As part of the University’s mission to embark on community impact projects, 2nd-year Architectural students at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, (KNUST), Kumasi have conducted a survey at Takyikrom in the Ashanti Region to revamp a comprehensive plan for rural redevelopment, to enhance the living standards of the residents in the area.

The Dean of International Programmes Office, Professor Daniel Y. Duah explained that the students resided in Takyikrom for seven days to explore the pressing themes of decarbonisation and decolonisation, with community collaborations, field trips, and hands-on fieldwork. He indicated that this has not been done for the past ten years mainly because of funding. He, thus, appreciated the General Consulate of Greece and Cyprus through Three Mountains Cocoa Ltd for their support. The site consists of eight villages, and 15 local communities and is surrounded by a UNESCO-protected forest.

The study, according to Professor Duah, will be centred on redesigning rural communities and will debate six issues (Morphology, Socioeconomic, Ecology and Environment, Rural Design, Public and Community Service, and Physical Infrastructure). We will gather baseline data, combine it, clean it up, synthesise it, and then we will come up with suggestions for developing this community, he declared.

The leader of the Rural Design Group, Master Osei-Amanfu Papa Kobina, appealed to the government to prioritise the improvement of these villages into the production of cocoa. He noted that such measures would not only benefit the local communities but also have positive impacts on the country. The students believed that with their newfound knowledge and experience, they would be able to reconstruct and restructure the township's future and forecast how the community will look in ten or fifteen years.

Nana Ofori Boamah, Krontihene for Takyikrom expressed immense gratitude to the studio staff and students for their efforts to enhance their future living standards. He seized the opportunity to appeal to the Agriculture Department of KNUST to lend their expertise in the production of chemicals that would accelerate the growth of cocoa in their region. He believes that this proactive measure is poised to have a significant impact on the agricultural sector of Takyikrom and beyond.

The Studio staff were Professor Daniel Y. Duah, Dr. E. Titus Kwofie, Dr. Maria Panta, and Arc. Dennis Bandoh, and Arc. Cobbinah. The team constructed and presented four washrooms to the township.