Residents of Makoko-Iwaya Community have appealed to the Lagos state government to revoke its order and allow the Makoko floating school, a three-storey wooden structure commence academic activities, Vanguard reports.
This came as the floating school received nomination for the Designs of the Year 2014 award, an award which is overseen by London’s Design Museum.
The state government through the Commissioner for Waterfront and Infrastructure Development, Prince Adesegun Oniru had last year said that the structure is an illegal structure, adding “it shouldn’t be there, and we are trying to get rid of structures there.”
The floating school buoyed by 256 recycled plastic barrels, was constructed by Mr. Kunle Adeyemi, the founder of NLE works, a Netherland based architectural company.
The construction of the floating school, an initiative supported by the United Nation Development Programme, UNDP, was expected to kick start the regeneration of the community.
The floating school would be competing with 14 other structures selected from all over the world such as Child chemo house from Japan, Heydar Aliyev center in Azerbaijan, Museo Jumex, Mexico city and Wa Shan guesthouse, Hangzhou, China.
Describing the school, the organizers of the award said that the structure is a prototype floating structure, built for the historic water community of Makoko, Nigeria, adding; “The school takes an innovative, cheap and sustainable approach to address the community’s specific social and physical needs.”
The floating school is expected to accommodate 100 children who will navigate to the school by boat.
