The just concluded annual Lagos Architects Forum (LAF) focused on the prevalent housing issue; addressing the need for affordable housing to bridge the gap in residential accommodation in Nigeria.
The forum themed ‘Lagos 8.0: An Architectural Autopoiesis’ was organized by the Lagos State chapter of the Nigerian Institute of Architects (NIA).
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The architects were tasked to come up with innovative and contemporary architectural designs to cater to the housing deficit faced by the low-income earners who account for about 70% of Nigeria’s population, and are in dire need of accommodation.
The Deputy Vice Chancellor of Development at the University of Lagos Sade Ogunsola, in her keynote address at the forum stated that buildings must be constructed to speak to, and meet the needs of the people. She also elaborated architectural autopoiesis as the ability of architecture to recreate or regenerate itself by itself without loss of the essence of its nature.
According to her, architects in Nigeria will only be able to dispel their being labeled as briefcase-carrying architechts when they reinforce their practice to continue to be regarded as briefcase carrying architects until they are able to regenerate their practice to offer lasting solutions to the housing needs of the low- income earners in the country.
The Commissioner to the Ministry of Water Front Infrastructure Lagos State, Ade Akinsanya, in representation of the governor assured the people that his administration was working to make Lagos the most livable city in the world.
Fitzgerald Umah, the chairman of the chapter, in his welcome address, said that this year’s conference, with a view to addressing the issues of regeneration, rebuilding, recreating and reinventing the built environment, the architects present ought to offer solutions to the consistent building collapses around the city.
Tonye Braide, President, Nigerian Institute of Architects challenged architects to come up with innovative design capable of helping clients, especially the government to conserve energy. He further called on architects to collaborate with others in a bid to ensure architectural autopoiesis.
Lagos Architects Forum is an annual conference organized to enable architects come up with holistic responses to the issues that affect practitioners in the built environment, and to also come up with a communiqué to help government policy direction in infrastructural development
