%20TAELON7.jpg)
Across Accra, Ghana’s capital, unfinished concrete frames fill the landscape; stalled developments left in limbo. “Twenty percent of Ghana’s built environment is unfinished,” says curator Dominique Petit-Frère. With Limbo Engawa, a striking new pavilion and the inaugural architectural commission of the Limbo Museum, one such structure has been transformed into a space for experimentation.
Housed within an unfinished building on the University of Ghana campus, the museum operates without doors, windows or even a permanent collection. “The work that we are doing is alive,” Petit-Frère explains. “It’s not a static, fixed traditional museum.”
The installation, the first of its kind in Africa, is designed by Austrian-born, Ghana-based architect Juergen Benson-Strohmayer of TAELON7 and unfolds as a series of modular interventions. Inspired by the Japanese concept of ‘engawa’, a transitional space between inside and outside, it translates the idea into Accra’s climate and cultural context. “It’s an in-between state where you’re engaging with the architecture, but also the landscape, and there’s a synergy between both,” says Petit-Frère.
%2520Juergen%2520Benson-Strohmayer.jpg)
%2520Juergen%2520Benson-Strohmayer.jpg)
Rather than completing the building, Limbo Engawa inserts ‘soft gestures’ that invite use without imposing finality. These come in the form of a three-tiered panel system designed by TAELON7 and described as ‘oversized daybeds’ which are steel framed and woven with salvaged billboard materials. The use of discarded billboards is both practical and pointed. In Accra, as in many global cities, advertising waste accumulates in vast quantities. But here it is reimagined as architecture. Petit-Frère explains: “In Ghana, we have a stockpile of this material. So TAELON7 thought, what can withstand the elements, but also frame views and create shade.” As a result, visitors can recline, gather or simply pass through the installation.
%2520Edem%2520Tamakloe.jpg)
%2520Edem%2520Tamakloe.jpg)
%2520Edem%2520Tamakloe.jpg)
Its forms may be modest, but the implications are not. Limbo Engawa sets out to challenge entrenched perceptions of unfinished buildings. “They are in an incomplete state due to many reasons like land issues, financial issues, personal issues, and so forth,” explains Petit-Frère. “Often when people see these spaces, they see it as a point of failure. But the minute we step into them, the perspective shifts.”
%2520Edem%2520Tamakloe.jpg)
That shift is central to Limbo’s broader mission. Founded in 2018 as an architectural practice, the studio has spent years researching and reactivating incomplete structures across West Africa. Its transition into a museum in 2024 marks an expansion in scope but not in ethos. “We’re not interested in traditionally completing these buildings. We’re more about how we create spaces for encounter, curiosity and exchange,” says Petit-Frère.
%2520Juergen%2520Benson-Strohmayer_LD.jpg)
The installation also gestures towards a larger urban issue: the erasure of green space in rapidly developing cities. “The first thing most contractors say is, ‘Have you cleared the land?’ she notes. “There isn’t any prioritisation to preserve nature. With the museum, we're really trying to place an emphasis on how we nurture green spaces, and how we continue to sustain green spaces, especially ones that we inherit.” Within this context, the museum’s site – cultivated for years by a local farmer growing produce like corn, cassava and papaya – remains lush and encourages visitors to enjoy it as a refuge in which they can engage with nature.
%2520Juergen%2520Benson-Strohmayer_LD.jpg)
Importantly the project is not meant to remain in place. After its run in Accra finishes in April, it will travel to Art Omi, an architectural and art sculpture park in upstate New York, where it will be reconfigured as a freestanding pavilion. There, stripped of its host structure, it will engage an entirely new landscape – framing the sky rather than concrete. “The goal was to create something made and experienced in Ghana that then travels so another audience can engage with the material, the form and the story,” Petit-Frère says.
This two-part life positions Limbo Engawa as more than a site-specific installation - it becomes a transcontinental dialogue. It also marks a significant milestone. “It’s quite seldom the number of architectural commissions that exist in this way, especially in the Global South, it just doesn’t exist.” By establishing an annual commissioning programme, Limbo Museum aims to change that through inviting architects from across Africa and beyond to respond to its evolving site.
%2520TAELON7.jpg)
%2520TAELON7.jpg)
“I have a huge list of so many, like Sumayya Vally, Lina Ghotmeh, Mariam Issoufou,” says Petit-Frère. “There are so many talented architects across the Global South that I would love to engage with in this capacity.”
The commission marks the beginning of an ambitious programme. As well as the architectural side, the museum brings international artists to Accra for immersive residencies. Last year New York-based artist Reginald Sylvester II produced a prolific body of work across painting and sculpture while this July, artist Alvaro Barrington will take up residence with an exhibition in October to coincide with the 10th anniversary of Accra Art Week.
“As a museum, we didn't build the building. We didn't plant the trees that are here. We only inherited it,” says Petit-Frère. “And so with that, we are trying to be good stewards through our architecture in terms of how we engage with what already exists.”
%2520TAELON7.jpg)
