Francis Kosi Segbedzi was born in Ghana in 1937. He was educated at Keta Secondary School, in Keta, from 1954-1957, and studied architecture at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), in Kumasi, from 1958 until 1961. Upon graduation he worked for the Ghana National Construction Corporation (GNCC), Accra, Ghana (1962-1963) and then the Architect’s Branch of the Volta River Authority, based in Accra. In 1963 Segbezi travelled to the UK with a group of talented students selected as part of an exchange programme between the KNUST and the Architectural Association (AA), London, the two institutions having entered a contract to work together to develop the architecture programme at KNUST. Segbedzi entered the Third-Year cohort of the AA five-year Diploma course and, as part of his final year’s studies in 1965-66, elected to join the AA Department of Tropical Studies. During this time, he lived at the AA’s hostel at 113 Stapleton Hall Road, in Stroud Green, London, alongside fellow Ghanaian students, Samuel Larbi, John Nutsugah and Christopher Mensah. His final thesis project (completed together with Ghanaian compatriot, Ebenezer Akita) was for a maternity hospital. After receiving his AA Diploma, Certificate in Tropical Studies and his RIBA Part 3 qualification, Segbedzi returned to Ghana where he set up an Accra-based practice, ‘Architects Co-Partners’ (not to be confused with the Architects Co-Partnership). Amongst the major works Segbedzi and his practice produced are the Volta Regional Hospital (now Ho Teaching Hospital), popularly referred to as ‘Trafalgar’ – this being the main regional and teaching hospital for the Volta Region – and the Sogakope District Hospital, another important component in the Volta Region’s healthcare infrastructure. More recently, Francis Segbedzi and the Architect’s Co-Partners were also responsible for the design and construction of Sunyani Regional Hospital (working with the International Hospital Group, UK), in the Bono Region, completed 2003.

Sources

• Architectural Association Student Register, 1945-71. AA Archives
• Architectural Association, Registrar’s Office student records, 1960-66. AA Archives
• Architectural Association Diploma Roll, 1966. AA Archives
• Architectural Association Council Minutes, 18th July 1966
• Architectural Association Membership Register, 1969, 1974
• Personal correspondence, Sedina Agama, 18th November, 2025