Archinect - News

The story behind Kunlé Adeyemi's Makoko floating school collapse

2018-03-02T14:02:00-05:00

There is a persistent risk of doing harm, dashing hopes, and eroding trust with trial and error, no matter how virtuous the objectives. It is the duty of the powerful to minimize that risk as much as possible. “It was supposed to be innovation, but now we’re being told it was experimentation,” Papa Omotayo, a Lagos-based architect and friend of Adeyemi’s, said of the floating school a few days after the collapse. “The issue is, can you experiment in a community like [Makoko] [...] ?”

Kunlé Adeyemi's floating school was built in 2013 and collapsed in 2016. The structured was meant to served 100 elementary students in Makoko, a heavily populated slum on Lagos' waterfront. Classes were only held for about 4 months in the 3 years it stood.

Now two years later, Allyn Gaestel analyses the full story around the failed structure in her long-form piece titled "Things Fall Apart". The question is raised: is it ok to experiment with trial and error in marginalized communities?

Allyn Gaestel explains, "The project was a chimera composed of flawed and superficial ideas and curated by deflection, obfuscation, and overestimation." As the situation stands now money has been donated, however no decision has been reached on what to do next.

Stepping Back: last week's news from Snøhetta, the Venice Biennale, and refugee camps on Archinect Sessions #68

2016-06-16T15:50:00-04:00

This week, we’re taking a moment to catch-up with what’s happened on Archinect lately, and share some endorsements—we discuss our latest interview with Snøhetta, our ongoing coverage of the Venice Biennale, student work on refugee camps, and more.

Next week, in light of the shooting death of 49 people at a gay club in Orlando, we plan to discuss the significance of accessible queer spaces, for all members of a city community.

Listen to episode 68 of Archinect Sessions, "Stepping Back":

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Download: this episode

SHOWNOTES:

Ken's endorsement: One student's solution to the permanent limbo of refugee camps

Amelia's endorsements:

Make room, make room: Aravena's Venice Biennale juggles incl...

Kunlé Adeyemi's Makoko floating school collapses

2016-06-10T13:24:00-04:00

The school collapsed on Tuesday after a heavy rainfall that took over most part of the Lagos including Makoko, a slum and highly populated part of the state [...] “So as far as that floating school is concerned, it was erected without the permission of the state government. “The simple answer to the floating school is that it is an illegal structure and it shouldn’t be there.”

Kunlé Adeyemi's floating school was built with the help of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in 2013, to serve 100 elementary school students living in the Makoko slum on Lagos' waterfront. About 300,000 people are estimated to be living in the slum, which before the floating school was built, was going to be demolished due to health concerns. The school had a influential role in convincing the government to instead adopt a "regeneration plan" for the slum.

From The Guardian:

The school became a symbol of bottom-up development, its designs even adopted by the state ministry of urban development for new house plans. The collapse throws this process into disarray.

Plans to rebuild are reportedly already underway.

Related on Archinect:

What Makoko can teach about "organic" urban development

2016-02-25T14:53:00-05:00

'Why can’t communities simply be communities and develop in the organic way that we allow other communities to develop?'...'They are inspirational in that people have developed them themselves, without government and real estate types pushing them around. Without a doubt, they still have problems. But they are stabilising themselves and, over time, knitting themselves into the fabric of their cities. This is a true marvel of global urbanism.'