Ghanaian president Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo unveiled today Adjaye Associates’ designs for the National Cathedral of Ghana as part of a ceremony celebrating the country’s 61st year of independence. “It is an immense honor to be granted the opportunity to contribute something of this scale and import to my home country,” British-Ghanaian architect Sir David Adjaye, the firm’s founder and principal, said in a statement. “I have sought to craft a building that not only understands its landscape but one that will be unique to Accra and the Ghanaian Nation.”
The new structure, inspired by the concepts of unity, harmony, and spirituality, will sit on 14 acres of gardens near the Osu Cemetery in Accra, and it will be a gathering place for people of all faiths. “The Cathedral will address the missing link in our nation’s architecture by providing a Church of national purpose,” President Akufo-Addo said in the same statement. “It will be an interdenominational house of worship and prayer, as well as serve as the venue for formal state occasions of a religious nature, such as presidential inaugurations, state funerals, and national thanksgiving services.”
In addition to having a number of chapels and a baptistery, the cathedral will house a 5,000-seat auditorium, a music school, an art gallery, and the Bible Museum and Documentation Centre, which will tackle the subjects of Christianity and nation-building in Ghana. The site’s multifunctionality suits Adjaye well—the architect has worked on projects that range from landmarks like the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., to retail venues like the Proenza Schouler flagship in New York, to public-use structures like the Gwangju Pavilion in Gwangju, South Korea, an outdoor reading room.
