2018 TOP BUILT ENVIRONMENT DESIGN TRENDS IN NIGERIA

We are in the early stages of the year with most of our sights firmly set on ‘smashing’ those New Year goals (as if the goals dey follow us fight sef). While on the goal smashing quest, here are some top design trends in the Nigerian built environment to watch out for in the course of the year.

NIGERIAN PRIVATE SCHOOLS, DESIGN AND THE REST OF US

A private school in Nigeria

“I no blame dem”, I muttered under my breath in annoyance. “Wetin concern me with dem before?" I asked no one in particular as I gunned the engine of the car and zoomed off to my next destination. I was at my wits end. “Who be the ‘dem" you ask?  Well, ‘dem’ happened to be some private elementary schools visited in the course of my search for a suitable school for my ward, a search I had grossly underestimated. Going by their signboards, there is an ‘international’ private school in every neighbourhood; in fact my residence is situated adjacent to one.

DECORATING FOR CHRISTMAS - MY 'EUREKA' STORY!

Once again, “It’s the most wonderful time of the year”! I simply cannot get enough of the dry harmattan air, the early morning and evening haze, the bustling energy seemingly at boiling point across the major markets and shopping malls as buyers and sellers rush to make last minute transactions.  Then there is the awesome food. Speaking of which, would any Christmas/ New Year’s Day menu be complete without the wonderful staple of jollof rice? Our mum certainly took no prisoners with her Yuletide jollof rice. Hers was simply the best, no contest! Add her equally delicious teeth sinking - lip smacking- finger licking fried fresh chicken, and the world to a young me then could not have been more perfect! So good was her jollof rice that you would find me happily scrapping away and eating the burnt ‘bottom pot’ portion of the rice even after a couple of days as though my life depended on it!

DONALD TRUMP AND WETIN NAIJA ARCHITECTS DEY DO SEF?!

1. President - elect Donald Trump and his opponent, Hilary Clinton during the first Presidential Debate

The highly anticipated election for the 45th President of the United States of America has finally been dispensed with. Phew! We no see or hear word that period! Preceded by a contentious, acrimonious and no holds barred contest, the emergence of Donald Trump as the President- elect over the preferred candidate, Hillary Clinton sent shock waves across the world. In Nigeria, we went to sleep with Hillary in an early lead but woke up on the 9^th of November 2016 with the unlikely and underrated Donald Trump getting the required number of Electoral College votes to win. What a red letter day!!

 

 

One of the many campaign policies of President-elect Trump was the commitment of at least $ 500 billion to infrastructural spending over a five year period. The spending is required to fix America’s ageing and decaying infrastructure – airports, schools, hospitals, bridges, and train stations. From all indications, American architects will be very busy!  It was against the backdrop of this campaign policy that the executives of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), the umbrella body for registered architects in the United States, pledged its commitment to working with President-elect Trump in the strengthening of the nation’s ageing and decaying public infrastructure. The outrage and backlash from the architectural community was fierce and immediate forcing the AIA executives
to publicly apologize for what it termed “a hasty and tone deaf post – election message”.

HOW TO MAKE MILLIONS FROM YOUR UNMADE BED!!

'My Bed'

Hold it! Stop I said!! You may want to think twice before you make that bed of yours or tidy up your room! Yes you heard right. That unmade bed and untidy room can make you famous and make you very rich, and I am talking in millions of foreign currency here.  

You think I’m joking? Okay let's confirm from Tracey Emin, the British artist whose messy (dirty)bed/room installation sold for a record £ 2.5 million in 2015. The installation is currently on loan for public viewing for the next decade at the Tate Modern Museum, London.

BRT BUSES, AKARA, BRAZILIAN HAIR AND RIO 2016!!!

Team Nigeria at the Rio 2016 Paralympics. Photocredit: Getty Images

Firstly, belatedly though, let me join the teeming number of proud Nigerians in saluting our contingent to the Rio 2016 Paralympics where Team Nigeria with her stellar performance shone like a million stars with a formidable medal haul comprising of twelve medals.

Asides the 2016 Olympics and of course the ubiquitous Brazilian weaves (which we cannot get enough of); Brazil occupies a key position in West African history for both good and bad reasons. Brazil accounted for roughly forty percent of the African slaves brought to the Americas during the Atlantic slave trade with most of them processed at Bahia before being sent off to plantations across the country. Centuries after the slave trade, the Yoruba influence is still heavily felt in Bahia where their dialect is a blend of Portuguese and Yoruba. Deities such as Orunmila, Obatala, Ogun, Sango, Obatala, etcetera are also worshipped. Babalawos nko? Dem dey there too!! Even local delicacies are well represented, take for instance the utterly scrumptious fried bean cakes called ‘akara’ here, in Bahia, ask for acaraje instead!  

WORLD ARCHITECTURE DAY 2016

Photocredit: www.uia.archi

The 3^rd of October, 2016 was World Architecture Day. Every first Monday in October has been set aside annually to celebrate architecture and its practitioners. World Architecture Day which also coincides with the World Habitat Day of the United Nations was created in 1985 by the International Union of Architects (UIA), a global federation of national associations of architects that represents over 1.3 million architects in 124 countries and territories.