Tarkwa Bay Food Hub

Many do not know the story of Tarkwa Bay, Lagos. The mahority of the people who lived in Tarkwa Bay have been forced out of their homes by the government over the last 20 years or so. The community as shrunken and there has been little empathy by the government to stop doing this to the community. Lagos has struggled with what to do with the poorer families within the city, where instead of having remorse and helping these struggling familes, they have kicked them out, making way for the rich to come in and take over. They are damaging familes, homes, and the wellbeing of its citizens and they have no choice in the matter.

Our project's intention is to bring some of that life back to Tarkwa Bay and give it something it needs to prosper. This was a large class project, where everyone chose a site on the map of Tarkwa Bay to design something they thought could have some significance to the island. Some chose to do a community center, residential communities, restaurants, auditoriums. I chose to do a food hub, again. This was the first project I did as a grad school student and I had just came off of designing the Chicago food hub, but I knew this was being designed with different intentions, purpose, and location. I felt very strongly about having the community gather and learn about food. What it takes to grow food, how it works, and how a site like this could help aid the community, not only for entertainment and leisure, but for learning and establishing themselves. The site that I chose over floods at certain times of year, where people basically just get around by boat. With this site, being able to let water flow in, creating a riverwalk here would allow every post to be a docking point for the people of Tarkwa Bay. Having designed a food hub already, little things like this is what I knew would set this apart from the other project and would help aid this community in a much different, possitive way.