Si Hene Cultural Centre · Accra

Research Room

A focused project and research space. It currently houses Living Structures.

Request research access Living Structures sites →

Current project

Living Structures

Living Structures documents and digitally preserves Ghana’s architectural heritage. The work treats standing buildings as places still in use rather than ruins, and records them alongside the communities who live with them.

The Research Room is where that documentation is prepared, checked and described before anything is published. It is not general coworking. Desks and shared tables are in Work & Gather.

How the work is done

Six methods, used together on each site, so that a structure is held as measurement, image, account and map at once.

Image

PhotographyElevations, details and the building in use, shot to a consistent standard.

Measurement

3D scanningScans of structures and details, kept as a record of the fabric as it stands.

Drawing

Architectural surveysPlans and sections, with notes on later alteration and repair.

Voices

Oral historiesAccounts from the people who use, keep and remember the building.

Place

MappingEach site placed in relation to the others, and to the routes between them.

Publication

Digital storytellingThe material brought together so a site can be read, not just consulted.

Current research areas

Places & Knowledge →

Survey

Forts & castlesThe coastal and inland structures, surveyed with The National Archives, UK.Browse places →

Fieldwork

Field documentationWhat is recorded on site: photography, scanning, measurement and interview.Documentation method →

Mapping

Site mapThe structures placed along the coast and inland, with what is held for each.See places →

Context

Places & KnowledgeThe traditional areas, communities and practices the structures sit within.Browse places →

Related records in the archive

No records are linked to this project yet. Staff link them from the Archive Records table.

Working with the project

Fieldwork files, survey drawings and unpublished documentation are held for the project team while a site is being worked on. Researchers can ask for access to a specific site or set of records, and the team replies with what can be opened and on what terms.

Access by permission

Some material is restricted at the request of a community or a traditional council. A membership does not open it; permission does.