The politics of architecture and urbanism in postcolonial Lagos, 1960-1986

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Periodical article

Title:	The politics of architecture and urbanism in postcolonial Lagos, 1960-1986
Author:	Immerwahr, Daniel
Year:	2007
Periodical:	Journal of African Cultural Studies
Volume:	19
Issue:	2
Pages:	165-186
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Nigeria
Subjects:	urban planning architecture capitals
External link:	https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13696810701760450
Abstract:	After independence, the Nigerian government faced a number of choices about how to manage its urban environment, particularly in Lagos, Nigeria's capital. By favouring a programme of tropical modernist architecture for its prestige buildings in Lagos and British New Town style for its housing estates there, the government sought to demonstrate both its independence from European culture and its ability to perform the functions of a modern State. And yet, Lagos was not made over as the government and architectural elites hoped as informal trading, illegal housing, and, eventually, a rising crime wave made it clear that Lagos could not be controlled from the top neither by reform and provision nor by authoritarian disciplinary tactics. The Nigerian government's retreat to Abuja and its abandonment of Lagos mark the failures of urban policymaking in Nigeria. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract, edited]