The Abotsiman territory is an island in the upper-middle-class suburban area of East Legon, Accra. Villas and mansions dominate the landscape of this gentrified neighbourhood. As a result, the streets of East Legon hardly accommodate public life. Most of the residents only get around in cars. There are no sidewalks, but if there were, they would mostly be skirting fenced-off private properties. As one approaches Abotsi Street, the fences open up, and more and more people are inhabiting the streets. Stay-at-home and self-employed inhabitants cook, eat, and sell food in this public space.
Food is at the heart of the community’s life. In economic terms, but also – and more importantly –social terms, cooking represents one of the main activities of the compounds. Food is not confined within the walls of indoor kitchens: it is extended into open spaces, into the public realm. The houses are small, often without kitchens or storage space for cookware – these end up inhabiting the open spaces in front of the house instead. Other furniture and pantry items are left outside, to be used at one’s convenience in the same way a kitchen, a dining room or a pantry would be used. This project looks at the everchanging layout of these tools and analyses them as space- generating objects. By giving a function to the area they are standing on, the various artifacts create rooms without walls, allowing for new activities without new constructions. The tools visually organize the in-between spaces that would otherwise be left vacant, and suggest links and boundaries between places and people.
