The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) has launched Ghana’s first glossary on Architecture.

The book, Aalii to Zygomorphic - A handbook on Architectural Glossary describes what architects produce and the relation to the modern-day pattern.

The author, Prof. Rexford Assasie Oppong painstakingly collected terminologies in the built environment.

He says the book is meant to aid architectural students and professionals acquire a basic handbook for their field of study making clarification of indigenous architectural works possible in the country.

Prof. Assasie Oppong shared his motive for this worthy course:

“Becoming an architectural educator, I realized there was a lacuna of words when it comes to architectural vocabulary.

“So, I decided to put together the architectural terminologies into a glossary which is like a dictionary but devoted to architecture to help students and professionals in explaining their schemes and make it understandable to the general public,” he explained.

Prof. Assasie Oppong says the impression for the title “Aalii to Zygomorphic” was derived from the alphabetical order “A to Z”.

Local words such as “Adinkra” and “Ntronom” are thoroughly explained in the handbook, as well as other basic architectural terms.

He explained, “The book is introducing new words from our cultural terms which have much significance in architecture.

“Ntronom which is a lobby of a house and as believed is a place where visitors who may carry bad spirit would live it in there before entering the house. Scientifically, it can be significant to good hygiene even for visitors.”

Pro-Vice Chancellor of KNUST, Prof. Ellis Owusu-Dabo was full of praise for the author.

“Indeed, this is a mark of excellence. My colleague and friend, well done! This is brilliant and I can testify that a lot of work has been put into this and I admonish everyone to patronize it,” he extoled.

Several donors and partners took copies of Aalii to Zygomorphic and donated to their University libraries.

Free copies were given to people who could answer some questions on architecture.

Prof. Assasie Oppong says he intends writing a sequel which will touch on Adinkra symbology, space syntax and architecture.