Marine Drive, Accra

Solution

Ghana’s capital, Accra, is a rapidly expanding metropolis with a growing international profile. But its most important district in the centre of the city remains fragmented, functioning to less than its full potential.

Following its work with Ghana’s Health Ministry, and alongside the country’s Ministry of Tourism, tp bennett has created an urban masterplan that knits the area together and makes more of its principal assets, including sites of international importance from Independence Square to the coastal fort area with its three historic fortifications: Jamestown Fort, Ussher Fort and Osu Fort.

While Independence Square is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Ghana, it currently dominates this coastal site inhibiting the coherent development of the wider area. The masterplan addresses this deficiency, and seeks to tie the square to nearby sights including the sports stadium and the mausoleum dedicated to ex-president Kwame Nkrumah. It also establishes a new shoreline route, potentially linking the three UNESCO-listed coastal forts.

Taking the sensitivities around these important sites into account, the masterplan chimes with Ghana’s growing international profile. “We are developing a framework to accommodate future growth and cultivate a social heart for this long-overlooked area of the city,” says tp bennett’s Nick Hirst.