Tuesday, 3 June 2014

Makoko Floating School....Sustainable Design

Located in the aquatic community of Makoko in the heart of Africa's second most populous city – Lagos, Nigeria – The Makoko Floating school is a prototype structure that addresses physical and social needs in view of the growing challenges of climate change in an urban African context. This mobile 'building' or 'watercraft' is designed to use renewable energy, recycle organic waste and harvest rainwater. And as this floating structure also adapts to tidal changes and varying water levels, it is invulnerable to flooding and storm surges.







An estimated 100,000 people reside in Makoko in housing units built on stilts. Yet the community has no roads, no land and no formal infrastructure to support its day‐to­‐day survival. In many ways, Makoko epitomises the most critical challenges posed by urbanisation and climate change in coastal Africa. At the same time, it also inspires possible solutions and alternatives to the invasive culture of land reclamation.

Until now Makoko has been served by one English-speaking primary school, built on uneven reclaimed land and surrounded by constantly changing waters. Like many of the surrounding homes, this has rendered the building structurally precarious and susceptible to recurrent flooding. Sadly, the inability of the building to effectively withstand the impact of increased rainfall and flooding has frequently threatened local children’s access to their basic need – education.

In response to this, and in close collaboration with the Makoko community, NLÉ has developed a prototype floating structure that will serve primarily as a school, whilst being scalable and adaptable for other uses, such as a community hub, health clinic, market, entertainment centre or housing facility. The prototype’s versatile structure is a safe and economical floating triangular frame that allows flexibility for customisation and completion based on specific needs and capacities.

The 220m A-frame or pyramid building is 10m high with a 10m x 10m base. It is an ideal shape for a floating object due to its relatively low centre of gravity, which provides stability and balance even in heavy winds. It also has a total capacity to safely support one hundred adults, even in extreme weather conditions.

The building has three levels, the first being an open play area for school breaks and assembly, which also serves as a community space after hours. The second level is an enclosed space for two to four classrooms, providing enough space for 60 to 100 pupils. A staircase on the side connects the open play area, the classrooms and a semi-enclosed workshop space on the third level. The simple yet innovative structure adheres to ideal standards of sustainable development with its inclusive technologies for renewable energy, waste reduction, water and sewage treatment as well as the promotion of low-­‐carbon transport.

Furthermore, a team of eight Makoko-based builders constructed it using ecofriendly, locally sourced bamboo, and wood procured from a local sawmill. Construction began in September 2012 with flotation mock-ups and testing. Recycled empty plastic barrels, abundant in Lagos, were used for the building’s buoyancy system, which consists of 16 wooden modules, each containing 16 barrels. The modules were assembled on the water, creating the platform that provides buoyancy for the building and its users. Once this was assembled, construction of the A-frame followed and was completed by March 2013.

Makoko Floating School is now in regular use by the community as a social, cultural and economic centre and will soon welcome its first pupils for use as a primary school.
The project was initiated, designed and built by NLÉ in collaboration with the Makoko Waterfront Community, in Lagos State. The project was initially self­‐funded by NLÉ and later received research funds from Heinrich Boll Stiftung as well as funds for its construction from the UNDP/Federal Ministry of Environment Africa Adaptation Programme (AAP).
Makoko Floating School is a ‘prototype’ building structure for NLÉ’s proposed ‘Lagos Water Communities Project’ and its ‘African Water Cities’ research project.

Culled from Essential Interiors Magazine



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