The Suame Magazine in Kumasi, Ghana is one of Africa’s largest light-industrial clusters. It is an area of 200 ha filled with polluted industrial waste and noisy, auto-mechanical workshops.
But a quick glance reveals that it is more than an industrial site.

A walk through the area reveals that people are actually living here. Clothes are hanging out to dry, children are playing, women are cooking, and people are eager to present their homes. Do people live here out of need, or is The Magazine in such a state that people choose to live here?

The Magazine as an industrial site is perhaps a phenomena of the past. The combination of industrial and residential zones, are seldom planned. In the case of The Magazine this also seems to be the fact, although old plans from Town and Country Planning Department in Kumasi show that part of The Magazine is parcelled out for mixed use.

…at night the flames from the garbage-fires within The Magazine creates a slight understanding of the size of the area. The blue glints lighting in the distance from the many welding workshops and the black columns of smoke coming from piles of burning tyres make the area resembles a scenery from the science fiction film Blade Runner.