Ghanaian Architecture

Twenty meters tall and four thousand years old, the Western Deffufa towers over the adjacent date orchards and ancient city remains in the desert. It is a former religious and administrative building near the modern-day Sudanese town of Kerma. Its significance is not only in its age and size, but also in that it is one of the oldest mud brick buildings in the world. And as the nearby mud brick houses also attest, earth is a material of continuous use from ancient times to the present. Yet, conversations around contemporary building systems have largely ignored this essential material. Some architects on the continent of Africa, however, are changing that.

Studio NEiDA operates at the intersection of architectural practice, research, and curatorial work, with a consistent focus on how buildings emerge from the material and cultural conditions of a place. Rather than treating materiality as a finishing language, the studio frames it as the beginning of an architectural narrative—starting from what is locally available, they look at what craft knowledge exists on the ground, and how those resources and skills situate a project within an architectural lineage. This approach foregrounds limitations and possibilities as productive forces, and positions design as an iterative process of aligning spatial intent with the realities of construction culture and vernacular intelligence.

In recent years, earthen construction has gained renewed attention in architecture. Materials such as adobe, rammed earth, and compressed earth blocks, once mainly associated with vernacular traditions, are increasingly being explored by contemporary architects. Rather than representing a simple return to the past, this renewed interest reflects a broader reconsideration of how architecture engages with materials, local resources, and environmental conditions.

The recently opened Limbo Museum in Accra, Ghana, inaugurated a two-part architectural installation by TAELON7 on March 12th, led by architect Juergen Benson-Strohmayer. The installation was commissioned by the museum in partnership with Art Omi, a not-for-profit arts center in New York's Hudson Valley. The project is the first commission of a collaboration between the two institutions and will be installed in both locations, Accra and New York. Titled Limbo Engawa, the modular, lightweight structure dialogues with the formerly abandoned Brutalist building housing the museum, transforming its skeletal concrete structure and its surrounding land into spaces for use, care, and encounter. The project reflects on the boundaries between unfinished urban architecture and the landscape, foregrounding the labor and stewardship often invisible in both urban and institutional contexts, and asserting that even incomplete or overlooked sites are vessels of civic possibility.

Launched in September 2024, the Rediscovering Modernism in Africa series joined a growing worldwide interest in this topic. Previously underrepresented in architectural discussions, the work of architects and researchers on the continent and abroad has continued to tell the story of these high-quality modern works of architecture. These buildings represent designers striving to create locally suited architecture using global concepts and technologies, coinciding with huge political changes as most African countries gained their independence.

The second round of award winners of the 2025 World Architecture Festival (WAF) has been announced, following Day Two of the world's largest international live-judged architectural event, held at the Miami Beach Convention Center in Florida.

The Limbo Museum is a new institution dedicated to architecture, art, and design based in Ghana, West Africa. The museum challenges the concept of the ruin, operating from a formerly abandoned Brutalist estate that currently conveys the image of an unfinished building. The project was founded by Limbo Accra, a spatial design and research-based practice established in 2018 by Dominique Petit-Frère and Emil Grip, dedicated to "unlocking the potential of unfinished buildings across West Africa and beyond." On October 31, 2025, the museum opened its first public exhibition, On the Other Side of Languish by Reginald Sylvester II, developed through the institution's visiting artist residency program.

In partnership with the European Cultural Center (ECC), ArchDaily has launched its inaugural exhibition as part of the seventh iteration of Time Space Existence, an architectural showcase occurring concurrently with the 19th Venice Architecture Biennale. Open from May 10 to November 23, 2025, in various locations throughout Venice, this edition centers on the theme of "Repair, Regenerate, and Reuse," promoting innovative and sustainable approaches in architecture. ArchDaily's contribution is located at Palazzo Mora, complementing other venues like Palazzo Bembo, Marinaressa Gardens, and Palazzo Michiel.

Adjaye Associates has revealed the design for the International Children's Cancer Research Centre (ICCRC) in Kyebi, Ghana. Commissioned by the Wish4Life Foundation, the project marks a step in the development of pediatric healthcare in West Africa. Situated on a 225,000-square-meter site along the eastern slopes of the Atewa Range, the ICCRC is envisioned as an integrated facility dedicated to healing, research, education, and community engagement. It will be the first center in the region solely focused on the treatment of childhood cancers. The project is currently on view at the Time Space Existence exhibition, part of the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025, held at Palazzo Bembo until 23 November 2025.

As educational institutions around the world adapt to shifting societal needs, the architecture of learning is also evolving. This curated selection brings together projects submitted by the global ArchDaily community, highlighting how architects are rethinking the future of schools and universities through design. These proposals reflect pressing global concerns: the importance of community-centered education, the revitalization of historical buildings and neighborhoods, the integration of natural systems, and the search for spatial expressions that accommodate both formal instruction and informal exchange. Whether situated in dense urban centers, rural villages, or coastal landscapes, these projects respond to specific cultural and environmental contexts while engaging with broader architectural questions about sustainability, access, and identity.