The good folks of the Makoko community in Lagos, Nigeria know that floods are a huge part of their lives. People here have had more rainy days than sunny ones and have adapted to their watery surrounding very well. They have built homes on stilts and commute via canoes. Born in Nigeria, architect Kunle Adeyemi knows the trials and tribulations that this community is prone to, has now come with a brand new idea that would allow children in the region to attend school even during massive flood season. In 2009, Adeyemi visited the region and saw that the children in the 250,000 community only had a single primary school for the entire community.
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To ensure that children from the community are able to attend school no matter how bad the flooding is, Adeyemi has created the flooding schools project that would essential comprise of a three storey structure sitting atop the water using plastic drums. These floating schools would be made to functional pretty much like regular school building and would come fitted with mechanisms for waste disposal, fresh water and even sanitation facilities. Each floating school would be designed to house 100 students plus faculty. Locally-sourced wood would be used to construct the frame of the building while 256 plastic drums would allow the structure to stay afloat.
To help operate toilets in the building, rainwater harvesting would be employed and solar panels on the roof would provide electricity to the building. When finished, the entire building should cost around $6,250 though the figure could be far less if the design could be made to use natural daylight and does away with the solar panels and electrical fixtures.
Coastal communities in Africa have been struggling to cope with constant flooding though efforts have been made to reclaim land from the ocean floor to compensate for the land lost to flooding. However, projects like these could provide these communities with a more versatile and sustainable alternative that would also be more cost effective.
