Sunday, July 25, 2010

TRASHITECTURE 3

Hustlers Base




This is the hustler's base. A very common sight in any West African city. The material was obtained from scrap and used wood planks from building sites, treated against termites with waste engine oil. The roof is of old rusted aluminium sheets kept in its place with rocks, cement bricks and anything with weight that isnt worth stealing at night including pots, pans and cookware.The building has no windows and only one imposing door.
The interior is partitioned into three spaces, one main room and two bed chambers. The furniture positions are determined by the leak positions in the roof. Rain water harvesting is done inside.
During the rainy seasons, buckets and pans are placed under leak positions to harvest rain, If you love water music, you will love to be in this shack during a rain storm when the dripping sound in the pans create the most amazing music you have ever heard.

Thursday, July 8, 2010

TRASHITECTURE 2

RESIDENCE OF A TRAMP

This is architecture at its Trashiest.  It also reflects the basic instict of man to provide shelter for himself.  This was occupied by a mentally handicapped man who scavenged trash cans, bins in a near by neighbourhood.
  
The most likely place for a scavenger  to find materials to build this type is the rubbish heap, scrap yard or landfill site.  Natural materials like sticks and stones, litter, junk, raw and recycled bottles, car tires, cardboard, broken bottles , blankets , jute bags, old clothes and scrap metal. Anything can act as a roof, window or door. It doesn’t matter which order. Whichever order, there is a structure which forms his space, his home. Interestingly, there is a car engine fan as a wind mill on the roof. 
The interior? I chose to respect the occupant’s privacy. But let your imagination run wild on what a night might be like in this dwelling. 

Sunday, June 27, 2010

TRASHITECTURE 1

The Sea Side Ghetto


The first is a dwelling i found by the beach near a very busy high way by the sea. Constructed to be a fishmonger's stall, and later a storeroom, it is now home to a middle aged Rastafarian gentleman named Ras Idem alias Sea lion. His choice of location is based on the fact that he is still waiting for a ship to take him back to Africa, the fatherland. He wanted to escape the oppressors in Babylon (part of the city of Accra) and hopefully wait for the emancipation and repatriation back to his homeland.
The construction of the dwelling is interesting. Half of the building materials used are debris floating onto the beach. the corner posts are coconut tree stumps. The gable roof is made of dried Thatch from a nearby marshland held together by ropes on bamboo rafters. The interior is dense with the smell of mosquito repellent coils and marijuana. The structure is insulated by old leather bags and worn trampolines. The interior furniture is made of old wooden soda crates with cushion of old second-hand clothes.
All these aside, with an old lantern, and mosquito coils, the evening here is delightful sitting on a three legged chair with a battery powered radio straining an ear to listen to Reggae music drowned by the strong winds from the gulf of Guinea and the relentless attack of the waves rushing up against the shore.

Kojoderban

TRASHITECTURE

Introduction

I would like to interest you in a type of Architecture that you may not have considered yet as part of architecture. I say it is especially if it is a form of building growing ever increasingly in our urban environments.
This is Trashitecture. It is not to be confused with Primitive architecture, (there is nothing of the sort) or dwellings of a cave or bush man, nor are they slum dwellings. These are solitary structures often found standing alone. they are products of the basic instincts of the human race when desperate, stranded, abandoned, outlawed, confused or mentally disabled. they have no pre-designed process and are built with everything and anything available obtained from anywhere and put together anyhow by any means. Most of the materials used are discarded waste, used materials and objects from trash and garbage,looted or stolen or picked from scrapyards and construction sites. they are usually found in open spaces , green belts, near highways and on no man's land.
In literature , one is reminded of the house Robinson Crusoe built when he was shipwrecked or Ben Gunn of Treasure Island built for himself when he was marooned .
I will entreat you to examine them deeply, out of these we may gain ideas for green Architecture or discover a secret to low cost housing and most of all, the origin of squatter town and cities that have become a part of our urban environment.
I have chosen a few for discussion in the following posts.

Kojoderban