Isthme // Le Chaos Sensible

2020

"A human-centred design offering mixed housing in Accra, Ghana. The scheme was influenced by the psychology of the topographic and urban fabric, observing how the movement of lightweight elements could be transformed into architecture. To reflect these notions in the project a handcrafted woven canopy is constructed which reveals moments of the building, capturing the progression of the program towards the ocean. On site, the naturally formed "Isthmus" combined with the city's density forms a sensible chaos, an ordered but also kinetic space. The positioned activation points on the plan initiate the program's growth, either pulling or releasing tension between spaces. Rather than working with forms the design imagines these as forces and leading energies on the landscape. Similarly to a butterfly effect. a movement of a space causes the activation of another."