In order to accommodate the workforce that migrated to Tema in the 1950s 1951 onwards, the Government of Ghana decided to hire Doxiadis Associates to design the master plan for the New Town Tema. Tema was to become a city of 250,000 people living in 25 planned residential communities, based on the principles of neighborhood development, hierarchy and separation of uses. The city was finished in 1985. The construction was guided by the Tema Development Corporation (TDC) until the Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA) took over in 1974. Over time, TDC’s original housing policy, focused on the provision of rental units for different income levels, was transformed into a model built on home ownership and site and services planning schemes to improve land for various types of use.
As we speak, Tema is characterized by the physical obsolescence and deteriorated infrastructure. At the last census in 2010, the population of Tema had almost tripled from the 1985 projections. The increased population, in combination with the run-down character of the town demands a program of redevelopment and regeneration.
– The Doxiadis plan contains plenty of open space, which now allows for increasing the density of use and improvement of public spaces.
– The City aims to develop a central authority which will be responsible for all functions within the consciously planned communities.
– The population of Tema has by far overgrown the city’s capacities
– Infrastructure networks are deteriorating and will require large financial means to be replaced and repaired.
