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.
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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