Saturday April 5, 2025 marked the opening of the Design-Build Workshop Exhibition of the first Limbo Architecture Lab—a unique partnership between Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi (KNUST), the Architectural Association School of Architecture / AA Visiting School (AA VS), and the Limbo Museum in Accra.
The exhibition is installed within the unfinished John Kufuor Presidential Library. Showcasing a range of natural and bio-based materials and their speculative, prototypical building applications, the work was developed and produced by an interdisciplinary team of KNUST and international students, in collaboration with a Copenhagen-based Natural Materials Studio.
The Limbo Architecture Lab, led by architect Lennart Wolff, forms part of the Limbo Museum’s wider programme, which explores the architectural and social potential of unfinished buildings in West Africa and beyond. At KNUST, the lab is engaged in a three-year initiative to transform the uncompleted presidential library into a more functional space for students—and a living lab– a working prototype for non-extractive, sustainable building practices.
The Dean of the International Programmes Office, Arc. Prof. Daniel Duah, Ph.D., AGIA highlighted the importance of partnerships to the operations of the university and expressed delighted about the multi disciplinary teams from Architecture, Indigenous Art and Technology and Materials Engineering who worked on this hands on project with partners from the Netherlands, Denmark and India. He looked forward to expanding this collaboration to grow the material availability for designers using sustainable materials.
Dr. Alexander Boakye Marful, Senior Lecturer in Architecture was happy about the possibilities in material development and availability especially for interior spaces and added that the next steps would involve testing of the materials in order to eventually mainstream them for industry use. The Spring 2025 edition of the lab was generously funded by the STO Stiftung and covered material costs, travel costs, as well as overhead fees of the AA for the international and KNUST students to participate for free.
