Dump Vision

Our unconfessed desire for different landscapes, cultures and spatial or social appearances of architecture, as well as a sequence of strange coincidences, found us on a flight to Ghana, the country of the northwest, yet Sub-Saharan, Africa, that would directly become the springboard of our heterotopic quests.

Ghana, home of the largest e-waste dump in the world, hosted the vision for a new way of living, a city rising from the ashes of burnt wire and dust. We chose to convert the perspective that sees Agbogbloshie as a static dump, into that of an active field of e-waste recycling and regeneration. Driven by the resident’s ingenuity, their ability to dismantle, convert and reuse what most see as broken and dispensable, we oppose an organized and productive network to the state’s official plans for clearance and eviction. In particular, we propose the creation of an organized and equipped WEEE recycling facility, giving room to an extensive habitat zone for 30,000 people spreading around the river Odaw, the aquatic stream that today runs through Agbogbloshie, carrying the loads of contamination to the adjacent Atlantic Ocean. The repair and regeneration laboratories that are currently scattered along the area are now gathered and formulated to create a productive cluster, leading to a final commercial zone, which comes to life through the revival of the old railway station that sits on the border of the present slum. Essentially, the proposal suggests a holistic approach to a multi-leveled issue, the concurrence, and complementarity of what are seemingly incompatible uses, relinking industry to living, in an attempt to sculpt a productive space able to re-cater the city both with product and employment.