Ghana Innovation Farm

Posted on December 3, 2021 by Design in Design Innovation | 0 Comments

ARCHITECTURE COMPETITION

Design a technological and cultural hub in to address the global challenges of food supply chains.

Register: JAN/16/2022, Submit: JAN/19/2022, Eligibility: Anyone, freelance architects, students, graduates; individually, teams with an unlimited number of members from different countries, cities or universities (at least one member aged 18-35), Fee: 65 EUR (OCT/18 – NOV/21/2021), 85 EUR (NOV/22 – DEC/19/2021), 115 EUR (DEC/20/2021 – JAN/16/2022), +22% VAT, Awards: 1st Prize: 10,000 EUR, 2nd Prize: 4,000 EUR, 3rd Prize: 2,000 EUR, 4 Gold Mentions: 1,000 EUR each, 10 Honorable Mentions, 30 Finalists

Some paradoxes are particularly painful. There is much talk of space race, rapid and relentless consumption of resources. Many people have too much, far beyond what is necessary. Yet, in numerous places of the world, people are still suffering from hunger. There are no simple solutions to the gaps that have always affected human society. Still, what is certain is that often poverty is not caused by insufficient natural resources. One third of the population of the Global South practices agriculture in contexts that are highly suited to such activity. Yet, despite a favorable climate and right soil conditions, it is precisely these peoples that obtain less value from the agri-food supply chain. This is because often the main causes of vulnerability are not natural but infrastructural.

In order to guarantee sufficient nutriment, both production aspects and the possibility to preserve food or food resources play a crucial role.

The cold chain is one of the core issues of the global nutrition challenge. InspiraFarms is well aware of that. For more than 10 years, it has been at the forefront in promoting technological development and dissemination together with the construction of facilities able to stabilize and preserve food produced in emerging countries.

Consistently with the United Nations goals, in one of the emerging African agricultural scenarios, InspiraFarms is about to build a technological and cultural hub to address the global challenges of food supply chains. It will generate a greater availability of products and job opportunities in a place where more than 25% of the local population live below the poverty line.

In this hub, a system of infrastructures and a training center will share with the local population knowledge and technologies to meet their needs. This will be achieved by developing strategies to make their activities more competitive and seeking new ways to create jobs and opportunities especially for young women and segments of the population facing higher risks.

This is the goal of Ghana Innovation Farm It is the third edition of the Manni Group Design Award, which is InspiraFarms’ ally for the creation of a beacon of culture and innovation. It shall become a reference for the local community providing resources, knowledge, and solutions able to meet the most basic of human rights: access to food.

SITE

Ghana is situated in West Africa between the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean. It borders with Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso and Togo and is located a few degrees north of the Equator. The country boasts a warm climate and a geography comprising prairies, coastal shrubs, and forests. Moreover, it boasts magnificent beaches with sandy coastlines and a flourishing countryside with soft shapes. It is studded with trees with copious ramifications and unmistakable palm trees that are the main natural feature of such corner of the planet. At dusk, low grass hills turn gold.

PROGRAM

Architectures for education are one of the most fascinating typologies architects can design. They are the place where consciences are born and knowledge is shared. They are positive contexts where the future is nurtured. They aim at generating progress, innovation, and social wellbeing. The typology with educational purpose is meaningful by itself. Still, in this competition, it is combined with an especially prominent humanitarian purpose: designing a place that can be a starting point for the local community. Here, the locals will live a new start with a renewed awareness of their resources and skills counting on instruments to guarantee food, wellbeing and sustenance for younger generations.

The Ghana Innovation Farm will be a place of hope, an icon of rebirth against the paradox of a world that is increasingly aggravating its gaps. It will be a seed of progress and equity to provide everyone with what is needed to survive according to a sustainable and ethical economic development paradigm. Therefore, Ghana Innovation Farm shall be a welcoming and comprehensible home for the local population. It shall integrate high technical standards with the tradition of the indigenous culture that created some UNESCO World Heritage sites in Ghana (Kumasi houses are a highly valuable and meaningful architectural unicum). Combining technology and tradition, generating modernity starting from vernacular architectural expressions, designing an innovative training center to be a home for the local community are some of the main challenges of Ghana Innovation Farm. The competition focuses on the building with educational purpose. However, architects are required to deal with the whole complex of the food hub by positioning the buildings in a harmonious design of external space and façades:

Building A: It has already been designed. It is composed by offices, rooms to control the system and the main refrigerated warehouse. Keeping the design and the overall dimensions, only the location of this block will be chosen, designing the external envelope for an effective and harmonious design of the entire complex. The insertion of porches, canopies, or the design of the facades will be at the complete discretion of the designer.

Building B: It has already been designed. It comprises a food processing and packaging system. As for this building, architects shall choose the position and a harmonious design of roofs and façades. Keeping the design and the overall dimensions, only the location of this block will be chosen, designing the external envelope for an effective and harmonious design of the entire complex. The insertion of porches, canopies, or the design of the facades will be at the complete discretion of the designer.

Building C: It has already been designed. It is the secondary warehouse. As far as this building is concerned, architects shall choose the position and a harmonious design of roofs and façades. Keeping the design and the overall dimensions, only the location of this block will be chosen, designing the external envelope for an effective and harmonious design of the entire complex. The insertion of porches, canopies, or the design of the facades will be at the complete discretion of the designer.

Building D: Innovation Farm. This is the core of the competition. It shall include:

3 classrooms for 20 people each; these are the places dedicated to learning and information. They shall be versatile and flexible spaces in order to guarantee different approaches to education;
a canteen/cafeteria; this will be a place for social relations and relax. It shall favor interactions between operators by providing quality spaces. Moreover, it shall make the most of the surrounding countryside to create suggestive views and panoramas;
a workshop for classes dedicated to electronics (at least 50 m2). Here, information about the electrical systems of InspiraFarms’ systems will be provided;
a workshop for classes dedicated to mechanical engineering (at least 100 m2). Here, information about the mechanical systems of InspiraFarms’ systems will be provided;
a food handling workshop. Here, people will learn about the processing operations of the agricultural product;
toilets (sufficient for a peak of 60 people);
offices (at least 50 m2).

External areas: Taking care to have an adequate access system for means of transport, the design of the external areas will gain particular importance in the context of the competition, with the aim of creating a pleasant, restful and socializing environment for visitors to the center.

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