skills we saw on our trip to Ghana,\u201d Keaffaber said. However, the on-loan brick-making machine had to be returned before work was completed. Clemson faculty and staff stepped in and built four manual brick-making machines.<\/span><\/p>\n

Today, the first structure in the complex stands tall, awaiting students of all ages to take their seats in the coming weeks, and now the community eagerly anticipates construction of the next building.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve seen an absolute change. People who grew up in that village are coming back, and things are picking up economically,\u201d Swenson said. \u201cAnd the people have a level of pride in this building \u00ad\u2014 they built it themselves \u2014 and they want to leave a legacy for their children.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

They say it takes a village \u00ad\u2014 and for one town in Ghana that couldn\u2019t be truer. Over the past decade, the people of Okurase have been working together to transform their community for a more prosperous future by constructing the Nkabom Centre, the area\u2019s first-ever educational facility.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":19380,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[125,769,770,2770,2776],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-19070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-these-hills","tag-africa","tag-college-of-architecture","tag-college-of-art-architecture-and-humanities","tag-summer-2018","tag-summer-2018-in-these-hills"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2018\/05\/Ghana-School.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19070"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=19070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}