Redevelopment of Suame Magazine, Automatics Training Center, Kumasi

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Date
2009-08-17
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Abstract
Suame Magazine, an industrial village housing about 20,000 artisans dealing in metal scraps, vehicular repairs and spare parts. The Suame Magazine, the largest informal sector village in the country is also a major centre for vehicle repairs attracting vehicles not only from Ghana but also from neighbouring countries in the West Africa sub region. About 80% of the cars on our roads are v serviced by local artisans and the rest 20% serviced by specialised service centres like ' Vodi,Toyota,Nissan but to mention a few. It has a work force popularly referred to as 'Fitters' and are finding it difficult to cope with new auto models as a result of their lack of formal education. The days of grease monkey mechanics at our local garages like Suame Magazine are far long gone in the advanced and developed countries, this is gradually passing away in our part of the world. Today cars are seen as complex machines run by sophisticated computer systems and people who fix them are no longer called mechanics or "fitters "but highly skilled automotive technicians who are well vest in troubleshooting problems using the latest programmes and software to diagnose, service are repair modern cars. Launching a project at Suame Magazine on 9th January,2009 under the theme, Harnessing the potential of artisanal engineering for Ghana's industrialization', the Vice President said there was the urgent need to focus attention on harnessing our resources for the establishment of an institute to save the Suame Magazine from total collapse precipitated by modern technological innovations andI sophistication in the automobile industry. In view of this, looking at the great potentials and technological innovations with the little knowledge the artisans have in formal engineering, the role it plays in our economy and the rest of West Africa, there is the need to equip our artisans with modern trouble shooting techniques to diagnose and service modern computerized cars to meet the demand of tomorrow.
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A design thesis report submitted to the Department of Architecture of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Postgraduate Diploma in Architecture.
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