Mr. Adotei Brown, President of the Ghana Institute of Architects (GIA) on Friday called for urgent measures to harness renewable energy resources and to integrate these with developments of the communities.

“Heavy demand on power generation must lead to the use of the sun’s energy in every building and that the need to recycle water and waste and reduce air-conditioning heat-loads on our buildings may be ignored only to our peril”, he added.

Mr Brown was speaking at a West African Urban forum organized as part of activities to mark the Golden Jubilee Celebration of the GIA in Accra.

The week-long celebration was on the theme: “Integrated Development in Ghana-The Architect’s Focus”.

Mr. Brown expressed worry that recent development indicated that Ghana had fared badly in synchronizing development, adding that “we need to better control and avoid the development of shanty towns, haphazard residential and commercial or industrial developments, largely unrelated to approved physical planning and land use layouts”.

Mr. Tokunbo Omisore, President of the Africa Union of Architects, called on African architects to use local materials and made-in-Africa goods to build to identify the continent’s “vernacular architecture”.

“To protect our diminishing cultural values, we ask all to encourage African values, with humility and a sense of respect, regardless of our diversity”, he said.

“We need other continents to help the African communities appreciate why “African” before other nations’ influences cause the African culture to go extinct in future.”

Mr. Omisore expressed the Union’s commitment towards contributing to build sustainable and regenerative cities.