In Kyebi, Ghana, Adjaye Associates is pleased to present the International Children's Cancer Research Centre (ICCRC) design. 

A groundbreaking project for the Wish4Life Foundation that reimagines the future of pediatric healthcare in West Africa.

The ICCRC is situated on a 225,000-square-meter plot of land on the Atewa Range's eastern slopes. The center is intended to serve as a comprehensive haven for community, teaching, research, and healing. 

It will be the first facility in West Africa devoted solely to treating malignancies in children.

Welcome Pavilion

According to Adjaye Associates, the objective is revolutionary: to raise the region's survival rates from the present estimate of 10% to levels that are comparable to the 80% standard observed in the US. 

The project is an innovative approach to pediatric care that is based on regional customs, bolstered by international expertise, and designed to be financially self-sustaining.

Family Housing

The ICCRC masterplan, which integrates built space with the surrounding forested landscape, is based on biophilic design principles, which are inspired by the Akan notion that disease disrupts personal and communal balance.

Chapel interior

In order to start the sensory transition from the outer world into a caring environment, visitors arrive through a Welcome Center. Patients, relatives, and medical staff can find healing places in courtyards throughout the campus that are modeled after the traditional Akan Fihankra. These courtyards offer pockets of light, air, and reflection.

ICCRC Cafe

"I believe design can provide a critical inquiry into social responsibility and civic consciousness. I have always sought to work out the aesthetics of this inquiry in my work. At its best, architecture should contribute to a social change agenda," said David Adjaye.

"The idea of making a hospital is to be in commune with nature, never to be far from it, to be in light, and to create a scenario where the hospital doesn't feel like a machine," Adjaye added.

"No child should be denied the opportunity for cure of their cancer if we have it within our capacity to cure their cancer simply by providing the resources and leveraging our collective voice," said Dr Tanya Trippett.

ICCRC Masterplan render

Locally sourced and formed materials, such as clay bricks, lumber, composite earth slabs, and rammed earth, are used to build buildings. 

The design maintains its Ghanaian roots while speaking a modern language. Incorporating ancestral memory and cultural identity into the architecture, pre-cast low-carbon concrete screens that shade clinical and research buildings are modeled after Kente weaving patterns.

ICCRC light and air

The campus is designed to function as an independent ecosystem. In the face of shifting environmental conditions, sustainability and resilience are guaranteed by photovoltaic energy systems, site-specific orientation, and passive cooling. 

The approach taken by Adjaye Associates is distinguished by its combination of traditional knowledge with contemporary technologies.

ICCRC Main atrium

A children's hospital, cutting-edge research facilities, a training facility for Africa's future oncologists, staff and family housing, a chapel, and a special family support center are all part of the ICCRC complex. These elements come together to form a system rather than separate silos.

ICCRC Night masterplan

ICCRC Patients Room

ICCRC Research Centre approach

ICCRC Research oncologist

ICCRC Tree of life courtyard

ICCRC Welcome Pavilion

Sketch

Basement floor plan

Ground floor plan

First floor plan

Second floor plan

Roof floor plan

Section

Section

The project is currently on view at the Time Space Existence exhibition as part of the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025. The exhibition is in the Palazzo Bembo until 23 November 2025.

Since its founding in 2000, Adjaye Associates has developed into a multinational team that values diversity and is inspired by the widest range of cultural perspectives. 

With studios in London, Accra, and New York, the practice produces work all around the world. The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), Adjaye Associates' most well-known commission to date, was designated "Cultural Event of the Year" by The New York Times when it opened on the National Mall in Washington, DC, in 2016.

Project facts

Project name: International Children's Cancer Research Centre (ICCRC)

Architects: Adjaye Associates

Client: Wish4Life Foundation

Site area: 225,000m2

Gross Internal Area: 86,259m2

All images & drawings courtesy of Adjaye Associates.

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