Emmanuel Ofori-Sarpong

Emmanuel Ofori-Sarpong is a PhD candidate in the Department of Politics and International Studies, where his research investigates the conditions of possibility and socio-political outcomes of two UN-Habitat–designed new town proposals in Accra (Ghana) and Kalobeyei (Kenya). 

Drawing on a critical realist lens and a melange of postcolonial urban theory and policy-making theories, he maps the formation of coalitions, the flow of ideas, and the political realities that these visions (re)constitute on the ground. His approach synthesises the spatial analysis common to architecture and urban planning and the social-structural analytical approaches of political analysis and involves interviews, observation, sketching, archival research, and discourse analysis of reports from multilateral organisations.  

Prior to his doctoral studies, Emmanuel worked for over a decade across practice and academia. He served as a faculty member at the School of Architecture and Design at Central University in Ghana, where his research-led design studio modules explored urban infill, city regeneration, design for emergency response, civic spaces, and architecture in marginalised communities. From 2019 to 2021, he was the assistant coordinator and later the coordinator of the Bachelor of Architecture thesis programme, and played an instrumental role in navigating pandemic lockdowns by facilitating transitions to online and blended learning platforms. In these roles, he contributed to shaping the school's intellectual culture through targeted seminars and mentoring that promoted interdisciplinarity and design-as-inquiry by expanding engagement with a broader range of fields, including art, politics, philosophy, and mathematics.  

His professional journey includes work with the Ghana branch of Low Design Office (Austin, Texas) and STA architects (Accra), where he played key roles on award-winning projects such as the Agbogbloshie Makerspace Platform and the 5000 for 5000 affordable housing. He has delivered guest lectures in the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (Kumasi), SOAS – University of London, and the University of Michigan's Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning.  

His publications include Building Heaven on Earth: Political Ritual and Rhetoric in Ghana's National Cathedral (book chapter) and "'Informal Modernisms': Urban Design, Planning Narratives, and New Cities" (co-authored essay). He has also co-edited Building African Futures: 10 Manifestos for Transformative Architecture and Urbanism, a book that showcases solutions to urban challenges from young professionals across eight African countries – launched at the 2023 Venice Biennale.

Emmanual's research interests, which lie at the intersection of politics, architecture, and urban design, involve investigating the use of design to address political problems. He examines state solutions and citizen responses to issues such as urbanisation, migration, self-built urban enclaves ('slums'), conflict and inequality, with new cities serving as a paradigmatic case. Emmanual is also interested in the analytical insights gained by combining philosophical, methodological, and analytical approaches developed within the social sciences with those developed in architecture and urban design.

emmanueloforisarpong.com

African State Architecture