CSI.Lagos 2010 report

CSI.LAGOS 2010CITY SPACE INVESTIGATIONS

LAGOS 2010

THE CSI.LAGOS REPORT BY URBAN DETECTIVES IS LICENSED UNDER A CREATIVE COMMONS ATTRIBUTION SHAREALIKE 3.0 UNPORTED LICENSE. BASED ON A WORK AT CSI-LAGOS.URBANDETECTIVES.COM.

PUBLISHED BY: URBAN DETECTIVESDATE: DECEMBER 2010PRINTED: ROTTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDSAUTHORS: JAAP KLAARENBEEK (MSC), JASPER MOELKER (MSC)

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON URBAN DETECTIVES: WWW.URBANDETECTIVES.COM

CITY SPACE INVESTIGATIONSLAGOS 2010

ORGANIZED BY:

IN COLLABORATION WITH

FINANCIALLY SUPPORTED BY:

REPORTINTRODUCTIONPREAMBULEURBAN DETECTIVESCITY SPACE INVESTIGATIONSWHY LAGOS?PROGRAM

PREINTRODUCTIO TO LAGOSTHE POPULAR IMAGE OF LAGOS

IN TOUR(S)PROJECTSEXPO LAGOS

POSTEXPO DELFTLEARNING FROM LAGOSARTICLE IN 234NEXT

REFLECTIONS

OVERVIEWORGANIZATIONCOLLABORATIONSACKNOWLEDGEMENTSPARTICIPANTSGRANTSPUBLICATIONSWORKSHOP PROGRAM

PreambuleIn the spring of 2010 Urban Detectives organized the CSI.Lagos student workshop in collaboration with Delft University of Technology and the BUKKA research trust. The Lagos workshop was the third in the City Space Investigations (CSI) workshop series.

This report describes and evaluates the CSI.Lagos workshop held in Delft (Netherlands) and Lagos (Nigeria) from February to May 2010 with a group of students from Delft University and Lagos University. We look back on the preparation program, 2 weeks of urban explorations in Lagos on-site, the results of the workshop and close

with reflections from the participants, collaborators and the organizers. Limited by our resources, this draft report is preliminary published to serve for further discussion.

For the organization Urban Detectives owes its gratitude to the various parties that have devotedly worked with us to make the CSI.Lagos workshop possible: the people from BUKKA, the Media Department of the faculty of architecture at TU Delft, Lagos University, and the various lecturers. We are very gratefull to the EFL Stichting and the Universiteitsfonds for their financial support.

URBAN DETECTIVES

Urban Detectives is an open and independent platform for research and design of cities in the 21st century. Urban Detectives started out in 2008 as

a student initiative but was soon after professionalized.

Urban Detectives sets its own agenda, mediating and linking the disciplines involved in making cities: urban researchers and designers, planners, architects and lanscape architects, but also anthropologists, sociologists and other adjacent fields. To meet the urban challenges of the 21st century metropolis we require open-minded approaches, creative transformations, reconsiderations of what we see today without losing those things learned in the past. Thinking beyond disciplines and petrified political views, experimenting with new roles, inviting all agents, communicating open-source are necessary requirements.Urban Detectives takes the ‘experimental intensive workshop’ as a useful tool, to quickly discover other practices, change/open views, form new alliances and ways of communication and expression. The environment of cross-cultural exchange, makes differences and petrified values visible and allows for valuable reflections on the cities that we build.

CITY SPACE INVESTIGATIONS

City Space Investigations is and experiment in education. The CSI framework is based on participatory approaches, transdisciplinarity and ICT enhanced

learning to effectively address the challenges of an international workshop. All organized by Urban Detectives.

The CSI workshops aim to level the teacher-student relation. The organizers role is one of a facilitator. Participants receive guidance on the level of methodology, but keep maximum freedom in the definition to carry out their explorations on the basis of their own fascinations, under a given umbrella topic. To carry out this difficult task, critical attitudes and pro-active participation in the group process and elaboration of each other’s work, methods and tools are vital. The working method implied a constant action-reflection cycle between all members of the group.

Urban Dectives is interested in the implications of large metropolitan growth on the uses and production of local space. Theoretical focus is urban informality (the social construction of the city), to which pertains issues like the marginality, the right to the city and grassroots participation. City Space Investigations gives a vital importance to the local scale. By choosing a specific small scale process or location, participants minitiously analyze the situation to understand its embeddednes in social, economical and cultural context. Urban Detectives, and the City Space Investigations series, were set up as education organized by students. The end of the third edition of CSI, also marks the end of the period of ‘education by students’ as by Novermber Anthony, Jaap and Jasper have all successfully graduated.

WHY LAGOS?

After the workshops in New York (North America) in 2008 and São Paulo (South America) in 2009, Lagos (Africa) was for us a logical next step, it being one of the fastest growing cities in

the world, biggest city in Africa’s most populous country and economical centre of West-Africa.

Lagos is of special interest as one of the fastest growing cities in the world, and one of the biggest cities on the African continent. Unparalleled urban growth, recent democratization, ethnic diversity, pressure of infrastructure, recent large scale infrastructural improvement programs among many other developments should interest everyone involved in ‘making the city.(For further explanation see the article: ‘Introduction to Lagos’)

PRE - PREPARATION PHASEA preparation phase (Pre Lagos) is held in February and March with an evening lectures defining a con-textual, theoretical and methodological framework. In addition a multimedia course took place in col-laboration with the Media department of the Faculty of Architecture (TU Delft) to provide participants with a toolkit for the on-site workshop (multimedia tech-niques will include photo, video, audio, hand drawing, gps, web applications and weblogs).In the ‘Architect in Africa’ lunch lecture series three ar-chitects reflected on their experiences as an architect in Africa. About the role of the architect, the design process and the role of the local context.

IN - ON-SITE WORKSHOPThe core phase, the on-site workshop (In Lagos) took place from the 28th April to 8th of May 2010. During these 11 days all participants jointly explored the city, received input from different parties (eg. academics, planners, developers, community leaders) and under-took collective and individual research (on the infor-mal production of urban space).The on-site workshop program In Lagos was divided into two stages Exploration (week 1: input) and Inves-tigation (week 2: output). The exploration (input) in-volved lectures from different perspectives and tours / location visits to create an understanding of the city both top-down and bottup-up. The investigation (out-put) was setup to have the participants formulate and carry out their own research in small groups based on the experience in the first week. The on-site phase was concluded in a closing seminar.

The CSI.Lagos workshop followed a three staged program with a preparation phase Pre Lagos, the on-site workshop In Lagos, and a post production phase Post Lagos

PRE-, IN- AND POST-LAGOS

Program

POST - WORKSHOP RESULTSDuring the post production phase (Post Lagos) the material collected during the on-site investigations is processed to generate final products that reflect the workshop ideology, as to say being flexible in frame, disciplines and scales. An exhibition is held in Lagos and one in the Delft, as well as a report and submission of articles to several magazines and conferences.

mEYEsite LAGOSFor CSI.Lagos Urban Detectives collaborated with the Media department, Faculty of Architecture (Bou-wkunde), TU Delft to organize a Multimedia & Presenta-tion Techniques course for students as part of the mEY-Esite program, running parallel to and integrated with the City Space Investigations – Lagos (CSI.Lagos).The mEYEsite*Lagos course was available for all stu-dents participating in the CSI.Lagos. During the ‘Pre Lagos’ (preparation phase) the participants gained ex-perience and learned new skills using different media techniques, equipping them for the ‘In Lagos’ (on-site workshop), which acted as a case study for this course. During the ‘Post Lagos’ (post-production phase) the participants were assisted by the Media department in creating a multimedia exposition with their material.

[See appendix for full program]


PREINTRODUCTION TO LAGOSTHE POPULAR IMAGE OF LAGOS



REFLECTIONS


How to grasp and decipher the urban monster of disparities. Similar to former editions the participants will use urban space as lens to investigate informal production processes to unfold the multi-layered nature of place and the underlying forces shaping it.This text is a small selection of the article ‘Lagos: A new urban paradigm?’ written by Anthony Fuchs (Urban Detectives). In the article Fuchs tries to picture several academic stances on Lagos and present some essential data.

Lagos is the product of nonlinear historical growth. With a population of less than 300.000 inhabitants in 1950, demographics accelerated and leaped since the oil crises and the recession of the early 80s. Today Nigeria’s financial capital is home to an unknown number of people. Official census indicates 8 million, but most estimates range between 10-13 million. The UN (2004) predicted the megacity to reach 17 million in 2015 and 24 in 2020 making it to one of the biggest cities in the world at that time.

“A focus on a city such as Lagos has the potential to illuminate not just a peculiarly African experience,

but also raise wider questions about the nature of modernity, urban governance and the interactions between global capital flows and the material conditions of actually existing cities in the global South.” (Gandy 2006, 374)

Paralleling the past macro-socioeconomic transformationshave been a polarization of wealth and an increase of crime and violence. Living conditions in Lagos seriously deteriorated in the last decades of the 20th century. In this context – although mostly ignoring it – Rem Koolhaas launched the new ‘GSD Projects on the City’ research (Koolhaas 2008). Undoubtedly he put the architectural spotlight on the largest Sub-Saharan city, but his investigations and motivation have not been without criticism. Mike Davis states in an interview: “If you want to see hum an self organization at work, go to Lagos, but face the poverty and oppression by the military

AN INTRODUCTION TO LAGOS: THE NUMBERS AND SEVERAL ACADEMICAL ARTICLES COMPAREDLAGOS: A NEW URBAN PARADIGM?

How to grasp and decipher the urban monster of disparities. Similar to former editions the participants will use urban space as lens to investigate informal production processes to unfold the multi-layered nature of place and the underlying forces shaping it.

regime.” (Davis Interview-link) The missing historical and political concern is also mentioned by Isichei (no date). Koolhaas is driven by the efficiency paradigm of informality, without critically asking efficient in what? Efficiency in resource allocation and use (biotic, abiotic, social, human), money, time, psychological stress? In a city denser than Mumbai and Calcutta (Vidal 2005), where 70 percent of the city’s residents live in informal housing, two third under the poverty line, less lastthan a third has access to safe water, only 10 percent have a regular job (Vidal 2005), and mere 0,09 percent of the daily 6000 tons of solid waste is treated (Otchet 1999), the question of efficiency and anarchy arises.These are just two sides of Lagos, a city that polarizes people and opinions. In the discourse Lagos is seen as apocalyptic embodiment, crime ridden, corruptive, and as moral sink. Others see in it a paradigm for the future, creative, self-organized, and autarkic. Lagos may be both at the same time, leaning on a common

local expression “Lagos is God’s own city where Satan prowls”. Emphasis should be given to the Janus nature of this agglomeration of extremes and that not the city as an object but its effect on human lives matter. This is the starting point of the upcoming City Space Investigations Workshop taking place in April 2010 in Lagos: How to grasp and decipher the urban monster of disparities. Similar to former editions the participants will use urban space as lens to investigate informal production processes to unfold the multi-layered nature of place and the underlying forces shaping it.

Download full article at: csi-ls.urbandetectives.com.

Article based on the presentation of Urban Detectives (Jaap Klaarenbeek) at the symposium ‘Lagos: Crisis City or Mega City?’ at the UCL/School for Oriental and African Studies, June 18, 2010.

INTRODUCTION None of the participating students, neither the organizers had ever been in Lagos before the CSI.Lagos workshop. The available existing media and academical representations, via printed media and digital sources, formed in the start of 2010 our first mode of acquaintance with Lagos and Nigeria. For the‘Lagos: Crisis City or Mega City?’symposium we were asked to briefly reflect on the way our first way of connecting with Lagos via media and articles influenced our representation of Lagos.The main question of the events organizers: are prevalent media representations beneficial to understanding Lagos? What I will do is start with the second question by looking to how media representations and academic articles constructed our representation of Lagos before having been there. Readers of this report will discover references to this question through the whole report.

CONSTRUCTING AN IMAGEThe aim of CSI.Lagos was to learn from Lagos. Not to project our thoughts on how to make a better Lagos,

but just to look and try to understand urban processes on micro and macro scales. Our perspective: that of the foreign visitor.

Before going to Lagos both organization and participants gathered information and discussed to get an image of Lagos. Unlike previous location New York and São Paulo, the coverage of Lagos in academical papers is limited.Our most important sources were a few journalistic articles, personal stories and several images recently shown in international media; documents of well respected architect and writer Rem Koolhaas (‘Wide & Close’, BBC ‘Welcome to Lagos’), the good German documentary ‘Lagos, Das Tagliche Wunder’, more sensational reports among which Ross Kemp (In search for the Pirates) and a little amount of online (Youtube) video’s.

As most of you here tonight probably know, because of the heritage of the military regime taking photographs, let alone video, is officially not allowed in Lagos.

Media reports largely cover the following themes: rapid urban growth (Koolhaas &BBC), high density (Koolhaas & BBC), hectic and unorganized street life (Koolhaas & BBC), the capacity of the informal to adapt (Koolhaas, Wunder), congested traffic and intensely polluted air (Koolhaas & BBC), social polarization, high rates of

CONSTRUCTING AN IMAGE OF LAGOSTHE POPULAR IMAGE OF LAGOS

poverty (BBC & Kemp), crime and corruption (Kemp), individual survival strategies (BBC), environmental collapse (BBC & Kemp).

Articles(Ghandy, Koolhaas, Fadare, Braimoh, Agbola, Immerwahr, Abiodum, Oduwaye, Olukoju) present far more nuanced stories than the film- and television reports, embracing cultural opportunities to to speed up urban growth, control over citizens security, growth history of urban networks, culture of planning and urban and infrastructural design, spatial dimensions of social exclusion and inclusion, re-branding Lagos.Much deeper in the influences of political changes/turmoil on the development of Lagos, and the cultural aspects the have helped to define micro and meso decisions in space. THE IMAGE: MYTH AND REALITYMultimedia images thus present a rather different image of Lagos than the academic articles.This might be a more general characteristic typical for both types of media, but in the case of Lagos, the difference in the images they present is rather exceptional.The overwhelming television reports generated fear and uncertainty of the untamed and uncontrollable city, while articles presented intriguing stories that generated a fascination and enthusiasm/interest for Lagos, and were much less negative about Lagos’

livability.Before embarking to Lagos this high degree of difference between various sources led to uncertainty about myth and reality within each story. Both for the organizers as well as participants. This image greatly changed by our local experiences in the following three weeks.

‘The overwhelming televi-sion reports generated fear and uncertainty of the un-tamed and uncontrollable city, while articles present-ed nuanced and intriguing stories that generated a fascination and interest for Lagos’





REFLECTIONS


THE SHINY SIDE, THE SHADOW SIDE, THE 90%TOUR

The tours attempt was to give a balanced image of the actual situation of contemporary Lagos and the developments that are most characteristic for today’s city. But what then is a balanced image?

EXPLORING LAGOS FOR A BALANCED IMAGEThe CSI.Lagos workshop was set up to investigate the implications of large metropolitan growth on the uses and production of local space. The major part of the workshop participants worked on their own projects. Therefore students chose a specific topic of place to investigate. To be able to frame their specific explorations in a broader context Urban Detectives, together with Bukka, organ-ized a three-day tour through Lagos for all participants. The attempt was to give a balanced image of the actual situation of contemporary Lagos and the developments that are most characteristic for today’s city. But what then is a balanced image? Balanced between formal and informal?Or organized as opposed to Unorganized?Efficient as opposed to Inefficient?Westernized as opposed to African?Developed as opposed to underdeveloped?Rapidly Developing as opposed to Slowly Developing?Rich as opposed to Poor?Colonial as opposed to Traditional?Dynamic as opposed to Static?Urban as opposed to Rural?Old as opposed to New?Globally connected as opposed to Locally connected?Powerful as opposed to Powerless?Represented as opposed to Not-Represented?In-Network as opposed to Off-Network? Together with Bukka the organization tried to cover this scope in three thematic days. Day 1) The Bright side. Day 2) The Shadow side. Day 3) The ‘in-between’, where 90% of the Lagoseans live. The following story attempts to unite an experiential report, with some factual background information and reflec-tions by the writer. Because of practical considerations the locations belonging to the different days have in reality been visited slightly mingled.

LAGOS UNIVERSITYOur first day starts of with a face-a-face with the cultural difference between Lagoseans and Dutch. After more than half an hour waiting with just a hand full of local students in the bus, we leave UniLag. Hardly having left the terrain, we are alarmed that a ‘big group’ of Lagosean students just arrived, and is hoping to join us today. Unfortunately, the additional group is so big that we have to disappoint some of the students. With a fully packed bus and over an hour of delay we once again head on for our first day in Lagos.

THE SHINY SIDE

LAGOS ISLAND (CBD)First stop is the Central Business District of Lagos on Lagos Island. A strip of 20 to 30 story office buildings, that were mostly built during the 60’s and 70’s. Short after Nigeria’s independence. From the top of the TBS-tower one can see that these high office buildings are practically the only ones in Lagos. Whereas on Lagos Island we can still find some blocks until 6/7 stories, the mainland is like a sea of 2/3 storey buildings. Located along the waterline, but hard divided by a wide the elevated highway and on the ground a wide strip with parking places and hundreds of the famous yellow VW busses. Just behind the ‘modern’ business towers begin the downtown Lagos markets that we visit again several days later. Now without the group or our Nigerian accompany. The streets are buzzing with activities. The area most resembles a huge anthill buzzing with commercial activity. A network of paved and unpaved streets, alleys, roofed markets, and interior courtyards form one dense network. Shops, sidewalks, streets and parked cars are used to expose commodities for sale. Moving through the narrow walkways through some halls and ally’s not always feel comfortable. Our white skin is to logical reason behind all the attention we receive. The market is divided in different specialized sectors for apparel, textiles, pots, pans, household machines, furniture, and etcetera.

VICTORIA ISLANDSecond stop is Victoria Island, located at the western most part of the Lekki Peninsula. In comparison with Lagos Is-land, Victoria Island seams friendly. With low builings built in the middle of the spacious plots and some sparse trees planted around, the neighborhood looks green. To Lagos standards the life on and along the streets is relatively easy going (rustig). It is therefore not a coincidence that Victoria Island has received the nickname ‘Little London’. The neighborhood hosts many banks and offices of international firms. Biggest road on Lagos Island is Ajose Adeogun road. Also with a nickname: Zenith Avenue. The bank, with various office buildings along the road sponsored the landscaping of the road. One of the nights later the week we discover that the neighborhood also hosts some of the few exclusive clubs in Lagos. I have to say, I felt kind out of place among the midlife aged man in Pat’s Place, probably in oil business, that we’re often flanked by two- or three women each.

BAR BEACHBezoek van strand. Stepping out of our bus, we stop to have a look at the beach and touch the the Atlantic Ocean. While the beach is practically empty, we are welcomed by an unexpected welcome committee. Our group of 6 to 8 youngsters declines us entrance to the beach, without paying for each student. A discussion arises between several of our Nigerian students and the people from the beach. Another man jumps in the discussion and chooses our side. Interestingly he argues that in the Nigerian democracy, everybody should be allowed free of charge acces to public spaces. While we simlpy wait, a fierce discussion between the man and the youngsters on the beach arises in which also our student become me figurants. After fifteen minutes of fierce debate an old men enters the discussion and decide we can enter the beach. As we had already seen during the time waiting, there was nothing much interesting to see on the beach. Yet, the discussion we had become part of was very interesting. In the many other street discussions in the next two weeks we quite regularly encountered similar situations through which we got the feeling that the meaning of the ‘short lived’ democracy is constantly sought by Lagos’ citizens. In general we were surprised with the civilized and humane coexistence of the Lagoseans despite the very young de-mocracy and rather rough history and difficulties many people have to overcome in daily life. They do never walk away until they have come to an agreement. Even if the discussion takes ‘ages’, and even needs several time-outs, the discussion should end in a settling of the issue at stake.

EKO ATLANTIC AND KURAMO BEACHAt the end of Bar beach we drive along the announcements of Eko Atlantic, what should become the face of the ‘New Lagos’, projected in front of the existing coast. Other than the name at first sight seems to suggest, ‘Eko’ doesn’t have to do anything with ‘ecology’. Eko is the Igbo-name for Lagos city. ‘Eko Etlantic’ is a new city for no less than 300.000 citizens with a new office district, a harbour and its own powerplant. My thoughts go back to the story that Urban van Aar, project director of the Dutch construction company Haskon-ing, the constructor of Eko Atlantic, told us during the preparation lectures of the CSI workshop. Van Aar showed us the more or less European-style urban plans for Eko Atlantic where in the future around three hundred thousand middle-class Lagoseanen as projected to live and work in the midst of Amsterdam-style canals and bridges.While we stand there looking at the signs we as white visitors, we are of course approached from all sides: who are we, what are we doing here, and how can they best serve us? If you walk with me I will take you to the best restaurant at Kuramo Beach. Really. Behind the announcements for Eko Atlantic currently lies Kuramo beach. Lagos’ most popular beach, also visited by the richer Lagoseans that want to visit the beach. Good food is prepared and served by the slum dwellers that mostly live in the slum, which is also located on the small strip of Kuramo beach. For years, the slum dwellers are told that by the government that their slums might be cleared. To minimize the chances, every week on sundays, the dwellers clean the beach together. Standing here it is hard to believe that the Eko Atlantic will become part of the future of Lagos.

LEKKI PENINSULALekki is a strech of land 60 kilometers. The first kilometers of Lekki are already urbanized since several decades, but new plots are laid out in enormous pace everywhere around towards the east. Way down Lekki expressway (towards Epe) the landscape becomes more woody. Our taxi driver tells us that within years, all of this will be city. Several days later we got this confirmed. XXX, the ‘director’ of Lagos’ ministery of urban planning tells us that Lekki is the place where most of Lagos future urban growth is projected. About 5 to 6 million new inhabitants in a period of 15 years (!). With around 6 to 7 million Lagoseans living currently on the Mainland, future Lagos will have an Old and a New Lagos. After we have seen this fragmented frontier of the city, and have tried to visit the beach here which is not possible without paying, we drive back to the head of the peninsula where we visit Lekki Phase 1. A recently developed closed compound.

LEKKI PHASE 1Lekki Phase 1 is Lagos’ largest closed compound. Its enormous area covers more then 10km2. The compound is not as secured as compounds in the Americas. The two entrances of Lekki Phase 1 are marked with big gates where it is always busy. Security measures are superficial and shows the ubiquitous nature of Lekki’s safety measures. The yellow cabs we regularly use for example are not allowed in Lekki after 19h. Yet, we arrive in Lekki almost always after this hour. Every day again, we are stopped, make a theatrical discussion with the gatekeeper that of course al-ready recognizes us, and after we paid him his fee, we can continue without any problem. Lekki’s security formalizes the in fact informal behaviour of the security. Past the gate, we find a place very different than seen at Mainland Lagos. Lekki Phase 1 is one gigantic allotment with big free standing villas in Neo-Classical style behind high walls on big plots. Strangely enough we also find ‘shacks’ on various plots, a big slum and on some places thriving informal activities. Still a lot of life on the streets. Markets, barbers, photographers, etc. Wordt toegelaten door eigenaar. Very much under construction. Many plots are still unbuilt. Verhaaltje over speculatie binnen compound.Even here within the compound, life can be a hardship. We experience it daily in our hotel. Many hours during the day electricity is offline because of the unpredictable network service. This is why every house has its own generator. Hotel spent 600 dollar per week on gasoline to keep the generator running. The infrastructure in Lekki is sometimes looks precarious, and it is unclear if it is still under construction are already became dilapidated. As Lekki’s residents move by car, we don’t find public spaces in Lekki. If there is one place that we could call a public space, or, the place where we find the most intense public life in Lekki, it would be tantalizers. The ‘Tantalizers’ is take-away restaurant popular among the rich inhabitants of Lagos.

HEADING FOR IKOYIAfter our visit to Lekki, we drive further to Ikoyi over newly constructed Lekki Expressway. The new toll-road con-necting the expansions on the Lekki peninsula to Victoria Island. Both sides of the street walled to prevent crossing and selling on the streets. The trip goes smoothly. In fact, we experience in Lagos much less congestion than expected. One is surprised by the vastness and relatively good quality of the highway network, that was laid out in the 70’s and is still in a very accept-able condition. Although, as the city has expanded, the expansion of the road infrastructure hasn’t grown with the city. Yet, in recent years a lot of effort is being made to improve mobility and accessibility in Lagos.

IKOYIImpression similar to Lekki. Older an more finished. Hardly any available plots. At least not visible from the road. Smaller compounds for expats. Finished public space. Attention to landscape. Later during the trip we visit one of the compounds to visit the apartment of a ‘friend’ working for the Dutch oil company Shell. Description of the apart-ment.Last stop for today is ‘Banana Island’. Island in the form of a banana. One entrance. Rainfall caused huge traffic jam. Small unpaved road to the island not what you would have expected. Expensive air-conditioned MPV’s and over-loaded trucks with tens of (exhausted) workers in desintegrating trucks alternate/take turns. Along the road people are busy to sell dry stones, sell streel reinforcement, or other services. British Petroleum new HQ? Most plots empty.

YABAWe approach Yaba from 3rd Mainland Bridge. The view on this neighborhood is impressive. While the water is scattered with floating wood that is brought from upstream the rivers to Yaba every day, the shore is packed with small saw mills. Yaba is THE central sawing and distribution area of Lagos. With an open window, the strong sweet smell of freshly cut wood is amazing. Once again, we are very welcome, there are no walls, no fences and we are free to move around and talk to people. However locals do indicate a sway of skepticism about our visit, and especially the fact that we take cameras as they recently featured in BBC’s ‘Welcome to Lagos’ for which in turn they were confronted by the local government. Yaba consists of two parts, the waterfront and a part more land inwards. The waterside is a place of distribution mostly filled with saw mills and a thick layer of sawdust. Here wood comes down as bundled logs, where it is cut to be sold in the city. Land inwards Yaba is more residential, characterized by its Portuguese and English colonial heritage.

THE SHADOW SIDE

MUSHINIn Mushin we split up in two groups to visit the markets on both sides of the aorta running through the area. Only a few steps of the main road and you are surrounded by the markets. Its a typical image of Lagos as you see people trading everywhere. People do also live here, but just out of sight often inside, behind or above their shops. One market specializes in fruits, vegetables and spices. The other in animal parts where animals are slaughtered in an open air abattoir and processed and distributed over numerous small shops.Soon both groups are halted by locals and inquired about the intend of their presence. Important to know is that Lagos knows a lot more powers than just its government and church. Once entering a neighborhood in Lagos one quickly becomes acquainted with the power of the oba’s and area boys.The first group catches the attention of an area boy. Area boys are loosely organized gangs of teenagers, mostly males, that roam the streets of Lagos. They regularly extort money from passers-by. This particular youngster wants us to pay him money for his service of him allowing us to visit his market, as he explains his presence. In high pace we leave the market, thank our host and get back to the van. The second group is taken to the oba. The oba’s form a third level of power which is the precolonial structure of governance that now still acts as a powerful informal structure next to the formal structure imposed by the colonizers. Government, church and oba’s all influence the spatial configuration on local and global scale. Only the government is responsible for spatial planning on the large urban scale.Yet, although the other two forms of power do not directly directly influence spatial form of neighbourhoods, they do indirectly. For example: the existence and acceptance of the oba’s by most of the citizens influences indirectly societal and spatial organization. (Ayodeji Olukoju, Acctors and institutions in urban politics in Nigeria: Agege (Lagos) since the 1950’s, 2005)A meeting with the oba proofed more effective than the encounter with the area boy as after explaining our intentions and flashing some student cards we received a guide through all parts of the market.

ILAJEFrom Mushin we continue our tour to Ilaje. As has become a normal procedure, before the group can exit the bus, we meet the ‘elders’ of the ‘village’ at arrival to explain them the purpose of our visit. What we see in Ilaje is bizar. The community that lives in Ilaje makes its money by selling sand extracted from Lagos’ lagoon. In the early morning, sand is won kilometers away from Ilaye, by a fleet of improvised sailing ships. When these arrive in Ilaje young heavily muscular workers run back and forth to bring the mud to the shores in baskets. We can only guess the weight of each basket. A local entrepreneur explains each truck of sand earns them about 75 Euros.

MAKOKOIn Makoko we leave our bus and continue in small and long fishermen boats. Makoko is one of Lago’s most notorious slums. Its mainly built in and on the lagoon. The houses are on stelts connected by a network of canals and small pedestrian bridges, from which it also receives its name ‘Black Venice’. From the water we pass subrent houses, schools and small playgrounds. The entire settlement is informally built and mostly consists of housing. There are no large facilities. The water is the main infrastructure. There are no roads and there is no public infrastructure for sanitation. This means the water is at the same time the sewer network.Due to the sanitation issues and poverty the area has a bad reputation. However what surprised us most is how Makoko is really the only place in Lagos where people embrace the lagoon rather than trying to conquer it by large bridges and land reclamations.

UNILAG CAMPUSMost of the students live on the campus. Until the third year several students typically share one small room. The 4th and 5th year students often move to appartments with a little more privacy. The campus is close to the faculties but quite a distance from the CBD. As transportion is rather expensive this means students mostly stay within the area around the university.The University of Lagos itself is a collection of marvelous pieces of tropical modern architecture. Some of the buildings are in great condition others show more deprecated wealth and all positioned in a park setting. It appears as if the campus contains more green than the whole of Lagos combined.

THE ‘IN-BETWEEN’ 90%

LAGOS ISLAND (EKO)We take a short walk through the heavily populated downtown Lagos - the ‘historic center’. Many buildings are collapsing as too many floors are built on constructions that are too weak. Inhabitants explain that goverment is carrying out ‘cleaning’ and improvement programmes and carries out on a landscape programme to promote more public green. Shops that are often extended onto the sidewalks/streets, overbuilding the sometimes open sewerage, are removed. In several streets we see landscaping projects. Green strips of about two meters wide, one meter high are surrounded by low fences to protect the grass and trees in the middle. From the Dutch perspective it is difficult to understand why the green strip in the middle should be heightened. But in Lagos it prevents activities on the median strip so that it would become a destination. Toghether with the better demarcated crossings, the streets become much more legible and traffic circulates easier.

IKEJAAs part of our tour we explore the market of Ikeja which is specialized in electronics. It’s a crowded market area where we try to pass through as a group. But as we don’t move fast enough and as a large group we quickly draw attention. Before we realize it we are surrounded by several area boys and experience the first problems during our visit. However still as in many situations encountered in Lagos, while voices are raised, by simply taking your time and talking it out with our local organizers we are able to come to and understanding and continue.After the workshop we return to Ikeja, which also hosts the local government. The ministries have annexes which have annexes and are scattered over the district. We try to find our way through a network of park and parking lots. There are actual tractors parked in front of the Ministry of Agriculture and in between official vehicles are cars and trucks that have been parked there for years with gardens growing out of them. On the same parking lot, stands and carts appear during the day with the central repro service on them. Without any appointment we are permitted to access the ministries and with some help we are able to get to many of the directors offices of the ministries involved with spatial planning. In the meetings with the directors we discussed our observations on Lagos from a European point of view, like how Lagos is strageically organized on a meta scale lacks planning on a smaller scale, how gaps in the formal planning are filled by informal processes which also seem to be able to quickly adapt to formal interventions and how Lagos is dealing with this increase of scale in planning and mostly infrastructural works. The directors seemed very aware of the lack of urban and spatial planners in Lagos and expressed the need for these professionals as we are used to in The Netherlands. In addition two directors also expressed their interest in contributing to future (student) workshops further investigating the urban and spatial planning in Lagos.

OWOLOWO ROADOwolowo road is the aorta running through Lagos Island. During the day it’s a busy street. Banking is the main activity directly along the road. There’s an occasional supermarket with sky high prices, which even we can hardly afford. Directly behind the street are mostly offices and some shops, restaurants and hotels.The traffic on Owolowo road is absolutely chaotic. Despite the best effort of traffic officers on every crossing the infrastructure simply isn’t made for this kind of usage. Parked cars manouvring in and out of the adjacent lots congest the entire street. Okadas (moto taxis) flow around them as if it were pebbles in a creek. As an ojimbo (white men / foreigner) you stand amazed by this play and you could sit and watch for hours. That is if there was space to pause and less smog in the air to breathe.After six everything stops and especially in the evening and weekends Owolowo street is deserted.

DOLPHIN ESTATEFrom the third mainland bridge we’ve passed the Dolphin Estate a number of times on our way to UNILAG. The estate is positioned in between Yaba and Makoko but stands out because of its clear order between its informally built neighbors.Dolphin Estate is a typical example of Lagos 70’s social housing projects. It’s a standardized gated complex of 4 storey housing blocks. From the outside the dwellings appear like stacked containers. When we enter however the apartments turn out to be much larger with no less than five to six rooms. The complex is in good state. The front sides of the blocks are clean, paved and feel a bit deserted. Between the blocks its actually more green with small backyards and playgrounds. Almost like an American style family house.

IntroductionCSI.Lagos is interest in the implications of large metropolitan growth on the uses and production of local spaces. Looking to fast growing metropolises in developing countries always has the risk to get bogged down into a limited research on the extreme effects of the cities’ dynamic, leading to a focus on the areas of those that enjoy the sweet fruits of expanding economies of scale on the one hand and the areas of those for whom the city has no yet provided a humane living situation on the other.This might be even more the case for Western foreigners for which the environments of extreme luxury for the rich and the screaming poverty of the unlucky do speak to the imagination. It is not a coincidence that especially these extreme instances of African cities reach the

European news channels/media representations. And this, while the90% of the population in between in fact make the city. The same is the case for Lagos. With our approach we tried to forestall this unbalance. During three days of tours the group visited a range of places in Lagos. Day 1: the shiny side. Day 2: the shadow side, Day 3: the 90% Lagos. After three days participants were asked to outline a personal research and/or design project on the basis of their personal fascinations. After three introductory days in which various diverging locations in Lagos were visited to frame the working context, the participants teamed up based on common themes binding their individual interests. The organization took care of the integration of various

INDIVIDUAL EXPLORATORY PROJECTSProjects

subthemes and the individual quality of the presented projects. In five mixed subgroups students worked around the following theme’s.1) Lagos: ‘How it works’: an info graphic project mixing video and animation in an attempt to connect the megacity scale of Lagos with the local appearance of infrastructure.2) Changing Mindset: research and design on one central question: is it possible to change the mindset of Lagoseans to induce individual change that generates with city-wide effects?3) Lagos Lifestyles: Lagos as a melting pot: new and hybrid cultures. 4) (In)Formal: investigation on various locations on the coexistence of formal and informal systems in

overlapping systems of social networks, culture, politics and space. 5) Space, power and environment: three projects take space as central. The projects investigate the relation between urban density and social-economical strength, the influence of Oba’s on urban form, and local topography on environmental improvements.

Lagos: ‘How it works’: is an info graphic project mixing video and animation in an attempt to connect the megacity scale of Lagos with the local appearance of infrastructure and social substructures. Ekanem Ita took the ambitious task to explain Lagos on the macro scale. Through hard data on the themes that characterize the fast growth of Lagos, maps of the city’s large scale networks and images.The work of Sabrina Verhage (TU Delft) concentrated on an analysis of the materialization of the infrastructural networks on the local scale. To explain its differences she focussed on three different locations. Whereas Sabrina focussed on the hardware of local networks, Steve Dubs (UNILAG) focussed his efforts on the local differences and specificities of social substructures.

LAGOS: HOW IT WORKS

Changing Mindset: is a research and design project departing from one central question: is it possible to change the mindset of Lagoseans to change individual behavior that generates city-wide effects?Adejumo Adekunle (UNILAG) departs from an analysis of recent large governmental interventions on land use, mass transit and waste management wherin he acknowledges the importance of the involvement of the Lagose-ans. By studying three case areas he attempts to show how a change in the mindset partnered with governmental intervention can speed up sustainable development of the city.The project of Aurora Rapalino (TU Delft) is a concrete project oriented approach to get children aware of the garbage problem by making puppets of plastic from the streets of Makoko.Whereas Aurora has been looking for a playful way to make children aware of the garbage problem Lekan Gold (UNILAG) designed a system for the collection of garbage by mobilizing the local population with technical and economical incentives.

CHANGING MINDSETS

Lagos Lifestyles: approaches Lagos as a melting pot of new and hybrid cultures. The projects focus on the adaption of people’s lives to the urban environment.From this perspective Dieuwer Duijf (TU Delft) investigates the consumption and production of food. By inter-viewing the cooks and the consumers he explains an important part of their lifestyles.The Okada, a typical phenomenon caused by Lagos’ rapid urban densification and traffic congestion, was explored by Yoann Rouillac (TU Delft). He followed several of Lagos’ one million Okada drivers on their way through the city. Esosa Obaseki (UNILAG) Historical aspect. Interviews.

LAGOS LIFESTYLES

(In)Formal: This group investigated on the coexistence of formal and informal systems in overlapping social, cul-tural, political and spatial networks. They especially focused on the way in which intricate informal networks often fill the gaps and fissures left in formal systems. Wouter Pocornie (TU Delft) has within this theme been exploring the interplay of formal and informal activities and processes on several specific locations: Makoko, Ilaje, Lekki Tolulope Ojo (UNILAG) has been researching the working of the so called ‘invisible hand’ on locations that have been spatially reorganized, or ‘formalized’ if you want.

(IN)FORMAL

Space, Power and Environment: joins three projects take space as central element. Their investigations focussed on three common locations: Dolphin Estate, Ojota, and Makoko.The project of Oluwatobi Adejorooluiva (UNILAG) investigates the relation between urban density and social-economical strength.Folami Olawale, (UNILAG) analyzes the influence of Oba’s - Lagos’ characteristic 3rd layer of power - on urban form.Olusola Akintunde (UNILAG) sheds his light on the opportunities in local topographies on environmental improvement.

SPACE, POWER AND ENVIRONMENT




POSTEXPOSITIONSLEARNING FROM LAGOSARTICLE IN 234NEXT

REFLECTIONS


Presentation City Space Investigations Lagos 2010Date Saturday 8 May Venue: White Space

Fresh projects in progress were widely discussed and jointly elaborated together with invited guests and fellow stu-dents. The afternoon ended with a very interesting discussion on how the various participants thought about the role, responsibility and potential influence of the architect on the future development of Lagos.

LAGOS & DELFTExpositions

Presentation City Space Investigations Lagos 2010Date: September 18th - October 2nd 2010Venue: Faculty of Architecture Delft University of Technology

September 18th the CSI.Lagos expo was opened in Delft, Netherlands. The exposition showed the work of the Dutch participants that was elaborated in several multimedia projects. An image collection took the visitants of the expo into the dynamic reality of Lagos.

ARTICLE BASED ON THE PRESENTATION OF URBAN DETECTIVES (JAAP KLAARENBEEK) AT THE SYMPOSIUM ‘LAGOS: CRISIS CITY OR MEGA CITY?’

CRISISEspecially in the perspectives of our Western ways of life, Lagos city is suffering severe problems. Most of them related with the situation of continuing urban growth and densification and resulting problem for urban governance.But: should the current situation of growth, urban expansion, increase of state and governmental spendings and sustained consolidation be seen as crisis?It is a fact that the enduring urban growth and densification of course leads to constant uncertainty in peoples individual lives. Through the parallel improvement programmes on infrasturcture, housing, green and etcetera the city on the one hand gains quality, on the other hand these developments are a constant reason for personal uncertainty in peoples everyday life.We might have to look what in common sense is understood as crisis. ‘A crisis is any unstable and dangerous social situation regarding economic,military,

personal,political, or societal affairs, especially one involving an impending abrupt change. Crises are “specific, unexpected, and non-routine events or series of events that [create] high levels of uncertainty and threat or perceived threat to an organization’s high priority goals.’ Crisis has four defining characteristics: it leads to unexpected situations, which create uncertainty in peoples lives, a crisis is a threat to important goals (“crisis is a process of transformation where the old system can no longer be maintained.”), by which it leads to the fourth defining characteristic: the need for change.

LAGOS AND THE CRISIS DEFINITIONHow does Lagos perform according to the crisis definition? Although there are many unexpected (1) parts of the growth process, the expansion of the population is greatly predictable. The current situation creates certainly uncertainty (2). Yet (3) economical, urban and growth is on the same time a threat as well as a means to reach important goals and reach levels of life quality that have never been reached on the African continent. Need for change (4) need for action and need for devotion?

‘Lagos: Crisis City or Mega City?’

SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL AND AFRICAN STUDIES (SOAS), UNIVERSITY OF LONDONBUKKA debate

1) Although there is a heritage of paternalism, despotism and corruption, both Lagos and Nigeria have been politically and militarily stable since the last 1,5 decade.2) At least on the level of Lagos state more than ever there is money flowing to urban improvement programmes.3) On the individual scale of Lagoseans: we felt a belief in change and improvement. 4) Crisis generates a need for change. The observed rapid changes that Lagos undergoes, do not reciprocally mean that the city is in crisis. It is not reciprocal that change itself means that the city is in crisis.

Everybody can see that Lagos is dealing with enormous challenges of a quickly growing metropolis. Yet, we observed above three positive developments. Although Lagos’ situation is severe on numerous aspects, current developments give hope.It might be seen as a very positivist stance, but we believe that Lagos is a city in change and in need for change. Yet, with the hope giving directions and (economical) chances for betterment we wouldn’t call Lagos a city in crisis.Although we see the complexity of the challenges for Lagos in the coming decades, we believe that Lagos with

dedicated politicians and responsible governing the opportunities will find the means to create a sustainable urban complex.

CHALLENGES & OPPORTUNITIES Some of the current developments in Lagos are critical to the city its urban future, its (social) unity, control and governance. Three remarks:

Following predictions Lagos will remain growing explosively for the coming decade and beyond. On the mainland, the Lagos conurbation already surpasses the borders of Lagos state.To prevent the Lagos government from losing their steering power if Lagos’ center (of gravity) would shift even more towards the borders of Lagos state, the state goverment has ambitious plans for the expansion of Lagos on the Lekki peninsula (east of Lagos) that should accomodate 5 to 6 million new Lagoseans in the period until 2025. Not unexpectedly these massive plans consume much of the government attention (in the field of urban development). It even, in our experience, looked as if plan were developed too independent - as in creating a new parallel city of Lagos.

Discussion panel (left to right): Jaap Klaarenbeek [Urban Detectives] ,Kaye Whiteman [Chair], Kunle Adeyemi [OMA] & Simon Gusah

From our short experience, much attention goes to the development of the new urban extensions (Lekki Corridor) without much thought on how urban unity can be maintained.

Hazard to create a parallel city of Lagos. We consider it of extreme importance and critical for the successful and unitary development of Lagos, not to loose attention for existing city on what is commonly called the ‘Mainland’. Why? First of all, this is where the majority of the existing population lives.In addition to approach the city as a unity we would like to add the importance of thinking about the whole city and all citizens. Unfortunately, some places seem to fall outside of the governments attention while they accomodate substantial parts for Lagos’ population.

As both political as well as economical power of the government is limited. The future of a livable and sustainable Lagos depends on the successful collaboration and incorporation of global and local, formal and informal, traditional and modern organizations.Still existing pre-colonial structures present important opportunities for quick acceptation and broadly supported changes. In other words, to activate the ‘power of the masses’ to generate quick urban improvement. It is interesting to see that the government currently already tries to use this - the power of numbers - in part of their policies and strategies. For example: the 1 day per month cleaning day. Yet, we think that a typical African cultural structure could help to mobilize Lagos’ citizens for purposes of improvement programs. We discovered one very interesting ‘African’ characteristic of the city, that might be instrumental to answer to above mentioned criticalities.The system, what we would like to call, the Nigerian/Lagosean Power-Triangleread more in ... (add source) : government, church, pre-colonial social structures (oba’s, obi’s, chiefs). All three agents have their own role in urban change and providing (local) stability. They differ much in financial

means and capability to mobilize local communities. The differences in resources and distance to the people (trust and support) might be optimized. The federal and state government is the systematic and formal structure of urban governance. The government has (most) financial resources but operates ofter on a large distance to citizens(-organizations). The system of Oba’s (local kings), on the other hand, rely on very good support among local population. The Oba title is linked to the land. Even in densely urbanized Lagos, the Oba’s remain respected and influential people, that take care of local struggles and smoothen-out local tensions. As we understood during our short time in Lagos, the link between the government and the Oba’s is rather weak, or, at least not used to launch large scale urban changes. A way of governance in which the local government and system of Oba’s could work as a tandem would be a way for the goverment to communicate their ideas quickly with the people on the ground so as to jointly improve the living quality of the city, negoticate necessary and sometimes painfull interventions on the global scale of the city, as well as being able to implement policies that realy on the sheer power of numbers. (see also the projects of the ‘Changing Mindset’ group).

Third point of attention is the way in which African cultural background is preserved. Think strategically at high metropolitan scale, but with an understanding of local implications. Lagos is a city of immigrants from the interior of Nigeria. Many of the new Lagoseans have maintained cultural traditions and ways to live their daily lives from their village to the city. Urban van Aar even called Lagos not a city, but a dense collection of villages. Beware of the tendency of copying Westernized methods for urban planning, construction and policy. Eko Atlantic is one of the projects where African tradition and modern western-style city planning and design seem to walk out of pace.

CONCLUSIONBack to the title of this symposium. Lagos: a Mega-City or Crisis-City? One thing we can say without a doubt. Lagos is a Mega-City. Yet starting question for this seminar was: is Lagos a mega-city in crisis or not? Struck by the energy of change in Lagos, we have a positivistic attitude towards the question of this evening. No, Lagos is not a city in crisis (at least no from the viewpoint as spatial designers). Yet, the rapid growth poses serious questions that need intelligent answers and responsive, responsible and flexible governing. We observe an urgent need for dedicated politicians, citizens and urban professionals with the capability to think and intervene on the high metropolitan scale but on the same time are able to translate these meta-

developments of the city (to intelligent interventions) on the ground, while carefully taking the cultural specificities of this (one of a kind) African city and society in regard.

To create valuable (public) places in Lagos, we consider/deem that spatial thinking in Lagos requires an extra intermediate scale that bridges the practices of urban planning - the practice of rational cost effective parcelling of lands as it currently functions - on the one hand and architecture - the design of inwardly oriented building sites - on the other hand.Urban design - the intermediate discipline - has the capability to make places that create/contribute to create more societal value.

‘We observe an urgent need for dedicated politicians, citizens and urban professionals with the capability to think and intervene on the high metropolitan scale but on the same time are able to translate these meta-developments of the city to intelligent interventions on the ground.’

On June 18, London based research trust BUKKA, hosted a discussion “on the future of Lagos”, under the name ‘Lagos: Crisis City or Mega City’ARTICLE BASED ON THE BUKKA DEBATE ‘LAGOS: CRISIS CITY OR MEGA CITY?’

In the last few years, Lagos has captured the imagination of foreigners in an unprecedented manner, with a slew of documentaries and articles on the city appearing everywhere from the New Yorker to German state television.

Only two months ago, the BBC released a documentary, ‘Welcome to Lagos’, focusing on the lives of a number

of characters eking a living amidst the city’s sprawling slums. The Nigerian authorities did not hide their displeasure. The Nigerian High Commission in London wrote a protest letter to the BBC. So did the Lagos State government.

Even Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka, weighed in, accusing the BBC of being “patronising and condescending”. It was against this backdrop that Bukka, a UK-based educational trust which organises events, “centred on architecture and urbanism in the developing world”,

REVIEW ARTICLE ON THE BUKKA DEBATE234Next article

decided to host, on June 18 in London, a discussion “on the future of Lagos”, to provide an opportunity for the Lagos State government and the producers of Welcome to Lagos to meet and defend their positions.

Other speakers scheduled for the discussion, (titled “Lagos - Mega City or Crisis City”) were Kunle Adeyemi, architect with the Holland-based international architecture practice OMA (the firm designing the proposed Lagos 4th Mainland bridge); Simon Gusah, a Planning Consultant who divides his time between Abuja and London; Kaye Whiteman, former editor of West Africa magazine and author of a forthcoming book on Lagos; and Urban Detectives, a Holland-based partnership that recently organised a series of “City Space Investigations (CSI)” workshops in Lagos.

Everyone showed up, save - puzzlingly - the producers of ‘Welcome to Lagos’, and the Lagos State government. The email from the organisers the day before the event carried the following message: “We have been advised by the Lagos State government representative - Dayo Mobereola [MD LAMATA] that he is not able to participate, due to delays in travel approval from the Governor’s Office.”

The event, held at the Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre of the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), kicked off with an introduction by Giles Omezi, Executive Director of Bukka. He traced the development of Lagos’ as an urban centre, from the beginning of the 20th century, revealing a history of detailed plans that were never fulfilled by successive governments.

Mr. Whiteman, who moderated the event, continued the historical expose on Lagos, a city he described as “one of the best kept secrets of the African continent.” He highlighted the turbulent roots of modern Lagos - the decade-long 19th century military assault (including the bombardment by two British gunboats) on the city led by the “apostle of gunboat diplomacy”, Britain’s Lord Palmerston; culminating in the overthrow of Oba Kosoko and the signing by Oba Dosunmu, of a Treaty ceding the city to the colonial invaders.

Jaap Klaarenbeek and Jasper Moelker, the Urban Detectives duo, spent three weeks in Lagos in April. They came away with the impression of a city marked by “polarities” and “dualities” - “the planned versus the unplanned; the urban versus the rural; the dynamic versus the static; the efficient versus the inefficient; the colonial versus the traditional.” It was also a city that stood out for the “precarious quality of [its] public space.” “Basically the whole of Lagos is a market; everybody is selling,” said Klaarenbeek.

The “market” analogy perhaps best refers to what is known as Lagos’ “informal economy” - the mass of “squatters” whose activity George Packer describes in his 2006 New Yorker article as the “furious activity of people who live in a globalized economy and have no safety net and virtually no hope of moving upward” but who arguably contribute more (collectively) to the city’s economy than the formal, organised business sector.

For Mr. Adeyemi, who lived and worked in Lagos for years before relocating to Holland (he remains a regular visitor to the city), the defining quality of Lagos is its ability to combine the “chaotic” with “incredibly great opportunities.” He noted the “incredible amount of organisation” and “incredible amount of resourcefulness” in the city; and its fluidity - its ability to “converge” and “dissolve” instantly and in a cyclical manner.

Simon Gusah argued that left to itself Lagos - a “fairly stable system in its own chaotic way; with its own logic” - would “be alright” and that postcolonial Lagos government have merely succeeded in perpetuating the cluelessness that the British exhibited in their dealings with Lagos - what he described as “an inability to understand what [makes] Lagos tick”.

For him the real crisis that Lagos faces lies not in its nature but in its nurture; the tragic fact that “the policy attention span of Nigeria is about 1 - 2 years” and that the government has perfected the art of making sure “the people get forgotten very quickly.”

The presentations were followed by a question-and-

answer cum discussion session. One of the more fascinating contributions delved into Yoruba mythology (the belief that “life is a marketplace”) in a bid to explain the growth pattern of an urban area like Lagos.

There were questions and observations on the possibilities of stimulating migration out of Lagos as a way to decongest the city; on the security situation in the city; on the efficiency of the city’s planning bureaucracy; and on the overwhelming advantages of having the private sector take the lead in developing the city (rendering the government “redundant” in the process).On the whole, the panellists were all convinced that Lagos was not a basket case. “There’s something about Lagos that works,” Mr. Gusah said.

Mr. Adeyemi highlighted Lagos’ relatively efficient taxation system, Klaarenbeek pointed to the relative stability of the city - in political and military terms - over the last decade.Suggested solutions came in droves. Mr. Gusah suggested incentivisation (“something for everyone”) at all levels of the service pyramid, especially at the bottom. “Any sustainable solutions have to make business sense lower down in the pyramid,” he said. “If there’s money to be made in cleaning gutters and collecting rubbish, gutters will be cleaned and rubbish will be collected.”

Mr. Adeyemi’s pictorial comparison of Lagos to Manhattan revealed one fact: the potential of Lagos

(with its current “flat, pancake shape”) to develop upwards, as opposed to outwards, remains grossly underexploited.Mr Adeyemi also shared the blueprint of the proposed 4th Mainland bridge (coming more than two decades after the 3rd Mainland bridge) which will link Ikorodu, Lekki and the Eko Atlantic city, “[an] island which will become a new city centre, [to] take the pressure off Lagos Island.” The project’s website says it will be ‘the biggest and fastest growing city in West Africa.’ “Imagine a city with its own independent service island to supply round-the-clock electricity, clean water and sewage distribution. Imagine a safe city where there are no street vendors, no noisy motorcycles and no traffic chaos...” the website promises.

But, efficient infrastructure aside, that is not exactly the kind of Lagos that Mr Gusah envisages. In his remarks he cautioned against the escapism of what he termed the “Abuja mentality” (the thinking that “there’s too much of a problem here, let’s create a new space”). “There is a place in fact for public trading,” he said, a fact apparently not lost on Durban city managers who during the clean-up process in preparation for the World Cup devised a means of formalising street trading by designating spaces and issuing permits.

For Mr. Gusah, Abuja is a veritable demonstration of the urban sterility that is a consequence of attempting to get rid of the informal economy. “This sort of sanitised city is not very exciting,” he said.From the plan of the

The Lagos condition is aptly summarised by the Urban Detectives: “Lagos is not a city in crisis, but the rapid growth poses serious questions that need intelligent answers and responsive, responsible and flexible governing.”

4th Mainland Bridge it is clear that the architects themselves have realised that they cannot but take into consideration the informal aspects of Lagos life.

Mr Adeyemi explained that the bridge is envisioned as a “two-level bridge” - an upper level for vehicular traffic, the lower one for pedestrian traffic (based on the realisation that Lagos is a “very pedestrianised” city), a tram line, organised street-trading, cafes, nightlife and a luxury-store precinct. In sharing an abridged history of Lagos Mr Whiteman quoted Bob Marley: “In this great future you can’t forget the past.”

The discussion on Lagos revealed a rather disturbing truth: Lagos is a city weighed down by its past; struggling as it is to exist on infrastructure built when it was a fraction of its current size and population. “No

rail project has been done in Lagos since I was born,” the Lagos State governor, Babatunde Fashola admitted last year in a television interview.

The Lagos condition is aptly summarised by the Urban Detectives: “Lagos is not a city in crisis, but the rapid growth poses serious questions that need intelligent answers and responsive, responsible and flexible governing.” The challenge is therefore unambiguous: Wanted Urgently: Innovative managers for the world’s fastest growing mega-city. Candidates without ability to think long-term need not apply.

AUTHOR: TOLU OGUNLESIPUBLISHED IN: 234NEXT (DIGITAL EDITION)DATE: JULY 6, 2010





REFLECTIONS


ORGANIZATIONAL REFLECTIONS

Educational workshops as curriculum alternativesThe CSI.Lagos program is offered to students as an extra curricular opportunity by Urban Detectives as an inde-pendent platform. The benefits of this independency is that Urban Detectives can operate on its on behalf and as a platform does not have to conform to the bu-reaucracy of educational institutes and does not have to defend the objectives of these institutes. Rather Ur-ban Detectives can quickly adapt to changes, does not always have to go through official channels and can set out its own objectives that primarily aim at running the best program for our participants, collaboration part-ners and contributors.A few observations and reflections on this organization-al model:

* The workshop is not part of any educational cur-riculum and thus students do not directly receive credit points for their participation. As the workshop does run parallel to the curricula this provides a certain threshold which ensures only truly motivated students apply for the workshop.

* TU Delft and some other universities in The Neth-erlands are familiar with a variety of programs running parallel to the curriculum. At most foreign educational institutes we’ve attempted to collaborate with these are more uncommon or even unheard of. An alternative to this would be running a summer (holiday) program.

* As the workshop is extra curricular it occasionally leads to difficulties in overlapping with regular courses. As students don’t receive credits for the workshop pro-

gram they often skip parts to take regular courses and exams. It is nearly impossible to anticipate to the cur-ricula as our workshops are open to different institutes, educations and levels.While the preparation and part of the post production phase can be run outside office hours the on-site workshop is a continuous period of two weeks that students will not be able to attend their classes. The workshop period is therefore often planned during a holiday period, but these are also often not the same for the departure and visiting country.

* To provide participants with additional tools to pre-pare, register and process their activities and findings Urban Detectives collaborated with the Media depart-ment of the Faculty of Architecture at the TU Delft. The Media department organized a multimedia course mEYEsite*Lagos, optional for the participants, that facilitated the workshop program. The tools learned proofed very valuable to the participants and are clearly visible in their output. Additionally this meant that part of the participants’ work carried out during the workshop could directly be used for this course for which they received credit points. While this indirect credit opportunity was also a strategic tool to recruit participants, the 6 credit points awarded for the course were not enough to compete with workshops embedded in the curriculum at TU Delft as they account for 12 credit points and more im-portantly could be used as a substitute for a design stu-dio. Unfortunately there were organizational issues in the course which resulted in only half of the course was being given. Even though Urban Detectives was not re-

PROGRAM, ORGANIZATION, FINANCESReflections

sponsible for the actual organization of the course this reflected poorly on Urban Detectives.

* The organization of a thematic lecture series, the ‘Architect in Africa’, had a very high turn-out (about 200 people in total). The lectures were primarily meant to provide additional background for the workshop, but was also open to the general public. This public was also highly interested in the CSI.Lagos workshop, but as the lectures were just before the departure to Lagos it was hard to still join the program at this stage. In the future a thematic lecture series could well be used during the recruitment period for the workshop program as well as strategic tool to offer students an alternative during the course enrollment periods.

* During the previous CSI edition Urban Detectives offered its participants a crash course Portuguese to prepare them for Sao Paulo. As the official and main language in Nigeria is English there was no need for such a course this year. However looking back it was mainly this course next to the regular part of theory and context that bonded the group, made participants feel more engaged and motivated. Therefore for future workshops it’s worth considering such a loose course on the side to strengthen the sense of group feeling.

In retrospect offering educational workshops parallel to the regular educational curriculum allow for a well spread program which filters out truly motivated stu-dents, but proofs difficult to combine for participants. This could be improved by partially embedding the

workshop program in an educational curriculum or changing the program in to a compact version that can run in only a holiday period. Alternatively the program could be fully embedded in a curriculum but in this situ-ation in would be beneficial for all parties involved if the program maintains (part of ) its independence.

Organizing a workshop in Lagos, NigeriaThe first two editions of the City Space Investigations in New York and Sao Paulo were either ‘close to home’ or known territory. New York is in a lot of ways very similar culturally and in means of communication as to what we are used to in The Netherlands. Sao Paulo was more exotic but as Jaap as one of the founders Urban Detec-tives had lived and studied in Sao Paulo for a consider-able time we were still familiar with the situation on the ground and already had a local network which could be approached to help in the organization and realization of the workshop program. Lagos on the other hand was entirely new territory to Urban Detectives and as or-ganization we had never undertaken any professional activities in Africa.

Looking back on the preparation of the workshop in La-gos we found:

* Getting in touch with local parties ranging from educational institutes to (architectural) offices to NGOs was difficult both because of lack of means of commu-nication as well as cultural differences. Internet is not as widely available and the bandwidth is low. Emails are not answered but calling proofed difficult as use of language and interaction is very different. In general Ni-

gerians prefer doing business in person, especially with people they have never met.

* The network of people and parties in The Nether-lands focusing undertaking urban and architectural projects in Africa turned out to be a select group that are actively engaged. Through this group we were able to better get in touch with local parties.

* Fortunately we found our local partner in Bukka, a ‘think tank’ that aims to create a transcultural inves-tigation into the potential optimisation of the way cit-ies work in developing countries, with a large network of Nigerians in- and outside of Nigeria focusing on the urban development of Lagos. As Bukka was one of our few direct contacts in Lagos we were highlighly de-pendent on them, which was an organizational risk, but with a very positive outcome! In the future however it would be safer to have more local contacts to spread to workload and the risk.

* As we had never visited Lagos ourselves prior to the workshop we also had difficulties finding a suitable local university to collaborate with. Also because up to date information on the institutes and their program is hardly available. The two main universities for consid-eration were the University of Lagos (UNILAG) and the Covenant University. While UNILAG was selected as the most promising local university, we were unable to es-tablish any formal collaboration before our arrival. As mentioned before meeting in person is often crucial in Nigeria and therefore only days before the start of the workshop we were able to come to an arrangement

with UNILAG’s faculty of Environmental Sciences and its Architecture department. Once the negotiations were set in motion we were pleased with the willing-ness and engagement of the department. While it was timewise no longer feasible to start a formal collabora-tion we agreed on an exchange program whereby their students could participate in the CSI.Lagos workshop. The department was also most generous in providing workspace and assistance during the workshop. For future initiatives it would be recommendable to visit the workshop location after the preliminary prepa-rations to experience the local situation in person and be able to get in contact personally with potential local partners. Due to the restricted budget this was unfortu-nately not possible for the CSI.Lagos.

* During the organizational preparation phase of the on-site workshop the recruitment of students in The Netherlands had taken place. With a high turnout dur-ing the information meeting and many subscriptions to the mailing list the interest in a workshop program in Lagos (or Africa in general) appeared very high. The CSI.Lagos was one of the few initiatives undertaking an ed-ucational event in Africa. But it seemed that regardless of the workshop program and the interest in participat-ing in a workshop in Lagos there was a genuine feeling of uncertainty and hesitation among the students as Ni-geria is often portrait negatively in the media. However this picture might be true for parts of Nigeria it hardly applied to Lagos, but this was a distinction that was hard to convey to the people interested. New reports on massacres in Nigeria during the Pre Lagos period even caused participants to drop out of the workshop

as they or their family no longer felt it safe to travel to Lagos.

In summary, getting in touch and communication with local parties in Lagos has proven to be challenging without local partners. For future initiatives it is strongly advisable to visit the workshop location after the pre-liminary preparations, to experience the local situation in person and establish local contacts.

PRE LAGOS * The theory and context program consisting of both practical assignments as well as guest lectures were well received. The program is difficult to plan next to the regular curriculum and was therefore held as even-ing sessions (17h - 20h). The disadvantage was clearly that there were only very few attendees apart from the workshop participants. An alternative would be keep-ing the lectures shorter and having them take place during the lunch as this proofed to attract a large audi-ence with the ‘Architect in Africa’.

* All presentations of the Sao Paulo edition have been made available online and have been watched hun-dreds, some even thousands of times. Due to budget restrictions this has unfortunately not been achieved for the CSI.Lagos material.

* The media course mEYEsite was a valuable contri-bution to the participants’ toolkit but needed better or-ganization as explained under educational workshops as curriculum alternatives.

IN LAGOS * Final arrangements of the involvement of UNILAG were made after arrival in Lagos. Therefore the involve-ment of the department of Arhictecture was realized as an exchange rather than a collaboration. The flex-ibility by the department of Architecture to meet with our wishes was greatly appreciated. However the vol-untary basis on which its students participated in the workshop made it difficult to control the group for two weeks. UNILAG students also had other engagements

PROGRAM REFLECTIONS

and could therefore not attend the program. This made working in teams also more difficult for the TU Delft participants. Based on the results of the on-site workshop the head of the Architecture department of UNILAG declared his interested and intention for a follow up embedded in their curriculum. Urban Detectives will attempt to bring the different universities and parties involved closer to-gether to investigate the options for a new initiative.

* The organization of the tour through the city of the first days of the workshop was very well received by all participants. The mix of UNILAG and TU Delft students provided a fruitful exchange. TU Delft students received insightful information from their colleagues while they pushed the UNILAG students to look at their city from a different perspective. This setup of exploring the city has been used in all CSI workshops and students from local universities often enjoy and learn a lot of these first few days precisely for this reason.

* The brainstorm session at the end of the first week of the on-site workshop proofed how all students are capable of writing a clear research outline for their pro-jects in the second week. It should be noted that in or-der to do this successfully the participants should have sufficient time during the first few days to reflect on their experiences and observations. Last year this was achieved through the use of weblogs. This year this was not possible and more time to reflect had to be taken on the day of the brainstorm.

* During the second week the participants carried out their projects teamed up by location or theme. The projects were carried out on-site and at a workspace at the department of Architecture at UNILAG. In the preparation phase TU Delft students were taught to systematically develop a methodology for their research to touch all aspects of their ideas. UNILAG students mostly had a more practical approach focus-ing or specific trends and issues of the city. Again the synergy between students from Delft and Lagos greatly benefited the projects.

POST LAGOSBack in The Netherlands the project results were pro-cessed into the final products which were presented in a multi media exposition in Delft. Using multi media as presentation medium was an experiment for Urban Detectives and uncommon for students that typically only use poster panels. This was a time consuming ex-periment for both organisation and participants with a satisfying result exposed at the Faculty of Architecture and now accessible on csi-lagos.urbandetectives.com.

FINANCES

The entire CSI.Lagos workshop program was carried out on a minimal budget,only financed by participa-tion fees and subsidy grants and through minimizing expenditures on organization and realisation:

* Entire workshop program possible with minimal budget (< EUR 10.000).

* Fully financed through participation fees and sub-sidy grants of EFL Stichting and Universiteitsfonds Delft.

* Students did not receive credit points for participat-ing in the CSI.Lagos and so in order to compete with regular courses including a foreign trip the participa-tion fee had to be lower than those courses. Most par-ticipants were students at the Faculty of Architecture TU Delft. But as the CSI.Lagos was organized from outside the faculty and not part of the curriculum, the work-shop did not receive any funding from the faculty. This has also to do with the fact that students can no longer apply for a workshop grant from Stylos (the faculty’s student association).

* Subsidy climated changed drastically over the last two years with less grants, lower amounts and more restrictions. For instance some subsidizers would no longer support the CSI.Lagos because it already funded an earlier CSI edition.

* Urban Detectives lacked an effective strategy to ob-tain other means of funding, for instance through cor-porate sponsoring. The main difficulty is the education-al and experimental character of the workshop. Both

characteristics make the workshop a valuable experi-ence for the participants and provide interesting alter-native teaching methods & tools. But these are harder to sell to companies as the output of the workshop was uncertain.

* During the organization of the on-site workshop a few unexpectedly high costs were encountered. The cheapest accommodations in Lagos were about as ex-pensive as a mid-range hotel in Amsterdam. While ac-commodation was found in Lekki, one of the recent expansions, transportation cost between the lodge and workspaces was significant. Further more, mainly dur-ing the first week, high bribes had to be paid to the local authorities.

* Realisation of the preparation phase and on-site workshop within the small workshop budget have only been possible thanks to voluntary lecturers, the sup-port of the department of Architecture at UNILAG and the outstanding organization support of Bukka.

* Organization of the entire workshop program has only been possible because Urban Detectives carried out their activities on voluntary basis. More importantly the Urban Detectives partners were prepared to take the financial risk to pre finance the entire workshop, which was needed as all subsidies operate on ‘succesfi-nanciering’. Meaning a subsidy is only actually granted after the workshop has successfully been completed.

The organization within Urban Detectives was carried out by two people spending ± 700 hours per person on the entire organization of the CSI.Lagos workshop pro-gram.

700h of organization per person:

* 100 h general administration & communication * 50 h finances (incl subsidy applications) * 30 h workshop concept * 70 h preparation on-site workshop (accommoda-tion, workspace, tours) * 25 h running pre lagos (8x 3h) * 10 h Architect in Africa (lecture series) * 200 h running on-site workshop (3weeks 24/7) * 50 h exposition (multimedia interface, panels, build up / down, opening) * 25 h video (editing & production) * 25 h conference (preparation + presentation) * 80 h report (text + layout) * 25 h website

Running the on-site workshop 24/7 during 3 weeks is about 1/3 of the entire organization. This time is well spend. If any improvements would be made during this phase it should be in covering the workshop itself, for which an additional person is needed in the organiza-tion.The development of the workshop concept and transla-tion into the workshop program is done in about 100 hours in total. This could be done relatively quickly as its based on the first two editions of the City Space In-

vestigations. However because of the poor subsidy cli-mate this year considerable extra time had to be spend on obtaining funding for the workshop. Preparations and communications for the on-site workshop were es-pecially time consuming due to the unfamiliarity with Lagos. Time spend by the partners in Urban Detectives could be significantly reduced (up to 400 hours in total) through administrative support (in finances and com-munication). This would greatly enhance the feasibility of a next workshop edition.Most time spend in the post production phase is on the exposition (including video). This had been a well con-sidered decision as this year Urban Detectives aimed to create a multimedia exposition with interactive media running on multiple screens, requiring more prepara-tion than a regular exposition.

TIME INVESTMENT

ORGANISATIONJasper Moelker MSc. Arch. (Urban Detectives)Jaap Klaarenbeek, MSc. Arch. (Urban Detectives)

Giles Omezi, MSc. Arch. (Bukka)Papa Omotayo, MSc. Arch. (Bukka)Azeez Otunba McSalamso (Bukka)Nnamdi Akubuiro (Bukka)Margit Tamás (RMIT & Media Studies, TU Delft)Rob Maas (RMIT & Media Studies, TU Delft)Anthony Fuchs, MSc. Arch. (University of Geneva)

Prof. O.S. Okedele, dean (Environmental Sciences, UNILAG)Dr. A.K. Adebayo, head of dept. (Architecture, UNILAG)

Adekunle Adejumo (UNILAG)Andrea Bagnato (TU Delft)*Aurora Rapalino (TU Delft)David Sellers (TU Delft) *Dieuwer Duijf (TU Delft)Edoardo Coste (TU Delft)*Enrico Moccia (TU Delft)*Ita Ekanem (UNILAG)Lekan Ileola-Gold (UNILAG)Miguel Setas (TU Delft)*Olusola Akintunde (UNILAG)Olawale Folami (UNILAG)Oluwatobi Adejorooluwa (UNILAG)Paula Grabowski (TU Delft)*Sabrina Verhage (TU Delft)Sandro Macehioci (TU Delft)*Simone Rebaudengo (TU Delft)*Steve Dubs (UNILAG)Tolulope Ojo (UNILAG)Wouter Pocornie (TU Delft)Yoann Rouillac (TU Delft)

*partial participation

COLLABORATORS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

PARTICIPANTS

PEOPLE AND EVENTSOverview

2010 - Pieter Meine van Dijk (ISS)2010 - Marc Bouwmeester (Independent Filmmaker, researcher)2010 - Robert van Kats (Blok Kats van Veen - BKVV)2010 - Urban van Aar (Royal Haskoning)2010 - Kunle Adeyemi (Office for Metropolitan Architecture - OMA)2010 - Giles Omezi (BUKKA, UCL)

2010 - Mega City or Crisis City, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

2010 - B-Nieuws - TU Delft initiatives in Africa, 02-20102010 - B-Nieuws - ‘Architect in Afrika’, 03-20102010 - 234Next, Welcome to the Lagos debate, 06/07/2010

Eesteren Fluck van Loohuizen stichting Universiteitsfonds Delft

GRANTS

NEWS ITEMS

CONFERENCES

LECTURES (NL)

WORKSHOP PROGRAM

Context & methodology Tue 02 Feb: CSI.Lagos kick off Tue 09 Feb: Lagos from above Mon 15 Feb: Introduction to Lagos (Giles Omezi, Bukka) Tue 23 Feb: (holidays) Tue 02 Mar: Research ideas & proposals I Tue 09 Mar: Lagos through a lens I (Marc Boumeester, DSD) Tue 16 Mar: Research ideas & proposals II Tue 23 Mar: Lagos through a lens (Bregtje van der Haak)* Tue 30 Mar: Social research in Lagos (Meine Pieter van Dijk, Erasmus University)

Thu 18 Mar: Urban van Aar (Royal Haskoning) Mon 22 Mar: Robert van Kats (Blok Kats van Veen) Thu 25 Mar: Kunle Adeyemi (OMA)

Monday afternoons: Various instructors (Media Studies, TU Delft)

PRE-LAGOS

ARCHITECT IN AFRICA

MEYESITE*LAGOS

The on-site workshop program In Lagos, running from28th April to 8th of May 2010 is divided into two stages Exploration (week 1: input) and Investigation (week 2: output). The on-site phase is concluded by a closing seminar. WEEK 1: EXPLORATION (INPUT) day 01: Intro lecture: Urban dev., Tour: Bright Side day 02: Tour: Shadow side day 03: Visit: Makoko, Bagira, Ikoyi day 04: Brainstorm: Project proposals day 05: (off) WEEK 2: INVESTIGATION (OUTPUT) day 06: Derive: Lagos island > Case areas day 07-09: Research on Case areas day 10: Preparation for presentations day 11: Closing seminar, Exhibition opening

Thu 21 Jun: symposium Lagos Mega City or Crisis City?20 Sep - 01 Oct: CSI.Lagos expo

IN-LAGOS

DAY-BY-DAY PROGRAM

POST-LAGOS

CSI.LAGOS DVD

LECTURESIMAGES

INTERVIEWSARTICLES

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CSI.Lagos 2010 report

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