Intersections: The Architecture of Victor Adegbite and Charles Polónyi

This exhibition follows the trajectories of two architects—the Ghanaian Victor Adegbite (1925-2014) and the Hungarian Charles Polónyi (1928-2002)—and their intersection in Ghana after the country became independent from Britain (1957). The collaboration between Adegbite and Polónyi was part of a broader movement of people, technologies, ideas, and images that intersected in Accra, the capital of Ghana, during the country’s first decade of independence.

At the time of exacerbated Cold War rivalry, Polónyi travelled to Accra in the framework of Eastern European technical assistance that aimed at supporting Ghana’s transition to socialism, and he was employed by a state design institute headed by Adegbite. However, their work hardly fits into the Cold War narrative of a bipolar confrontation between two ideological systems. Polónyi brought to Ghana not only an experience from socialist Hungary, but also extensive exchanges within Western European architectural networks. In turn, Adegbite’s work in Ghana was informed by his studies at Howard University in the United States as well as in Colombia. Based on their cosmopolitan experience, Adegbite and Polónyi challenged the authority of any single foreign precedent—whether British, Soviet, or American—and assessed them in relationship to Ghana’s means, needs, and aims.

The exhibition features a range of architectural projects, from housing to public buildings and spaces, and shows how they responded to the local climate, materials, technologies, economies, and social practices in Ghanaian cities. It offers a view from the South on Cold War modalities of architecture and their consequences for the urban landscapes of Accra, West Africa, and beyond. By juxtaposing family archives from the United States and Hungary—cared for by the daughters of both architects—this exhibition both documents and reenacts an encounter from sixty years ago. In this way, it highlights the complexities of transnational architectures in the Cold War, and reflects upon their afterlives today.

This exhibition is guest curated by Łukasz Stanek and Michael Dziwornu.