The Bridge Residence by Accra-based Mobius architecture is a 6 bedroom tropical residence in East Legon, Accra, that can be defined as an architectural response to the age long query that asks “what is Ghanaian Architecture?”
The design which is described by the architects as “fat-free” seeks to glorify nature and as such features large 3m high glass sliding doors to ensure both the maximum amount of daylight and air into the space, while offering an outdoor-indoor living experience. The design also implements a 60:40 ratio of green space to built area, surrounding the modernist home with garden space as well as pool. The elements within the building with the exemption of the glass walls, were crafted locally and made use of local materials such as local odum wood for window frames and floors as well as natural stone.
You can read an insightful interview with the architects by archipose here to learn more about the project and the firm’s philosophy.
Project Description
via mobius arch
The core energy of the building is to fashion a point of view where one can stand and see it all. Philosophically, it is the merger of geometries, light and volumes that exudes the genius loci without explicitly showing its inner workings.
Images courtesy Archipose
The Bridge emerges from the search for the value from a site with an existing building which the client wanted to be renovated. The existing building covered the entire site leaving very little room for landscaping and space. In the aim to reimagine a Ghanaian house this design works to create a blur between the indoors and the outdoors.
Glorifying the great tropical weather Ghana enjoys year round, the living, dining and kitchen open to the outdoor swimming pool area and the vast lawns. Odum wood, concrete and stone are used in creating this 783sqm piece.
It doesn’t matter where they are from, the Ghanaian is deemed to be very hospitable yet many of our buildings do not exhibit this. “The openness, the love of the outdoors and the great all-year-round weather. This is why the architecture we imagine at Mobius seeks not to conform but to confront what is already existing around us. Before we begin conceiving a project, the team always asks, what are we trying to do here that is different, that is original, that is unique to us as Ghanaians, How can we better the discourse of architecture in our landscape?”
Augustus Richardson of Mobius Architecture
