Tall or storey (gargantuan) buildings are just nice to stand and watch, the sight of seeing them that magnificent grasps the attention of its viewers to actually get to say more about it. Especially when the architecture is well placed ; the style, color and structure of the building is eye-catching, more people actually take time off their busy time home, to go there to take nice pictures both of themselves depicting nice setting or the building itself  being the main target.

Some tall buildings have different purposes, some of which serves as accommodation and permanently. These buildings come in different shapes and sizes. Thought rise, so do various questions as well. Are Ghanaians this rich? Who is the owner of this magnificent building? Ghanaians always complain of poverty but the question actually is where they get the money from before putting up such a structure?

Economy today depends on how wealthy you are, and how fit you are to survive the situations we are in right now. A lot of people build according to their “pockets”, so then the ordinary person goes in for a simple building but the affluent go in for the big buildings and they are equally ready for all expenses.

Shelter as a necessity, demands that we build in other to give “cover to our heads”. Tall buildings or storey buildings demand excessive planning and expenses. In that, it consist of many self-contained structure all placed and planned in one huge apartment, with a lower and upper divisions respectively. It also depends on the weather conditions, space, privacy, storage and comfortably living and working freely.

The rumor being put together and with an interview conducted, I could conclude that, one feels good and blessed when staying in buildings of this nature and style. This buildings actually helps save land as well.

When I was a child I always had a wish, as a village girl, I wanted to have a feel of a self-contained house or apartment. Wow, finally my dream was a reality. In some time past I realised that buildings have evolved greatly over time. Self-contained are nice and reformed buildings, from the old and ancient ones we had those past few decades.

A self-contained apartment is one which has a hall, bedrooms, kitchen, toilet, bathrooms, garage and even guest rooms all built into one big room, with its division. Such buildings mostly have walls built around them in order for proper security. In building a self-contained house, one needs to really gather resources in order to put up such a structure.

A land must be bought according to the size of the building one wants. And a land cost varies from one community to the other depending on the acres an individual wants. Speaking to an owner of one nice self-contained owner at osu, he just burst into laughter and started to tell his story. “Guess what, I spent a lot putting up such a structure here in Osu, the land alone is worth a fortune but just to give a family a comfortable life, I needed to build this structure”. He really explained that buying of building materials gave him a hell of a time, as prices shot up.

Immediately, he explained vividly about the pays he gave out to workers and gardeners among others. But he said excitedly that it is actually nice living in such an apartment and very comfortable because, there’s no need to struggle with other people for a bathroom treat, everything is located inside, which helps one move freely.

It is safer to live in a comfortable and expensive building than to live in a less expensive one and feel so uncomfortable.

Sometimes change is very crucial in our daily lives, so is it important in our society and a very good example is with our buildings. Today our prime focus is on chamber and hall rooms. Due to modernisation, architects have learnt to come up with creative designs of houses including their paintings and interior and exterior decorations. In our days today, it is easy to find a lot of chamber and hall apartments almost everywhere.

 

Chamber and hall is a block structure with just two compartments: it actually evolved from the putting together of two single rooms, some with their porches and others without. They also have their toilets and bathrooms outside of the building. Most families of today prefer this type of house due to its comfort and how affordable it is. Is it really affordable as stated?

As much as it is preferred and goes with modernity, it comes with a whole lot of cost because of the materials needed to put up such a building. One is safe when it’s an individual affair, but when it’s for renting, one suffers in order to gain more later after renting them. Because of the state of the economy, people and family find it difficult to get fund to put such structure so they prefer renting some for a period of time until they have accumulated enough funds for theirs.

Actually, landlords and ladies are making a whole lot of profit from renting a chamber and hall. Speaking to one of them, he says “I take one hundred Ghana cedi a month “. In calculations, one can imagine how much he charges for a year or two. The locality also matters in this aspect.

  Despite the prices or costs of these chamber and halls, people will just have no choice than to hire it and move to a suitable place after they are good to move.

  

Literally, it was stated clearly in the early editions of buildings, as to how buildings started and how it has transformed over the years through our villages, towns and cities. Emphasis was created more on the ancient mud houses and how they came about, its expenses and its comfort during the very first edition of “architectural transition”. As times passes by, development becomes a major key in the lives of mankind and technological enhancement is also on the rise, so is our politics and the economy.

Far from mud houses, I move straight to “single rooms”. Due to the change in technology, the use of mud and clay for the building of houses is seen as old.  It then dropped to the use of sand, cement and stones. Here, the land for the building is bought or given out for free by families through inheritance or friends and the labour force is paid, as well as the materials.

 

A series of single rooms

Single room as it is popularly called is just one building with four sides but built with blocks. Some of these single rooms come with porch and some do not. Some architects also design them according to one’s money. But in our world today, such rooms are associated with the low class in our society. But people build these ones for rent to students and workers. But we still notice some people staying in a single room with their families which are quite inconvenient but due to situations beyond their control, they live like that.

 

A video of a rented single room house

In a brief interview, I organised with a land lady at Kasoa, she goes to say that, prices of things are on the rise, so due to that, the rent of single rooms are also increasing every day in and out. She stated that she takes forty Ghana Cedis a month, so how much will a year amount to? I then thought that every area or community and its price varies. One can imagine how much a single room in Osu, Cantonment, Spintex, East-legon, Dzorwulu and other high rated places will cost.

To conclude, pictures, videos and audios will be shown on the page to give out more information on the topic.

 

An audio recorded of an interview with a land lady

AN OLDEN MUD HOUSE

A MUD HOUSE UNDERGOING RENOVATIONS

Shelter is one vital part of life, which is also stated as a necessity of life. Buildings provide shelter for people and hence people need shelter to survive. The history of architecture traces from the changes in architecture through various traditions, religions, stylistic trends and dates.  Thomas Cole, in brief describes architecture as the vision of buildings from the historical style through to the western and classical styles.

In view of what Cole stated, I can then say that, buildings have developed over the years and keeps improving as time goes on specifically in Ghana. Before now, our predecessors found ways of protecting themselves from the vagaries of the weather and providing a safe place to lay their heads. They built homes using the resource that was available to them such as hay, mud, straw just to mention a few. With these they built mud houses and stone houses. Change, transformation and technology however have been introduced and as a result, buildings have improved with time, and quite aesthetically so.

With deep focus on mud houses, I conducted a survey and an interview on how mud houses in Volta part of Ghana came about. With an interview with Madam Christiana Dzivor, she stated clearly that the mud house they live in was built by her father for over a decade now and that the expenses involved in putting up such a structure is less. In addition, she stated that the thatch being used as the roofing was from their own farm as well as the mud. “It’s very comfortable and airy when sleeping in it” she happily said.

           

With the survey, I witnessed that the mud is being built in layers, but one layer laid first to dry up before another. Due to what I witnessed, she confirmed it as right and that their mud house took like a year and a half to be built, because all building materials were available. “It was  not done like the way the modern buildings are built with the help of the masons and the laborers, but rather, friends help in the buildings, who are also helped in return”. Just to add up to what I saw, the mud houses have also transformed with time, in that, the individuals in that particular village pay people to build it and the mud house is also plastered to have a smooth and fine surface for painting.

The piece above seeks to unveil how buildings have improved with time, case study on mud houses using pictures, audios and videos to illustrate the transition of buildings(architecture) from ancient ones(mud houses) to modern structures such as sky scrapers, luxurious apartments, town houses and the likes, which we can see today in our towns, cities and even villages.