Multiple award-winning Makoko Floating School was a beacon of hope in this Lagos slum until its collapse this week. Now some fear the whole area and its 300,000 residents are at renewed risk of being cleared out for redevelopment
Like most Lagos residents, I was familiar with Makoko Floating School. Its steep, three-storey triangular roof was visible from the Third Mainland Bridge, which cuts dramatically across the Makoko lagoon, the city’s vast waterworld slum. Designed by the Nigerian architect Kunlé Adeyemi, the Floating School was the winner of multiple awards for architecture and urbanism, attracting great international attention and acclaim.
But I had never actually been up close until yesterday, when I approached in a rickety wooden canoe piloted by a young man in a burgundy T-shirt and grungy shorts.
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Source: Guardian Environment