Agbogbloshie Makerspace Platform (AMP) is a pan-African participatory design initiative to build alternative futures, cooperatively—networking the practical know-how of grassroots makers with the technical knowledge of students and young professionals in STEAM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics). Working in and around the Agbogbloshie scrapyard in Ghana’s capital, Accra, over 2000 youth from West Africa, Europe and the United States have collaborated over seven years to iteratively design and prototype AMP spacecraft: an open architecture for making. Modular, mobile, low-cost and open-source, spacecraft operates as a set of tools and equipment to craft hybrid physical-digital spaces, enabling makers with limited means to jointly navigate and terraform their environment.

2014 - present

• 2020 AIA Austin Design Award Commendation: Social Impact
• 2013 Rockefeller Foundation Innovation Challenge Award

Deployments:

• Spacecraft_ZKM, ZKM | Center for Arts and Media, Karlsruhe, Germany (2018)
• Spacecraft_KT, Kër Thiossane, Dakar, Senegal (2018)

• Spacecraft_AGB, Agbogbloshie, Accra, Ghana (2017)

Presentations:

• TED Talk (2017) "What a scrapyard in Ghana can teach us about innovation" (1M+ views)
• World Bank Citisense - Makers for productive cities (2014)
• MESH Confab at the British Council, Accra, Ghana (2014)

Press:

• Design Corps, SEED Award for Public Interest Design (2017)
• e-Flux, Bricolage... or the impossibility of pollution (2017)
• Dezeen, AMP creates mobile workshops (2016)
• Smithsonian Magazine, The Burning Truth Behind an E-waste Dump in Africa (2016)
• Princeton University, Pace Center for Civic Engagement (2016)

Photos by Julien Lanoo