By Engr. Kwame OFORI-ADDO/Isaac Ato MENSAH
Accra – 4 February, 2019
The pergola cover is an open roof designed for climbing plants; to provide sunlight, shade and some greenery.
You may have seen it before; it is a trendy roof cover around South La Estates, Airport Residential Area, Dzorwulu and East Legon, all suburbs of Accra, but most of what you saw were bare – seemingly meaningless.
But it has a function.
The concept is that the homeowner will place some flower pots with climbing plants in it that will ascend the wood and eventually form a leafy shade over the open roof.
It is a place you sit to read, drink, eat and relax. And of course your guests can sunbathe under your pergola.
The website landscapingnetwork.com has some cost estimates for the US market.
‘Pergolas vary widely in cost due to the differences in design, material costs, and the labor required to install them. A small open-roof pergola made of an inexpensive wood can be as little as $3,000 …… while more elaborate pergolas with solid cedar or redwood beams and a solid roof can run $15,000 or more.’
Driving and walking around the high-end residential apartments in Accra, however, you almost never see anyone sitting under the trending pergolas, let alone reading for relaxation.
This means that after every drawing there should be a manual on how to use the building.
The manual will tell you how to open the door, how to turn on the shower (yes, hot and cool water) and the services schematic diagram (electrical, plumbing and mechanical installations).
Everybody knows there is a difference between a draughtsman and an architect.
Well, not everybody.
In Ghana many of those who can afford USD300K on an apartment do not know that!
If you doubt us look around all those buildings with a pergola.
How many of these do you see with someone sitting there and reading anything.
They certainly cannot sit there and enjoy the sunlight because it is too hot here and they do not know they have to grow climbing plants over the bare roof.
We have heard over and over again – ‘Ghanaians have a poor reading culture’.
Are the architects signalling to the middle class pergola owners that they have to lead by reading in public – under their pergolas?
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