-Advertisement-

Country caged: Ghana’s fence wall culture

“Good fences make good neighbours” is credited to one of America’s great poets, Robert Frost.

In his poem Mending Walls, he explains that establishing clear boundaries and respecting property lines can lead to better neighbourliness and relationships.

The poem presupposes that boundaries, when clearly demarcated, would prevent conflicts and misunderstanding.

Literally and figuratively, this is true.

The culture of fence walls, along with the cost and materials sunk into our fence walls, is insane.

It is time to rethink the philosophy of our fence walls critically.

Some local origins, fence walls

In many villages and towns in Ghana, backyard gardens within settlements were usually fenced off to prevent goats and sheep.

The predominant materials used are bamboo, sticks and palm.

I grew up admiring the skills and artistic forms of various types of fences; the shades, rhythm and changing colours over time.

They were not intrusive and blended with the surroundings.

So, it is safe to say that fences, though not a new phenomenon, are relatively new with homes and property. In the urban areas, homes were fenced off with hedges and picket fences.
Mainly, the plants of choice were madras thorns and milk bush.

Hedges, which were not regularly manicured, became unkempt and grew out of proportion.

Aesthetics, status symbols

In Ghana, it is not strange to find a very long fence wall in the middle of nowhere.

Simple bamboo fence, Woven bamboo fence

Simple bamboo fence, Woven bamboo fence

The reason is simple: to make a statement of ownership of the parcel of land.

Fence walls have become status symbols. The design, ornamentation and attention to detail tell a lot about the property owner.

To quote Giorgio Armani, “Elegance is not about being noticed, it is about being remembered”.

The Ghanaian fence wall is about being noticed, remembered and more.

From minimalist to very complex designs define class, lifestyle and status.

The grills, finishes, structural columns, complementary landscape designs, sophisticated lighting and finishes, embedded gatehouses with signage and roofed main entrances require an in-depth study and classification.

Danger fence walls pose

The quality of fence walls has been a source of worry to many architects and engineers.

Fence walls are technically free-standing walls that could easily tilt in any direction when their integrity is compromised.

There are many more stories which we gloss over as a country.

On April 14, 2022, a fence wall collapsed and killed a 14-year-old JSS pupil who was preparing to write her BECE near the Kokrobite beach.

The videos show how the foundation was compromised and it toppled on this girl.

Many developers see fence walls as simple construction and, therefore, very minimal attention is paid to the technical inputs from architects and engineers.

Due to how sometimes they are hurriedly constructed, many fence walls end up being poorly designed, poorly engineered and the materials used may not be of optimal performance.

Many fence walls develop cracks and settlements, which are tell-tales of poorly engineered construction. The morphology of the land around the site, stormwater ingress and other conditions could make any fence wall become a danger to the public.

Height, fence walls

Very high screen walls are on the rise; some as high as 4.0 metres and this is not legislated. Regularly, for security installations that may be acceptable, but not for residential buildings.

Research carried out in 2018 indicated that 78 per cent of respondents felt safe in fence walls. However, about 52 per cent of those who have experienced robbery were of the opinion that fence walls do not necessarily make it safe. (Challenges of the Urban Boundary Wall: The case of two Neighbourhoods in Accra by Ninette Quaofio, J.G.K Abankwa and S.O. Afram).

For all fence walls, the ultimate fence wall is that of the cemetery.

Cost, fence walls to the nations

The country is spending so much money and materials on fence walls.

For a country with a huge deficit in housing, it is strange that we have not addressed this by looking at other means of ensuring boundaries are secured.

For a small site of about 70 feet x 100 feet, the block work needed to complete the fence wall could raise the shell of a 2-bedroom house of about 80 square metres. It means that for every acre, we could have a household accommodated.

Rethinking boundary construction

It is time to legislate in our building regulations to reduce the height of fence walls and the material used.

We have decisions to make with respect to materials, heights of buildings, privacy of our homes and security of our townships.

We cannot proceed along this unsustainable trajectory.

Let’s rethink our fence walls.

The writer is an architect.

Leave A Comment

Your email address will not be published.

You might also like