There is an increasing character of abandoned buildings in many African cities and Limbo Accra; a spatial design practice, roots itself in the experimentation of their repair, reuse, and transformation. The practice views these buildings as a unique architectural typology that includes key city landmarks, from the abandoned Independence house in Lagos to the incomplete airport tower in Accra, amongst others. They see them as major opportunities for modern public space and as symbolic sites for spatial justice. Through techniques such as photogrammetry, Limbo Accra has been creating a digital archive of these buildings and collaborating with artists and designers to propose new prospects for them. ArchDaily had the opportunity to speak with Dominique Petit-Frère, the co-founder of Limbo Accra, about the collective character of these buildings, Limbo Accra’s approach to their transformation, and navigating challenges in the adaptive reuse of these structures.
Paul Yakubu (ArchDaily): A prominent trend in many African cities like Accra, Lagos, and Dakar is the increase in abandoned buildings. These range from small-scale structures to unfinished real estate and derelict high-rises. What do you believe are the influencing factors, and what similarities do these cities share regarding these factors?
Dominique Petit-Frère (Limbo Accra): From my experience growing up as a first-generation New Yorker with parents from both Ghana and Haiti, I've witnessed the flow of many individuals from the Global South traveling to the Global North for socio-economic opportunities. This often leads to gradual investments back home, including ongoing building projects. As a result, many projects start without full funding, leaving them unfinished for years or even decades in a skeletal state. Through our practice, we discovered that in both the public and private sectors, several factors come into play that can affect a building’s completion. We discovered a range of challenges, such as structural flaws, land and family disputes, speculative development practices, bribery, budget overruns, and government reallocations.
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PY: How does your practice, Limbo Accra, which roots itself on the experimentation of repair and transformation of unfinished building projects in West African cities, respond to this?
DP: Our approach simply begins with sharing awareness of these modern ruins. Over the past year, we have developed a digital archive titled "The Liminal Archive" which serves as an online repository of unfinished and abandoned architecture across Africa, using photogrammetry as a tool to scan and preserve the memory of these buildings. Currently, we are preparing to repair and retrofit an unfinished estate in Accra, where we have been operating for the past two years, into a permanent research and exhibition space. This space will house our digital archive and serve as an "open lab" providing an interdisciplinary hub for both local and international engagement to explore themes of preservation, circularity, reuse, and cohabitation, all whilst contributing to a regenerative future.
PY: Could you elaborate on this through an abandoned structure you've interrogated this way and the responses that emerged from it?
DP: Recently, we had the honor of being invited by Tosin Oshinowo, curator of the Sharjah Architecture Triennale, to respond to the curatorial theme, “The Beauty of Impermanence: The Architecture of Adaptability.” From the onset, we wanted to explore Sharjah through the lens of Limbo. This journey led us to uncover a series of unfinished building projects, including the Sharjah Mall, the largest incomplete structure in the Emirate. At multiple moments throughout the year, together with Anne-Lise Agossa and Rym Beydoun, we ventured into its core and reimagined its interior space. By weaving multiple layers of fabric around existing and newly added structural elements, we created intimate pockets of space where people could inhabit and interact. This juxtaposition of delicate fabrics against the raw, monumental structure brought a unique contrast and sense of beauty to the site.
PY: It's understandable that political and economic factors, rather than architectural ones, are the primary causes of these dilapidated structures. How could a designer or architect examine these influences to aid in the repair and transformation of these structures?
DP: To some extent, it's important to acknowledge and understand what building practices are being conducted by Africans today. Houses and buildings often take years, even decades, to complete. How can we create opportunities and solutions to support this gradual approach to building? Is it possible to develop systems that allow for lower-cost construction over time? Can we design solutions that accommodate buildings being constructed in stages over many years, tailored to the needs of local communities?
PY: Many of these buildings remain derelict due to their lack of potential use. For instance, while Lagos needs more social housing, it's challenging to repurpose abandoned governmental buildings in the city for this need, given their former status and original spatial character. What do you believe are the optimal use-case opportunities for these buildings? If these uses involve a different typology, how would you reconcile that with the building's existing characteristics?
DP: Through our experience, we've learned that there's an abundance of scarcity and that anything is possible. The concept of adaptation is relatively new, especially in the modern context of the African continent. Our main goal is to raise awareness and present these sites as beautiful, desirable, and full of potential to address critical issues in our communities. By researching, documenting, archiving, and collecting information/data on the scale of this phenomenon and its possibilities, our goal is to share this knowledge with architects, urbanists, the general public, and those in positions of power and financial resources to invest in the rehabilitation of these sites to address key issues such as; lack of green spaces, public parks, innovation hubs, hospitals, schools, etc.
PY: Lastly, your project "Super Limbo" for the 2023 Sharjah Architecture Triennale involved exploring and intervening in abandoned buildings in a new context. How did your research from West Africa influence this work, and what insights can this installation provide for broader adaptive reuse initiatives?
DP: As previously mentioned, we believe that it stands as a proof of concept. When architects, designers, institutions, developers, and public agents come together, we can transform the use of these sites into something more meaningful. It opens up a new conversation that allows us to discuss and reflect on so many other topics, namely the previous questions.
