Limbo Accra nurtures discussion around urban space in Africa and beyond
Limbo Accra nurtures discussion around urban space in Africa and beyond
We hone in on the work of Limbo Accra, a pioneering, spatial design studio founded in Ghana that encourages a new wave of creative collaboration and co-production in Africa and its diaspora
Photography: Anthony Combder-Badu
Limbo Accra is a spatial design studio founded in Ghana by Dominique Petit-Frère and Emil Grip. It explores the intersection between art, architecture and sustainability, inspired by rapidly modernising West African cities. The studio’s name is a nod to the many incomplete and since-abandoned buildings in Accra and other West African cities, their sites in a state of limbo.
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It has taken years of hard work, but Ghana is finally getting the home that its flourishing skateboard scene deserves: a fully functional skate park right in the middle of Accra. Over the last decade, skateboarding has become a cultural phenomenon in the country, largely spread through kids on Instagram, as has been documented right here on this site. But, because of the sport’s relative novelty on the continent (there are an estimated 4,000 full-on skate parks around the world but only 10 in Africa), the bustling capital has been without a dedicated spot for the community to coalesce. Now, thanks to the hustle of its most prominent crew, Skate Nation, and Surf Ghana, an NGO that supports outdoor sports in the West African country, Accra could have a state-of-the-art ramp by July 2021. A location is already secured in the Dzorwulu district and a finished blueprint has been drawn up for the project, to be called Freedom Skate Park. “I know what skating can do for the youth,”