Nothing describes Lagos in October higher than chaos. It’s not like the town isn’t at all times crammed with turbulence, however there’s something peculiar about October. The frenzy of everybody and every little thing reaches fever pitch within the final quarter of the 12 months. It’s in our blood as Nigerians to benefit from something.
Site visitors tends to be extra problematic. It’s the type of congestion that leaves you at a spot for 40 minutes as a result of somebody is simply too massive and defiant to obey visitors rules at a T-junction. The climate can also be very dramatic – at all times too excessive: when it’s sunny it’s scorching and when rain comes it floods in every single place, and everyone knows what meaning for a coastal metropolis with poor drainage development. Then there are unwarranted police stops, with officers looking out for younger individuals to both harass or extort. No matter their claims, police brutality remains to be alive and properly regardless of the #EndSARS protest in 2020.
A view of Lagos civic tower, reverse is the 1004 condominium in Victoria Island
(Picture credit score: Lekan )
And but there are additionally good issues about Lagos in October. It’s network-building time due to a number of occasions that unite creatives throughout many industries. Design Week Lagos is considered one of them. This 12 months marked the fifth version of the truthful (23 to 27 October 2024), which was themed ‘The function of design in financial evolution’, and held as soon as once more on the Livespot Entertarium.
Design Week Lagos is far more than a good; it’s a catalyst pushing African design onto the worldwide map. It doesn’t matter that it solely lasts just a few days, it’s influence lives approach longer. The truthful isn’t centered on simply Lagos or Nigeria however brings quite a few architectural and design scenes collectively from throughout West Africa.
A rest spot at a seaside
(Picture credit score: Lekan )
Over a five-day timeframe, we noticed architects, designers, industrialists, artisans and fans collectively, studying concerning the West African design hub from the DWL panels held in a big auditorium in the identical constructing. From constructing constructions to immersive experiences to new product and lighting collections and collaborations, the cubicles of the truthful have been crammed with mesmerising experiences.
There have been notable debuts additionally this 12 months, principally from furnishings designers on the NDIC part, with thrilling designs, and extra progressive and experimental supplies, full with tales of their inspirations. Seven designers recognized ancestral inspiration because the supply of their designs, proving that homegrown tradition is a hearteningly wealthy seam for the following era shaping our current and future.
Highlights from Design Week Lagos 2024
‘Oji Sofas’ by Myles Igwe
‘Oji Sofas’ by Myles Igwe
(Picture credit score: Lekan )
Myles Igwe has been a designer for the higher a part of his youth and one factor that retains him impressed is his Igbo tradition. Previously he has made furnishings items impressed by cultural moments just like the Aba girls riots of 1929 or the importance of buying and selling in Nteje, his house city. His inspiration for a set of cosy sofas comes from ‘Oji’ the Igbo title for kola nut, a sacred fruit utilized in a number of rituals within the Igbo custom. The furnishings’s varieties are derived from the form of the kola nut dissected and reconfigured to create completely constructed sofas, every with a unique form. Igwe describes the ‘Oji’ sofas as a non secular embodiment of group and custom.
‘Eledere’ by Tunde Owolabi
‘Eledere’ by Tunde Owolabi
(Picture credit score: Lekan )
How do you immortalize a workforce that’s closely seemed down upon and but may be very helpful to Lagosians? This was the query Tunde Owolabi sought to analyze in his presentation at Design Week Lagos 2024. His furnishings venture ‘Eledere’ put the highlight on road hawkers – a supply of nice help (nonetheless ignored) when contemplating the density of Lagos visitors. The desk comes with a particular wooden carving of a girl’s face, suggesting the objects one locations atop the desk turn out to be her burden. The gathering additionally contains a chair, superbly patterned with wealthy Yoruba symbols in a variety of vibrant colors. Owolabi describes the design as a celebration of ladies hawkers who, regardless of not being appreciated sufficient, keep their livelihood in harsh situations.
‘The Eko Calendar’ by Oladela Agboola
‘The Eko Calendar’ by Oladela Agboola
(Picture credit score: Lekan )
This acquainted construction is a part of the town’s architectural buzz, however to search out it reimagined as a clock was an sudden discovery. The ‘Eko’ calendar is impressed by the Lekki-Ikoyi hyperlink highway, a venture commissioned in 2013 and that includes dozens of cable strings to carry the 1.36km bridge in place. The bridge isn’t only a highway, it’s an intersection connecting previous cash (Ikoyi) to new cash (Lekki section one) and that influential significance performs an necessary half in describing social class. Oladela Agboola has constructed a miniature design of the symbolic construction with Plexiglas alongside a 3D-printed silhouette in ABS [plastic] to permit for customisation and waste discount.
‘Zero-weld metal eating set’ by Oluwa Kayinsade
‘Zero-wield metal eating set’ by Oluwa Kayinsade
(Picture credit score: Lekan )
We speak typically about how we’d combine AI into design for simpler and productive output, particularly as a rustic within the world south. So it was little shock to search out designers addressing the topic right here. Architect Oluwa Kayinsade’s ‘zero-weld metal eating set’ was one of many week’s highlights. It’s a mixture of laser-printed metal dinner units, surrounding a desk product of metal and glass. The designer describes it as ‘a contemporary look created to deal with the challenges of restricted expert labour and manufacturing assets in Nigeria’, however the true story lies in its creative high quality. Impressively for a product with no welding traces by human hand, it nonetheless has sturdiness and soul.
‘Homenka’ collaboration by Zoe Chinonso Ene and Tayo Adenaike
‘Homenka’ collaboration by Zoe Chinonso Ene and Tayo Adenaike
(Picture credit score: Lekan )
120 years in the past, a secret society indigenous to the Igbo tradition in Southeast Nigeria developed a writing system. They have been the Ekpe secret society they usually known as this writing system ‘Nsibidi’. Now, in 2024, it re-emerged as one of many necessary highlights of the design week in a rendition of three mediums: portray; textile; and metal furnishings. The venture is a collaboration between Zoe Chinonso Ene and Tayo Adenaike, titled ‘Homenka’. Chinonso’s metal stool is formed like an hourglass and impressed by the ‘oji’ the Igbo kola nut, incorporating components discovered within the sacred fruit to make small detailed carvings. Nsibidi is the system utilized by Igbo individuals to doc their cultural heritage, together with heavenly our bodies just like the solar and stars. Tayo Adenaike makes use of the Igbo ritual object ‘uli’ to create these illustrative Nsibidi work. Adenaike’s portray and Chinonso’s textile each painting symbols derived from the ‘oji’.
‘Akpoti’ by Tosin Oshinowo
‘Akpoti’ by Tosin Oshinowo
(Picture credit score: Lekan )
Tosin Oshinowo has a deep information of design references, which form her apply as each architect and designer. This 12 months, she exhibited a set of stools impressed by West African city furnishings. The venture is named ‘Akpoti’ and pays homage to indigenous, anonymously designed stools. The ‘Akpoti’ is product of native supplies and celebrates their utilization throughout the nation, particularly their operate in trades and inside the house. ‘I wished to have fun shortage and the power to do extra with much less. It’s a reminder of what magnificence can occur after we assume in another way and work throughout the limits of the environment,’ Oshinowo stated.
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