ASHANTI DOMINO PUBLIC ART

Korase, Ghana

The project began when a team of three students at Harvard Graduate School of Design, Junko Yamamoto and two of her colleagues, developed a winning proposal for a land art competition, with an opportunity to be built in a rural village in Ghana. In September 2017, using the proposal as the subject of a Gateway Program at Boston Architectural College, the project was further developed with a group of students at the BAC with the goal of constructing the project in 2018.

The land art competition was organized by Nka Foundation, a non-profit organization based in the US, as part of a larger initiative to enrich rural neighborhoods with the aim of creating a truly unique experience for villages to function as a place. The project was executed in partnership with RADeF (Rural Africa Development Foundation) based in Ghana.

The project was completed in Summer 2018 with the villagers from Korase and the neighboring communities. This was truly a cross-cultural community development that allowed us to learn physically and intellectually through the hands-on construction experience, and by realizing the public art together with the local people in a unique cultural context. 

See also:

[ Construction ]
Junko Yamamoto, Project Leaders, BAC Faculty
Matt Vocatura, Assistant Project Leader
Cenxue Wang, BAC Student
Quiren Zhao, BAC Student
Korase Villagers

[ Design Development & Construction Details ]
Junko Yamamoto, Project Leaders, BAC Faculty
Matt Vocatura, Assistant Project Leader
Daniel Delgado, Cenxue Wang
Gloria Asaba Kwaiza, Cenxue Wang

[ Research & Design Development ]
Junko Yamamoto, Project Leaders, BAC Faculty
Sara Afaian, Project Leaders, BAC Faculty
Matt Vocatura, Assistant Project Leader
Ashlee Ortstadt, BAC Student
Carlota Muzzo, BAC Student
Cenxue Wang, BAC Student
Daniel Delgado, BAC Student
Danny Mpoto, BAC Student
Gloria Asaba Kwaiza, BAC Student
Ivana Muzzo, BAC Student
Quiren Zhao, BAC Student
Lulwah Al-Harb, BAC Student
Tan Trani, BAC Student

[ Competition Participants ] 
Sara Afaian, Junko Yamamoto, Jenny Zhan

[ Competition Organizer ]
Barthosa Nkurumeh, PhD, Nka Fondation, USA

[ Community Coordinator / Project Collaborator ]
Frank Appiah-Kubi, RADeF (Rural African Development Foundation), Ghana

[ Advisors ]
Len Charney, Dean of Practice, Boston Architectural College 
Dr. Yaw Mantey Jectey-Nyarko, Kwame, Nkrumah University of Science and Technology / RADeF
Emily Anne Williamson, Anthropology PhD student at Boston University/Cultural heritage, consultant

[ BAC Coordination ]
Benjamin Peterson, Director of Practice Instruction, Boston Architectural College 

[ Consultation ]
Nathan Roy, P.E., Associate, LeMessurier
Robert J. Dermody, AIA, NCARB, Professor of Architecture, Roger Williams University