The Role of Constantinos Doxiadis in the Development of the Master Plan for Tema, Ghana

Abstract

Given Ghana’s position as first independent nation in Sub-Saharan Africa, Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah made a conscious effort to project the nation as an example of what Black Africa could accomplish, through largescale architectural projects. He took up the decision to build a new harbour together with a new town, Tema, as part of the Volta River Dam Project. In 1960, he hired prominent Greek architect and planner, Costantinos Apostolou Doxiadis, who radically revised what had been an earlier English plan. The current study investigates the role of Doxiadis in the development of Tema. It argues that his role transcended the provision of a master plan for Tema and involved several services to the government that went over and above that of a traditional planner. Using archival research, observations, interviews, and urban plan analyses, this study demonstrates not only how his ideas were implemented on the ground (Community 4), but also how these impacted developments that took place after the phase that involved his active participation. As the study shows by means of satellite imagery analysis, later and current community developments - undertaken by indigenous planners deviated - from the strict Ekistics approach that was adopted in the early stages.