The population of Lagos State is said to have risen to 22 million, with many coming daily with no intention of leaving. Faced with rising population, stakeholders in the built environment have stressed the role of space design in sustaining the future. At a forum organised by the Nigeria Institute of Architects (NIA), Lagos State Chapter, themed: “The City of Lagos: The next 25 years”, participants said space for building was vital as the city is experiencing hyper-urbanisation. OKWY IROEGBU-CHIKEZIE reports.
Stakeholders in the built environment have stressed the role of designing for space in sustaining the future of cities like Lagos. They noted the increasing population, which is expected to hit the 50 million mark by 2050.
Leading the call at the Lagos Architects Forum (LAF) 2021, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu said the future belonged to the cities, hence, planning for space for 22 million was not easy.
He noted that Lagos constituted 0.36 per cent of world population in land mass, stressing that the state had developed a 2050 master plan and only proper planning could ensure that the plan was scalable to drive the vision of 2050.
He said his administration had adopted the THEMES Agenda to address the challenges of transportation, traffic, health, environment, education, security and good governance. The Lagos of their dream cannot be achieved without good governance, Sanwo-Olu said.
Earlier, Chairman, Lagos chapter of the Nigerian Institute of Architects, David Majekodunmi, said LAF had become a refreshing, professional and networking yearly event where architects discuss current issues that affect the practise of the profession and solutions proffered.
“We have also benefited so much from the products and services displayed and the support given by the various manufacturers, building materials suppliers and financial institutions, he stated.
He said the forum examined critical contemporary issues, live case studies of successful business models and projects.
“I hope that we would have succeeded in achieving our advocacy role in sensitising the various stakeholders in the built environment on steps and implementation strategies in achieving not just a mega city, but a sustainable, resilient, eco-friendly, and liveable mega-city that is also an international cultural metropolis. Furthermore, I hope that the need to step up in our commitment and involvement levels in activities to achieve the above will not need to be stated. Let us build on the inspiration from where the Ocean meets the Land. It has become a tradition; the students of Architecture in Lagos State are not left out in the numerous activities lined up,” Majekodunmi said.
The students are the hope of the future of our profession, and they will be at the forefront of the construction industry in the next 25 years; hence this is a good reason to chart a vision for the future of the Lagos built environment, he added.
Also, the Oniru of Iruland, Oba Abdulwasiu Omogbolahan Lawal, Abisogun 11, who spoke on “From Space to Place – Making Our City Work for all its Inhabitants”, said the world was undergoing massive urbanisation, at unprecedented rate, and Africa was not exempted.
Lagos, he said, is one of the few in the world undergoing hyper urbanisation, with its attendant problems such as micro and macro slum developments, crippling traffic congestion, poor waste collection and management.
He said one of the things that had become clear, particularly after the global health crisis, was the role of public awareness in urban communities. According to him, it has become clearer that safer infrastructure and more open space are essential.
Oba Lawal said a city was all about connection, and fostering connectivity was not only about transportation and communication. At the heart of it, he said, is access, how people are connected to their immediate environment, to green spaces and public spaces that enable cultural and civic engagements.
The former Housing commissioner stressed that, as designers, more effort should be put into making places for people beyond their homes and work.
According to him, in the next two decades, the urban population of sub-Saharan Africa is expected to double. A report by Gensler puts this in perspective. By 2050, we would need to build a city the size of London every month, for the next 400 months, to accommodate the increasing global urban population growth.
“There is sufficient evidence to support the fact that increased connectivity reduces the tensions between groups in communities, establishes a sense of belonging and makes communities more dynamic and vibrant. Not to mention designing healthy communities is to pretend that the pandemic did not expose some of the shortcomings in the design of the built environment, across the world,” the Oniru said.
“Public health and the design of cities are inseparably interwoven, the way we build our communities has a profound effect on our physical and mental health. Healthy communities ensure residents benefit from access to education, housing, jobs, the ability to live without fear of violence, freedom from environmental hazards and a meaningful built environment,”he added.
He said cities have to inspire. In the world’s most livable cities, arts and culture blend with business, retail, entertainment and residential districts to create desirable places to live, work and play. These cities inspire and connect inhabitants and promote the healthy lifestyles that make them places where people enjoy spending time and achieving prosperity, Lagos is a magnet city.
He said since he became the Oniru of Iru Kingdom, he had developed what he called a LeGit vision which literally means: Let’s Grow Iru Together, which seeks to evolve Iru to a sustainable city, with a truly resilient people.
Speaking on “The City of Lagos: The Next Twenty-Five Years”, the keynote speaker, President, Nigeria Institute of Town Planners, Toyin Ayinde, said there was an urgent need for stakeholders to discuss the future of Lagos and other cities as well as communities.
Ayinde lamented that the present plan was insufficient to cater for the city of Lagos that had gone beyond being a mega city to a meta city, a term coined in 2006 by the UN-Habitat when the term megacity designated as cities of over 10 million people became inadequate.
He said Lagos in the next 25 years would probably host about 40 million.
Ayinde asked: “On which land would the 40 million people reside? Where would they work? What sort of transportation systems would connect people and places? Would every millimeter square be occupied with bungalow and low rise buildings or would we need to go high rise only so that we can make more land available for landscaping and open spaces? What would be the cultural disposition to such phenomenal changes required to make the city functional?
The former commissioner of Physical Planning and Urban Development said he was aware that professionals were operating under very adverse conditions in our nation, but added that with more advocacy and persuasion, the situation would improve.
To tackle the numerous challenges, Ayinde argued that there was an urgent need for stakeholders to meet to discuss the future of the City of Lagos as well as many other cities and communities.
‘‘We are in for a long haul of regeneration and the conversation must begin now. Let’s quit the jokes of housing estates and plots of land that promise incentives of rams and holiday trips. Whoever is accommodating these concepts cannot be thinking of Lagos, and indeed the whole of Nigeria, in the next 25 years,” he added.
Others, who spoke at event, included the President of NIA, Mr. Soony Echono, who was represented by the First Vice-President, Enyi- Ben Eboh, and the President of Architects Council Registration of Nigeria (ARCON), Dipo Ajayi.
