Thesis is ongoing with the help of Eva Franch Gilabert. The question I am asking myself is - what is the relationship between infrastructure and the city?
Infrastructure constitutes the geometry of the urban plan, from the molecular to the massive. An organizing structure and support system. A network for collective living. I'm reading Visualizing the Invisible - towards an urban space, Read and Pinilla.
Lagos is my incubator. A city of over ten million people and broken systems. To a great extent the city has no water infrastructure, no electricity infrastructure, an inadequate sewer system, and an informal mass transit system. However it is still a city!? Barely. A modern conurbation where people live in a state of emergency (emergence). "A market place where people give money in exchange of goods , to those who desire to sell, and to take money from those who desire to buy". 
[Lagos Center - major informal bus stations and associated markets]
Millions of urban poor join the huge informal economy every day to make a living. Unregulated space is rampant. Swarms of traders accumulate around the skeleton of the cities aging and grossly inadequate motorway network to vie for customers. How can these modern day agoras inform the narrative of a future city? ? ? >
Must draw.
4 Comments
Nkiru,
I always find your blog posts fascinating. I just completed a thesis from SCI-Arc on the relationship between architecture and the city (broadly put), but Saigon was my incubator.
email me if you would like to discuss.
Your post is so informative … ..I just bookmarked you....keep up the good work!!!! SaleHoo
That is a really congested city haha. I work for a luxury villa rental service in Mexico and it is very congested there and you can see some of the cities falling apart. Its really a sad thing. Hopefully these cities can get their infrastructure back and become thriving again.
I am a baltimore plastic surgeon and let me say that I know what congested is. I work downtown in Baltimore and I am always sitting in traffic wasting time. Im lucky because I dont live in a city like New York or New Jersey.
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