Kunlé Adeyemi
Adeyemi and his office designed and built a floating school in the heart of Makoko. The building, that functions as a school and a community center, was constructed using only local resources and materials, is naturally ventilated, and makes use of solar panels for its power supply. On the first floor the school gives room to a green area where food will be grown on the composted rests of the purified local waste. The building breathes flexibility — its floating foundation allows for easy relocation in the future, but it can also easily change function and become a church, mosque or market when necessary. Besides that, the concept is complete scalable. From three levels the school can be downgraded to a two-level or one-level building. Moreover, in case of potential expansion the complete building can be multiplied.
“We’re living in interesting times in Africa”, says Adeyemi during an interview at the AZA 2013 Conference. The content is facing both huge opportunities and challenges. Africa has the unique chance to learn from the developments in architecture and city building that the rest of the world already underwent. The main question, according to Adeyemi, is whether Africa is going to learn from failures in other parts of the world, or if the continent will develop an own new style and urban practice. He believes that cities in Africa increasingly put forward interesting solutions for problems that could also benefit the rest of the world.
On Thursday 18 September, Kunlé Adeyemi will give a talk at Stroom in The Hague. Within the context of the Knight’s Move lecture series he will focus on the lessons that the Western world can learn from the current urban practise in African cities such as Lagos. Click here for more information and to make a reservation!
The newly-released Rooftop Catalogue by architects MVRDV highlights 130 ways to use rooftops in cities. The book provides an overview of innovative ideas aiming to inspire architects, citizens and building owners to take the next step.
Garbage collectors in Ankara have turned an abandoned brick factory into a community library full of discarded books.
We sat down with fellow placemaker Philippe Castaing, co-founder of Make Shift and initiator of the successful Pop Brixton project in London.