During my time in Lagos and Accra a number of the project’s aspects have been reconsidered. The theoretical thesis became focused on the urban conditions emerging in the new extensions of a West African city: gated estates and economic zones with pockets of informal settlements, commercial zones and indigenous villages in between them. A series of conversations with local authorities, architects, developers and traditional leaders provoked thoughts about their different roles played in the ambitious urban projects, that are significantly different to those typical in the Global North. In addition the thesis began to recognise how provision of roads, power, clean water, drainage and public transport plays a key role in the development of different areas, and how the elements of infrastructure themselves represent the level of life in an area.
The design project has evolved into a combined hotel and hospitality school and a site was selected in collaboration with a local community. The sites location is between the large new parts of the Lekki masterplan that have begun to be implemented and an existing town populated by the indigenous community of Ajah. Adding a hospitality school to the programme emerged from the following factors:
- Lack of competent local hotel staff (with hotels being the key locations for international business)
- Prospect of such project being hypothetically funded through the collaborative effort of the large hotels.
- Evidence of how such institutions introduce young underprivileged people to high standards of living which they then introduce at their respective places of origin.
Behind both the site choice and the programme modification, there is an intention to pursue the project’s wider aim of mediating between the local and the global both geographically and socially.
Phasing of the construction has remained to be important to the design strategy and is currently being reviewed as part of the Implementation essay preparation.
no.balsa 