Kengo Kuma-designed School in Ghana to Be Built By Japan NPO

The Yomiuri Shimbun

20:00 JST, April 25, 2023

A Tokyo-based nonprofit organization offering poverty reduction programs and other support measures mainly to African countries will build a vocational school in Ghana, according to an announcement made Monday by the NPO, SDGs Promise Japan.

Architect Kengo Kuma has designed the school, which will provide classes on masonry, plumbing and other vocations to young people in Ghana ages 18 to 35.

SDGs Promise Japan will lead the construction and had asked Kuma to join the venture.

“I decided to cooperate out of gratitude [to Africa],” the architect said at a press conference in Tokyo on Monday, calling African architecture his point of origin as he had visited the continent during his student days.

Construction will start this summer. Bricks will be used to build the school, with corridors made from wood. The design offers a high degree of ventilation as a preventive measure against novel coronavirus infections.

The project cost for the time being is estimated at about ¥200 million, which will be partly paid for with funding from the government’s official development assistance. SDGs Promise Japan is also calling for donations.