THE POLO BEACH CLUB ’19

On Creating a Destination

Some places are built to last.
Others change a city in just ten days.
 
When the vision for The Polo Beach Club was first imagined, the ambition reached far beyond creating another venue along Accra’s coastline. The goal was to introduce a new way of experiencing the beach—one that combined hospitality, design, music, sport, and culture into a destination unlike anything the city had seen before.
 
Planned over the course of a year and delivered within an intense thirty-day build window, the temporary beach club transformed a stretch of Labadi Beach into a vibrant hub of activity during Ghana’s landmark Year of Return celebrations. Designed to welcome thousands of guests over ten consecutive days, the project brought together beach polo, live entertainment, culinary experiences, and nightlife within an environment built to disappear almost as quickly as it arrived.
 
Over ten remarkable days, the beach club became one of Accra’s defining destinations during Ghana’s Year of Return. International artists including Wizkid, Burna Boy, Davido and Popcaan, alongside Boris Kodjoe, Tina Knowles, Naomi Campbell and countless visitors from across the African diaspora all found themselves gathering on the same stretch of coastline—drawn not only by the programme, but by the atmosphere the destination had come to represent.
 
ALOD led the spatial planning, guest experience, production coordination, and styling of the destination, ensuring every space worked intuitively for both guests and operations while preserving a distinctly Ghanaian sense of place.
 
Long after the final structure was dismantled, the impact remained. The Polo Beach Club redefined what temporary hospitality could look like in Accra and helped shape a new chapter for the city’s coastline.
 
The most influential places aren’t always permanent. Sometimes they’re remembered because they proved what was possible.

PROJECT SCOPE

Experience Design · Spatial Planning · Event Production Coordination · Vendor Management · Hospitality Planning · Styling

COLLABORATORS

Client: Polo Beach Club

 Polo Games: Accra Polo Club | Entertainment Coordinator: Rima Arnaout | PBC Manager Andromina Baffoe

THE STATEGIST'S NOTE

Looking back, I don’t think we realised what we were building.
At the time, the focus was simple: open on time, make the experience unforgettable, and prove that a temporary destination could belong in Accra.
Only years later did I recognise that almost every project ALOD has delivered since traces back to those thirty days on Labadi Beach.
It was where I first understood that experience design isn’t decoration.
It’s choreography.
It’s understanding how people move, where they gather, what they remember, and how dozens of independent teams can work towards one shared vision.
The Polo Beach Club wasn’t simply the largest project we had undertaken at the time.
It quietly became the project that shaped how we think.
Every philosophy you’ll encounter throughout this portfolio—creating destinations, protecting moments, revealing places, stewarding ideas, orchestrating experiences—can be traced back to lessons first learned here.
Sometimes you only recognise the beginning of a journey once you’ve travelled far enough to look back.
With gratitude to every contractor, artisan, supplier, production partner, and crew member whose craft and commitment helped bring this project to life.
 
— Aku Klutse
Creative Strategist, A Life of Design