Giuseppe Calabrese from Australia took second prize in the competition with the design Gye Nyame, beating entries from over 30 countries.

A project of Nka Foundation, a registered NGO in Ghana with focus on the arts for human capital development in the region, the challenge was to design and build units of a model arts village in the Ashanti Region of Ghana for replication in other parts of the sub-Sahara.

The design entry was to include a Multipurpose Arts Center, Residential Courtyard that sleeps 21 persons, Community Kitchen, Courtyard for arts studios and a Recreational Sports Ground on a 10-acre lot with earth under the feet and within a budget of $42,000-$62,000.

The foundation had outlined that it was promoting “building for the arts with earth because in West Africa, from the cities to the low-income villages, earth architecture is fast giving way to modern dwellings made of cement-blocks and corrugated zinc-roof that are expensive and thermally and acoustically problematic”.

“Thus, we were interested in design solutions that integrate art into architecture for a more sustainable future. We emphasized that the design should provide a comfortable, and multi-use of space and should be easily built from local materials and local labor at low cost for use by the international arts community. The international competition is of the Open Source Share, which implies that we aim at making the design process and design documents open to all who may use, improve and adapt them to generate a more practical and contemporary design trend for the region.”

Twenty top finalists were chosen by a jury of artists, architects, and administrator with relevant expertise,

The Grand Prize winning design was Open Jewelry Loop by Mitsuru Hamada from Japan.

More information can be seen direct from the below websites, where you can directly also download images

Calabrese is seeking sponsors, as the design will be constructed at the end of 2011 throughout 2012.

http://wanews.worldarchitecture.org/gfc/results-ghana-2011-open-architecture-challenge

http://www.nkafoundation.org/competitions.html