UDL and MCI Announce the Launch of Re-cultivating the Garden City of Kumasi

April 11, 2013. The Urban Design Lab and Millennium Cities Initiative are pleased to announce the release of their latest collaboration, a full-length Columbia University publication, Re-cultivating the Garden City of Kumasi, developed as part of the Urban Design Program at the Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation and in collaboration with the Departments of Planning and Architecture of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana (KNUST), the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) and the citizens of Kumasi.

Introduced by Earth Institute Director Jeffrey D. Sachs, this strikingly graphic and eye-opening volume of essays addresses some of the most pressing challenges facing Ghana’s fast-growing, second largest city and explores pathways for enhancing ecological sustainability, economic dynamism and urban equity. Seven innovative urban design proposals follow, with extensive site analyses and design studies based on criteria related to cultural continuities, social capital and financial resources in the impoverished communities of Akorem, Adukrom and Sawaba; and on the needs in particular of women and girls in the vibrant downtown market neighborhood, Bantama, where MCI, UDL and local authorities have planned and designed a comprehensive Women’s and Girls’ Center.

The strategies proposed here were developed by 25 professional urban design students and faculty who visited the site, listened and worked closely with local Kumasi partners, citizens and students and faculty from KNUST. Phased implementation is suggested for each strategy, including community actions implementable without significant capital input, as well as long-term strategies requiring significant government involvement.

Focus groups and interviews with women and girls were conducted with the assistance of local authorities, for an inclusive vision of priorities and needs of the future users of the Women’s and Girls’ Center. A clinic, business and IT center, daycare facilities and classrooms, together with a large multi-purpose hall, are central to the envisioned facility.

The flexibility of the strategic, evidence-based Urban Design approach is intended to facilitate inclusive solutions capable of making a long lasting difference in the communities. The increased public and private investment in upgrading these underserved communities can make a difference for the positive social development of the region.

Re-cultivating the Garden City of Kumasi is available on the MCI, UDL, and GSAPP websites. 2013 ushers in a new phase of UDL’s and MCI’s engagement in this region, as fundraising progresses toward the realization of the Women and Girls Center and a new regional hospital.