LIMBO ACCRA
More of a spatial design studio than an architecture firm, Limbo Accra is a practice that defies categorisation. Set up in Accra, Ghana, in 2018 by Dominique Petit-Frère and Emil Grip, its name was inspired by the large number of uncompleted buildings scattered throughout the city. ‘These structures await a future while fossilised with fragments of the past,’ explain the founders. ‘Since they were never completed, we can only ask: what is their purpose altogether then?’
While Petit-Frère and Grip are not registered architects (they have backgrounds in education and international relations), they work with designers and architects and have a strong spatial understanding of the world. Their output spans continents, all composed through collaborations with architects in Accra, Copenhagen, London, Abidjan, Bombay and beyond. ‘We see our role as designers operating within the architectural industry, but more importantly as cultural entrepreneurs, working with artists, brands, venues and a wide range of clientele to design conceptually stimulating creations,’ say the pair, who describe their work as ‘urban-acupunctural, anti-disciplinary, context specific and future-ready’. They continue, ‘Accra and West Africa have been the perfect laboratory for initiating projects that champion an innovative, affordable and sustainable vision of the future.’
Their breakthrough project, ‘Adjiringanor: Activation 001’, was a 2018 exhibition centred on the ‘narrative functions’ of luxury homes and (sub)urban development in East Legon, Accra. It was followed by many more, from Virgil Abloh’s Freedom Skatepark, which opened in 2021, to more recent commissions, such as a series of pavilion interventions in Sharjah and the Cayman Islands, and ongoing research to build a digital archive of scanned ‘Limbo’ structures across Africa. @limboaccra
ATELIER MASŌMĪ
Mariam Issoufou Kamara’s practice, Atelier Masōmī, was founded in 2014. Now 16-strong, the firm balances work between its main office in Niger’s capital city, Niamey, and a studio in New York.
