Multi-modal Transit Hub Lagos, Nigeria
Molly Hare, Christina Ostermier, Michael Licht
Pratt Institute GAUD 4th Semester CAP Studio, 2012 Alexandra Barker, Critic
Site and Climate Lagos, Nigeria has a tropical savannah climate. Hot and humid most of the year with two rainy seasons in April - July and October - November. Because of its location between the tropics, the sun path travels north in the summer and south in the winter.
Mainland
Lagos Lagoon
Lagos Island
Site (Marina BRT stop) Victoria Island Major Shipping Ports (formal and informal)
Gulf of Guinea
Lagos is Nigeria's largest city, chief port, and principal economic and cultural center. It is now the second largest economy in Africa (following South Africa), and the largest economy in the West Africa Region. It is listed among the "Next Eleven" economies in the world. New oil wealth and the concurrent decline of other economic sectors fueled massive migration to the cities and led to increasingly widespread poverty, especially in rural areas. A collapse of basic infrastructure and social services since the early 1980’s accompanied this trend. Lagos is the most populous country in Africa, the seventh most populous country in the world. The population of Lagos is expected to double in the next 15 years from 15 million to about 30 million people. This presents a very precarious situation in a city with no reliable infrastructure.
Thriving as a port on a turmoltuous area of the Pacific, Lagosians take great pride in their relationship to the ocean. Graphed here are both the erosion and reclamation of coastline as a function of time. Dashed lines are natural erosion, weighted inversley with distance of time. Solid lines graph industrial reclamation of the Apapa Port, North Lagos Island, and Eko Atlantic project, which will add four square miles of city infrastructure to the south of Victoria Island.The sections graph both processes for South-East entrance to Lagos Harbour, which has remained solid.
coastal erosion & reclamation graph
The informal settlements and commerce areas in Lagos are inherently paradoxical. They display a chaotic, unplanned urban fabric, yet operate within an ordered, self-governed system. This diagram portrays the symbiotic relationship between a sprawling urban fabric and its economic and commercial lifeblood. The logging and fishing industries are two of the most important informal industries and supply the rest of the city with vital goods and services. The diagram intends to create a graphic depiction of the flow of commerce through the informal sector.
informal dispersion of commerce
Discrete scales and timelines are contrasted with the overlay of an informal fishermens’ settlement and the erosion/reclamation graph of Victoria Island. Fishermen off the shore of Lagos Mainland created this island grid with sand, garbage, and sawdust collected over many years, based on the creation property and water infrastructure. It is irregular and fractal. In contrast, the ocean has taken centuries to generate a grid based on coastal erosion where rate and magnitude are aparent in the rapid deterioration of the peninsula and more labored subtraction of straight coast.
coastal articulation patterning
Our project explores the tension of two processes we noticed occurring in the coastal regions of Lagos: the natural erosion process of the coastline and the reclamation of the coastline due to human interaction. Our hub responds to this dichotomy by performing not only as a multi-modal transit hub but also as a cultural City transit Connections center for the city. The additive qualities presented by the informal settlements creates mico-cellular growth Axial Connections Market Places operating within a larger formal framework. These informal fragments will manifest into flexible and dynamic Future Development Future Waterfront programmatic spaces, while formal operations will conform to a more static allocation of space. Main Roads
Ground Level
Mezzanine Level
City Connections Axial Connections Market Places Future Development Future Waterfront Main Roads
Program Market Stalls Mezzanine Platform Greenscape/ Occupiable roof Permanent Program (Ticketing) Impermanent Program (Vending) Ampitheater
Transit + User Circulation Auto Light Rail Ferry BRT Human traffic (ground) Human traffic (mezzanine)
Enclosure Diagram
Section facing East
Section facing East
Section facing North
Passive Strategy for Fenestration
Site Plan
Taking advantage of predominent winds from the harbor, the shed’s skin presents a less porous facade to the south in order to deflect and accelerate wind up and over the crest of the structure. This creates a pocket of low pressure on the north face. The porosity of the northern face is greater than the south, providing large opennings through which the relatively high pressure enclosed air passively escapes. As the air is pulled out, it simultaneously exhausts humidity and heat from solar radiation.