Death is not the end. Transforming existing but unfinished structures: The case of Nana’s Hotel - Sefwi Wiawso, Ghana
(2025) AAHM10 20251Department of Architecture and Built Environment
- Abstract
- Transformation projects still tend to focus on buildings that once had life. This thesis aims to work with those that were never brought to it.
In today’s world, there are an increasing amount of projects that garner a lot of attention and investment quite quickly. Some of these are taken through to the design stage and into development, only for them to suddenly not be viable. Development quickly stops. The project dies. But the scars on the land have already been left. Foundations poured. And in some cases, structures and walls erected. One such project belonged to my late Grandfather — a hotel in Sefwi Wiawso.
Sefwi has a beautiful way in which people build upon the built, borne out of necessity, working with existing layers and... (More) - Transformation projects still tend to focus on buildings that once had life. This thesis aims to work with those that were never brought to it.
In today’s world, there are an increasing amount of projects that garner a lot of attention and investment quite quickly. Some of these are taken through to the design stage and into development, only for them to suddenly not be viable. Development quickly stops. The project dies. But the scars on the land have already been left. Foundations poured. And in some cases, structures and walls erected. One such project belonged to my late Grandfather — a hotel in Sefwi Wiawso.
Sefwi has a beautiful way in which people build upon the built, borne out of necessity, working with existing layers and frameworks, rarely starting from scratch, and opening up for business before completely finished. A complex and constantly shifting collaboration, fraught with delays sometimes stretching across generations. The benefit to us and our environment of working in this way, with what exists and what we have available locally, has long been established. These ideas serve as a point of departure for ways of working with the four structures that make up the hotel complex. This proposal will focus on a phased development of the site, starting with the main hotel and pool house buildings. Inviting in the wilderness that has already started to stake its claim, interweaving traditional and local building techniques with contemporary needs. Reviving old rooms and adding new functions.
Having identified an existing grid, carefully working within it, space is left for the future. For another to build upon what is built. (Less)
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http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9214293
- author
- Adjavon, Ayité Kwasi Keith Mipoom LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- AAHM10 20251
- year
- 2025
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- Architecture, transformation, Ghana, restoration, hotel, art gallery, adaptive reuse
- language
- English
- id
- 9214293
- date added to LUP
- 2025-10-21 09:34:50
- date last changed
- 2025-10-21 09:34:50
@misc{9214293,
abstract = {{Transformation projects still tend to focus on buildings that once had life. This thesis aims to work with those that were never brought to it.
In today’s world, there are an increasing amount of projects that garner a lot of attention and investment quite quickly. Some of these are taken through to the design stage and into development, only for them to suddenly not be viable. Development quickly stops. The project dies. But the scars on the land have already been left. Foundations poured. And in some cases, structures and walls erected. One such project belonged to my late Grandfather — a hotel in Sefwi Wiawso.
Sefwi has a beautiful way in which people build upon the built, borne out of necessity, working with existing layers and frameworks, rarely starting from scratch, and opening up for business before completely finished. A complex and constantly shifting collaboration, fraught with delays sometimes stretching across generations. The benefit to us and our environment of working in this way, with what exists and what we have available locally, has long been established. These ideas serve as a point of departure for ways of working with the four structures that make up the hotel complex. This proposal will focus on a phased development of the site, starting with the main hotel and pool house buildings. Inviting in the wilderness that has already started to stake its claim, interweaving traditional and local building techniques with contemporary needs. Reviving old rooms and adding new functions.
Having identified an existing grid, carefully working within it, space is left for the future. For another to build upon what is built.}},
author = {{Adjavon, Ayité Kwasi Keith Mipoom}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Death is not the end. Transforming existing but unfinished structures: The case of Nana’s Hotel - Sefwi Wiawso, Ghana}},
year = {{2025}},
}