An African architect has built a children’s library for Ghana’s poorest using 45,000 recycled plastic bottles.

The library was built in the town of Kokrobite, a fishing community on the outskirts of the capital Accra in southern Ghana.

The building will be used as a library and storage facility after its completion.

The project was the brainchild of architect Martial Zohoungbogbo, who has Ghanaian and Beninese citizenship, who explained that the area does not have enough classrooms and some teachers have to hold classes under the shade of trees.

The architect carried out the project thanks to fundraisers and the help of the local community.

Zohoungbogbo told local media: “The children will have access to the Internet, read books, take classes together, and finally have a place to have fun.”

Kokrobite is considered one of the least developed towns in the region and most families are dependent on a local fishing industry and cannot afford better education for the youngsters.

Zohoungbogbo, who came to the town 30 years ago, learned the construction technique with plastic bottles from a German architect.

He explained that the building is mostly made up of larger bottles filled with soil and tied tightly with rope.

He said these filled bottles act as ‘bricks’ for the walls while smaller bottles were arranged in layers as columns.

The architect added that he carried out a similar construction for a classroom at a local school that took four months to complete.

He also plans to expand the library in the near future. For now, the library boasts a children’s biology exhibition as well as seminars for parents in the community.