Through architecture and design, we add critical value to projects and the resulting built environment in Africa and the rest of the world.
Zaria Court is an urban development project with a focus on community, hospitality, sports and culture actively under construction in Kigali, Rwanda. Zaria Court repurposes an existing property in Kigali to become a hub for social and cultural gatherings, sports enthusiasts, influencers and Africa’s booming middle class, millennials and Gen-Z generation – while creating… Continue reading Zaria Court
We are all under one roof – our proposal for the new International Organisation for Migration (IOM) Headquarters stems from a vision of creating a humane, enabling environment for all humanity under one roof – our planet Earth. And our hope is that the role of IOM as a leading organisation in this process is… Continue reading International Organization for Migration HQ
Black Rhino Academy is a primary and secondary international boarding school conceived as an immersive environment for learning from nature. Situated on a very hilly site just outside Tanzania’s Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority and the breathtaking Ngorongoro Crater, the school is surrounded by rich natural vegetation and abundant wildlife. The campus masterplan is inspired by… Continue reading Black Rhino Academy – School Hall
Manicaland Healthcare Facilities are a series of prototype buildings of mothers wards, labour rooms, offices, and staff quarters for five maternity clinics in Zimbabwe. The declining health infrastructure of Chimanimani has had a tremendous negative impact on the community it intends to serve. It has meant that healthcare facilities are unable to adequately provide clean,… Continue reading Manicaland Healthcare Facilities
The Future of Living is in the Past. The rich history and environment of Al Ula suggests and contains insights into sustainable approaches to its future. Located at the threshold of city and nature, our proposal for a residence in Al Ula is a bridge to the oasis – from the dense public… Continue reading Al-Ula Residence
Itana is a 72,000 sqm mixed-use district in Alaro City in Lagos, Nigeria. Centered around a waterbody of natural ponds and lakes with recreational facilities, the car-free development is comprised of offices, tech-hubs, residential areas and commercial functions.
Earth Building Systems is designed as a series of made-on-site laterite building blocks that integrate building services and pipes. The earth system, in development since 2021, went through extensive prototyping and currently is being used in a first building project.
Manicaland Education Facilities are a series of prototype buildings of classrooms, ICT & Lab buidings, Early Childhood Development centers, staff offices, W.C. buildings and staff quarters for seven school campuses in Zimbabwe. The Kushinga Primary School campus is one of twelve campuses, and has a layout of classroom blocks surrounding a large courtyard with assembly… Continue reading Manicaland Education Facilities
In 2021, NLÉ collaborated with the Giants of Africa team in designing the furniture & fencing infrastructure for courts across Africa. On Giants of Africa: ‘We believe that basketball is so much more than just a game. It fosters resilience, focus and accountability – life lessons that extend far beyond the court. Since our first… Continue reading Giants of Africa Courts
Makoko Floating System – MFS™ – is a simple way to build on water by hand. It is a prefabricated, modular, floating A-frame, sustainable timber structure that can be locally produced, assembled and disassembled, quickly and manually for developments on water, in advanced or developing regions around the world. Since 2011 NLÉ has been researching… Continue reading Makoko Floating System – MFS™
Platform is a dynamic structure that can be transformed from a closed blackout box into an open event space through simple reconfiguration of its moveable walls, entirely by hand. Platform offers a wide degree of flexibility for a variety of formats of events – accommodating a small, intimate group of people with a single performer… Continue reading Platform – Roskilde Festival
Black Rhino Academy is a primary and secondary international boarding school conceived as an immersive environment for learning from nature. Situated on a very hilly site just outside Tanzania’s Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority and the breathtaking Ngorongoro Crater, the school is surrounded by rich natural vegetation and abundant wildlife. The campus masterplan is inspired by… Continue reading Black Rhino Academy – Sports Centre
The Nieuwe Meer is envisioned as a new centre for healthy, diverse and ecological city development in Amsterdam. In the next 30 years, Amsterdam is predicted to shift its development focus to the South Side, towards the economic belt spanning between Schiphol and the Bijlmer. The Nieuwe Meer sits strategically within this belt and also… Continue reading De Nieuwe Meerstad
Black Rhino Academy is a primary and secondary international boarding school conceived as an immersive environment for learning from nature. Situated on a very hilly site just outside Tanzania’s Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority and the breathtaking Ngorongoro Crater, the school is surrounded by rich natural vegetation and abundant wildlife. The campus masterplan is inspired by… Continue reading Black Rhino Academy – Classrooms
Black Rhino Academy is a primary and secondary international boarding school conceived as an immersive environment for learning from nature. Situated on a very hilly site just outside Tanzania’s Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority and the breathtaking Ngorongoro Crater, the school is surrounded by rich natural vegetation and abundant wildlife. The campus masterplan is inspired by… Continue reading Black Rhino Academy – Dormitories
Can architecture be more human – move, dance, adapt? Can it construct different situations in a complex environment? This curiosity led us to reconfigure a steel shed into a comfortable interface to interact with people physically; inside and outside, in light and darkness, individually and collectively. We made it moveable and transformable by people, using… Continue reading A Prelude to The Shed
Black Rhino Furniture is designed by NLÉ as part of the Black Rhino Academy Campus project. The project establishes a full line of furniture: chair and table for students, bunk beds, shelves and cabinets, teachers desks and dormitory living room furniture. The furniture is fabricated on site in Karatu, Tanzania where the campus is currently… Continue reading Black Rhino School Furniture
20 Bishop Residences is a highly visible development located at the corner of Bishop and Ralph Bunche road. The buildings is a bold yet simple design that uses local materials, preserves existing landscape and incorporates sustainable features. The contemporary design has abundant services and community facilities such as a rooftop restaurant, garden, pool, co-work spaces… Continue reading Nairobi Apartment Hotel
Avalon House is a proposed commercial store in Lagos, Nigeria.
Located on the ocean waterfront in Lagos, Nigeria, the Contemporary Arts Gallery is designed to host a range of public events, exhibitions, performances and art shows in a safe and intimate environment. The building comprises of a multi-functional event space, a gallery with a courtyard, a lush garden and great view of the Atlantic ocean.… Continue reading Contemporary Arts Gallery
The Museum of Aids in Africa is a contribution to the social, historic and emotional impact of HIV/AIDS pandemic to transform grief into resilience and innovation – through memory, work, knowledge-sharing and skills development – supported by the power of technology and the inspiration of design. Rather than create a single museum, the Museum of… Continue reading MoAA
With a play on architecture, our design aims to fulfil the simple primary purpose of a Summer House: a space for shelter and relaxation. The design is based on projecting an inverse replica of the historic Queen Caroline’s Temple – a tribute to its robust form, space and material, recomposed into a new architectural language.… Continue reading Serpentine Summer House
The Green Line Arts Center is a democratic space for creativity and inclusiveness. A place for and with the neighborhood, the park, the campus, the south side, the city, the world… The new contemporary arts center will be flexible, open and invite local and international artists and creative entrepreneurs to form their identity within the… Continue reading Green Line Arts Center
ROCK, our Chicago Lakefront Kiosk in collaboration with the School of the Art Institute of Chicago is a pop-up pavilion – a public sculpture – composed from the raw and historic limestone blocks that once protected the city’s shoreline. Its bold yet sensuous and delicate balance transforms Chicago’s lakefront into a magnet for social and… Continue reading ROCK – Chicago Lakefront Kiosk
In Bonny Kingdom there’s a plan, a plan to make this one of the most important investment destinations in West Africa. The plan is called ‘Green Heart City’. And it will mean Bonny Kingdom will be home to much more than oil and gas. There’ll be a diversified economy low unemployment rate, strong infrastructure and… Continue reading Bonny Kingdom Masterplan
XYLO – Lifestyle Office Building is a renovation of a derelict building on one of the most prime commercial streets in Lagos – Adeola Odeku. The renovation includes the conversion of the previously multi- retail stores into large office spaces. The renovation includes the re-design of the exterior (facade) into a contemporary form with a… Continue reading XYLO – Lifestyle Office Building
Credit Direct Limited (CDL) is one of the fastest growing micro-lending finance companies in Nigeria, providing unsecured (payroll lending) microcredit facilities to low to medium income earners. Situated in Ikeja district of Lagos in Nigeria, the new headquarters for CDL consolidates its various facilities into a single building that redefines the conventional notion of a… Continue reading CDL Microfinance HQ
Chicoco Radio is a floating media platform being built with and for the residents of Port Harcourt’s waterfront community in Nigeria. 480,000 people live in waterfront settlements along the creeks that fringe the city. The state government plans to demolish the settlements. Chicoco Radio is the community’s voice and platform. The structure is conceived as… Continue reading Chicoco Radio
The Bloomsbury Waterfront is a unique office development situated in the distinguished Walter Carrington Crescent of Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria. The project is a premium office space that maximises the great views across the city’s waterfront. It meets contemporary environmental efficiency standards incorporating renewable energy and sustainable building systems, with state of the art access… Continue reading Bloomsbury Waterfront Development
The 21st Century Technologies Limited project is a mixed-use development of a licensed information communications and technology services provider. These new high-end premises are located in Lekki, Lagos. The 6-floor building houses a variety of uses, including a commercial ground floor, a data center, office floors and a rooftop penthouse of private use. The cores… Continue reading 21CTL – 21st Century Technologies Building
Makoko Floating School is a prototype floating structure, built for the historic water community of Makoko, located on the lagoon heart of Nigeria’s largest city, Lagos. As a pilot project, it has taken an innovative approach to address the community’s social and physical needs in view of the impact of climate change and a rapidly… Continue reading Makoko Floating School
NLÉ’s ‘Mabushi’ Residential Development is a unique, lush and efficient residential estate designed in Mabushi district of Nigeria’s capital city, Abuja. The climatic conditions of Abuja suggest an alternative architecture and approach for housing. Inverting the oversized roof structures of the popular building typology in Abuja, our building solution converts the roof space into habitable… Continue reading Mabushi Residential
The impact of rapid urbanisation and economic growth of cities in Africa is now common knowledge, yet it cannot be overemphasised. At the same time the impact of climate change is now day-to-day reality. Particularly in coastal African cities that now experience significant increases in sea levels, rainfall and flooding.
The Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art project is a 27,000m2 masterplan designed by OMA in 1997. Located in Hannam-Dong – a residential district near the city centre, the complex comprises three buildings by OMA, Mario Botta and Jean Nouvel.
OMA’s design for New Court is the fourth iteration of Rothschild’s London headquarters, all of them built on the increasingly dense and architecturally rich site on St. Swithin’s Lane, a narrow medieval alley in the heart of the City.
Prada Transformer is a pioneering temporary structure picked up by cranes and rotated to accommodate a variety of cultural events. The 20-metre high Prada Transformer is located adjacent to the 16th Century Gyeonghui Palace in the centre of Seoul. The pavilion consists of four basic geometric shapes – a circle, a cross, a hexagon, a… Continue reading Prada Transformer
For millennia, the solid building stands on a solid base; it is an image that has survived modernity. Typically, the base anchors a structure and connects it emphatically to the ground. The essence of the stock market is speculation: it is based on capital, not gravity. In the case of Shenzhen’s almost virtual stock market,… Continue reading Shenzhen Stock Exchange Headquarters
Qatar Foundation is dedicated to fostering scientific research and community development in the region, and is chaired by Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser As-Missned. For the Foundation’s new headquarters, its unique identity and authority was best embodied in the stable form of a generic cube. The simplicity of the cube contrasts sharply and owners proudly above… Continue reading Qatar Foundation Headquarters
To realise Qatar Foundation’s vision of a library with a million books in its main collection, we conceived a building in which the entire collection would be instantly visible within a single space. Our design for the Central Library, provides unprecedented immediate access to books – a reactionary approach to re-empower books as the primary… Continue reading Qatar National Library