Preview - Between Two Worlds in Accra

My client had spent fifteen years in Paris before returning to Accra to build the house he had always intended to build. He arrived back with a particular problem: he had become someone different in those fifteen years, and he needed a home that could hold both versions of himself — the Ghanaian who had grown up in Osu, and the man who had spent a decade and a half in the 11th arrondissement. He did not want to choose.

I started with the textiles. I work with a collective of weavers in Kumasi who produce Kente cloth in non-traditional colourways — deep indigo and charcoal, soft terracotta and stone — and these became the connective tissue of the project. Against them I placed pieces I know well from my time in Europe: a Prouvé chair, a Charlotte Perriand shelf, a Noguchi lamp. The conversation between these objects and the handmade Ghanaian work is the whole point of the house.

The concrete furniture on the terrace was cast by artisans I found in Accra's industrial district, working from patterns I drew. It took four attempts to get the mix right. The finished pieces look like they have always been there, which is exactly what I wanted.

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