Ghana housing project: design and construct sustainable home

As the site says: Open Source House (OS-House) is a non-profit organization that aims to provide better, more sustainable housing in low-income countries.

Designers, architects and those interested in modular and sustainable housing may be interested in this design competition at Open Source House.

The design competition starts on January 15th, 2010 and is open for team or individual participation. The challenge is to design a sustainable, flexible and locally embedded family house for a specific location in Ghana. The modular construction should be suitable for local implementation and affordable for its future owners. The winning design(s) will be built in Ghana. All information regarding the competition will be published on our website on January 15th.





4. Deadline and submission format.


May 17th, 2010. Before this date all designs must be submitted digitally. The design case, which will be published on the 15th of January, describes the format and drawings to be delivered. Contestants are asked to deliver designs considering all house components -foundation, structure, floor, facade, roof- and its set of connections



5. Pilot


The winning design(s) will be built in a pilot project in Ghana, to test the technical and economic feasibility as well as the social perception. Joining the competition is your chance to establish your name as an architect while witnessing your design being built and used by its new residents.

 6. The Open Source phase


To generate content for the OS-House platform we start with the Ghana design competition. However the aim of OS-House is to provide knowledge and choice. Therefore all submitted designs are published on the OS-House platform after the competition.


After this first competition and pilot project OS-House will continue to promote the implementation of more OS-Houses, challenge platform members to improve available designs, organize new competitions and stimulate local parties to take designs and adapt them to their local conditions. Our goal is to realize a 100.000 OS-Houses before the year 2020.

Download a free sample of our Travel Guide to Ghana see inside the travel guide before buying.

Cost of living and travel in numbers

We have a new site www.g-lish.org where you can read all articles from This is Ghana in a much more organised fashion. Read Cost of living and travel in numbers there.


The exchange rate is approximately 1 Ghana Cedi = US$0.55. 100 Pesewas = 1 Ghana Cedi. (Like cents to the dollar...took me a while to work that one out.) US$1 = about 1.15-20 Cedis. It is fluctuating a lot at the moment so double check when you have to do the sums

375 ml bottle of Coke/Fanta/Sprite 40-45 pesewas
500 ml sachet of water 5 pesewas
500 ml bottle of water 50 pesewas
Bottle of Star or other local beers 1-1.20 Cedis
bowl of rice, egg, beans and stew on the street: 50 pesewas-1 Cedi
1 Grilled plantain on street 20 pesewas
1 bowl of fufu on street with some kind of meat 1 Cedi
Chicken and fried rice in "chop" bar 3-5 Cedis
Pizza in Accra or major city 10 Cedis
Cup of coffee at cafe in Accra 3 Cedis
Small tin of milk 90 pesewas
Packet of Lipton tea (about 20 bags) 1 Cedi
Small tin of Nescafe 1 Cedi (if you like real coffee you must buy it in Accra Mall 4-8 Cedis)
Packet of spaghetti 60 pesewas
Cup of rice 50 pesewas--depending on type of rice

You can buy all sorts of western products at petrol/gas stations all over Ghana, including toiletries, drinks and chocolate.

Share taxi between towns in most parts of Ghana 40-80 pesewas
Charter taxi across Accra from, say, airport to Kaneshie 4-5 Cedis (but not in an official airport taxi, you have to walk down to the road and haggle).
Official airport taxis cost about 8-10 Cedis at least, anywhere (I always walked to the street and haggled). Never ever pay more than 10.

Cheap backpacker room 5-10 Cedis
Mid-range room 10-30 Cedis
Expensive 40 Cedis plus

Visit to the local doctor 2-5 Cedis
Blood test 2-5 Cedis
Visit to well-known clinics in Accra 10-30 Cedis
Packet of doxycycline (anti malarials) that you can buy over the counter in any pharmacy in Ghana: 1 Cedi for about 10 tabs.

You might also want to read 15 Facts About Ghana in which I comment about the old currency and how it is still quoted by most street sellers.