MacArthur Floating School is the third generation and 5th iteration of NLÉ’s Makoko Floating School and Makoko Floating System (MFS™) – a prefabricated, ready-to-assemble, floating building product. Following its deployment in four countries in three continents, MacArthur Floating School is the first time reuse and reassembly of an existing structure previously installed in the city… Continue reading MAD Workshop MacArthur Floating School
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™
Situated on Miami Beach, the House of Worship is a syncretic place of worship for diverse cultures, spirituality and histories, to heighten consciousness and coexistence between humanity and our changing environment. The House of Worship is a concept proposal for a temporary pavilion for Art Basel 2019.
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
IPADÉ is a gathering for cultural innovation and sustainability with focus on Africa and the diaspora. In advance of the 2019 opening of The Shed, New York’s first multi-arts center for artistic invention, NLÉ hosted IPADÉ – a one day social gathering at the NLÉ designed temporary performance space, A Prelude to The Shed. IPADÉ… Continue reading IPADÉ
WATERFRONT Atlas is a collaborative knowledge platform that brings the local intelligence of aquatic communities like Makoko, Lagos to the world at the 15th International Architecture Exhibition — La Biennale di Venezia curated by Alejandro Aravena. It aims to identify, gather and cultivate the intelligence of communities and cities by water with a motivation to… Continue reading Waterfront Atlas Exhibition
MFS II is an improved iteration of the Makoko Floating School structure, adapted for easy prefabrication, rapid assembly and a wide range of uses. Just as the first prototype sourced local intelligence from the Makoko waterfront community, MFS II has been designed to suit local conditions and a wider waterfront population. MFS II was assembled… Continue reading MFS II
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
ARTIST FAHEEM MAJEED / A collaboration of SAIC and the Shapiro Center, the Chicago Architecture Biennial, and Kunlé Adeyemi. Fresh from his solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, artist and sculptor Faheem Majeed uses his work to “question how space becomes place, and, further, how places can foster a sense of home… Continue reading PUBLIC MARKING EVENT AT ‘ROCK & THE BEAN’ WITH ARTIST FAHEEM MAJEED
CHICAGO, October 1, 2015 – The Chicago Architecture Biennial will officially open to the public this weekend on Saturday, October 3, 2015. The largest international survey of contemporary architecture in North America will run until January 3, 2016. The Chicago Architecture Biennial was envisioned by Mayor Rahm Emanuel and is an outgrowth of the comprehensive… Continue reading Chicago Architecture Biennial
Surging youth populations can fuel tremendous agricultural growth that will impact the global economy, but, if underemployed, they present a risk. By 2050, Africa’s population will double, with 1 billion projected to be under 18 years old, and many others regions are experiencing similar trends. How can we harness the potential of this promising demographic… Continue reading Global Food Security Symposium 2016
‘ROCK & The Bean’ is work in progress – a moment in the state of the art of architecture – in the green heart of Chicago’s famous Millennium Park. The exhibition consists of salvaged historic raw limestone rocks that once protected the city’s shoreline, stacked in a ‘depository’ in the south side, now midway on… Continue reading ROCK & The Bean
One collaboration with the Chicago Park District and the City of Chicago pairs three world-renowned architects with students from local architecture programs at SAIC, the Illinois Institute of Technology, and the University of Illinois at Chicago. The architects and students are designing three distinct vendor kiosks that will permanently stand on the Lake Michigan shoreline.… Continue reading NLÉ | SAIC Summer Workshop
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
For over 25 years the Center for African Studies at the University of Florida has organized annual lectures or a conference in honor of the late distinguished Africanist scholar, Gwendolen M. Carter. Gwendolen Carter devoted her career to scholarship and advocacy concerning the politics of inequality and injustice, especially in southern Africa. She also worked… Continue reading Carter Conference 2015
According to U.N. estimates, the population of Africa will double by 2050, growing at a rate that will quickly surpass the population of China and rival Asia as the world’s most populous continent by 2100. With this explosive growth, African communities and cities are expanding rapidly and aggressively into unchartered territories. Africa’s population surge coupled… Continue reading CORNELL UNIVERSITY STUDIO
Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy and most populous country, is inhabited by over 170 million people. Lagos, its commercial capital, is home to about 20 million people, many of whom live in unplanned settlements with little formal infrastructure. Lagos is a paradigmatic mix of traditions, a place where history, culture, and popular wisdom interweave local knowledge… Continue reading MoMA: Uneven Growth
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
2/13 LECTURE SERIES: WHAT I DID NEXT—PRINCETON’S ALTERNATIVE ARCHITECTURAL PRACTICES “During the academic year 2012/13 Princeton SoA staged a series of public conversations around alternative practices in architecture through the work of 85 distinguished alumni from the last 25 years. At a moment when the profession is going through some important questions on a global… Continue reading PRINCETON LECTURE SERIES ‘WHAT I DID NEXT’
The WTN is a curated membership community comprised of the world’s most innovative individuals and organizations in science, technology, and related fields. The WTN and its members – those creating the 21st century – are focused on exploring what is imminent, possible, and important in and around emerging technologies. The WTN brings key players together… Continue reading WORLD TECHNOLOGY NETWORK SUMMIT 2013
On October 15th 2013, X Bienal de Arquitetura de São Paulo opened at SESC Pompéia featuring NLÉ’s African Water Cities Project.
Science Foo Camp, also known as “Sci Foo”, is a series of interdisciplinary scientific camps organized by O’Reilly Media (FOO stands for “Friends of O’Reilly”), Digital Science, Nature Publishing Group and Google Inc., by invitation only. Each year, the event brings together between 200 and 300 leading scientists, technologists, writers and other thought-leaders at the… Continue reading SCIFOO CAMP WITH GOOGLE, NATURE & O’REILLY 2012
2020 University of Miami 2019 University of Southern California School of Architecture, Los Angeles 2019 Princeton University, New York 2019 Donghia Designer-in-Residence, The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles 2018 Atelier LUMA Masterclass, Arles, France 2018 Rivercultures, Gothenburg City Triennale 2018 Minne… Continue reading More Lectures