Productive Chaos

Thesis Statement

The thesis will demonstrate an alternative scenario where it exaggerate the existing conditions of productive chaos created by the specific conditions of Lagosian Highways, in order to explore the possibilities of developing a Lagosian, market-based urbanism.

Thesis idea / Research

Lagos, one of the fastest growing cities in the world with population of 10.9 million in 2007, and is expected to rise to 17 million by 2015 which is an increase of 36% in just 8yrs. It's fascinating the unplanned nature of this growth, and the ability of the city to cope with the influx of people without visible mechanisms to deal with the outcome of the growth.

Most employment / trading areas are informal and not structured, and its 85% of total employment force.

This informal economy usually happens on Lagos's traffic ridden 'chaotic' highways. These highways are not like the usual western highways, but rather its highway come market, come shelter / residential, come prayer places.

My thesis idea is based largely on the theory of ‘Transit Oriented Development (TOD)’, and Rem Koolhaas’s study of Lagos ‘Lagos Wide & Close – An Interactive Journey into an Exploding City’.
TOD concept is simple: moderate and high-density development, along with complementary public uses, jobs, retail and services are concentrated along highway transit system.

The bulk of TOD theory has been developed in the 90s by two North American key authors – Peter Calthorpe (1993) and R. Cervero (1997).


Site: - Lagos Island-
Lagos Island is the commercial centre, where the Central Bank, Central Mosque, Cathedral, Major Banks and Government Ministry buildings are located; alongside a concentration of slums side by side.
The island is circled by a ring of highways, which is the main access to and from the island.


Architectural Intervention
Process:

- Ring Highway being only main access. (Introduce new highways…which would create opportunities)
- How the typical Lagos highway functions. (Slow, markets, trading, eating areas etc)
- Identifying important buildings / spaces within the island - banks, places worship government buildings etc.

The new highways would breakdown / link the ring highway through interacting with the important building / spaces on the island; while creating opportunities, eating places, shelters, market/trading spaces, prayer spaces etc. Unlike a western highway whose purpose is fast speedy journey from a to b, while Lagos highways are slow, irregular, chaotic and traffic ridden hence creating pockets of opportunities.


All comments welcome.