In 1954, the United Nations sent to the Gold Coast, an English protectorate, a transnational team on a Technical Assistance Administration Housing Mission to advise the Government on questions of housing policy. They produced an extensive report, out of which came a recommendation specifically focused on Education, to establish a School of Architecture and Planning, as soon as possible, since there were none in the country. The goal was the training of a “General Practitioner”, i.e. a new professional to respond, paradoxically to urgent, specialized needs in housing. The team, the mission and the report are paradigmatic of early postwar international of an important shift towards concepts of urban development.

--

technical assistance,foreign aid,housing mission,united nations,ghana,Gold Coast,Otto Königsberger,Charles Abrams,Vladimir Bodiansky