Lagos Wide and Close Web

Every hour, an estimated 52 people start new lives in Lagos. As the largest port and commercial center of Nigeria, it is home to approximately 16 million people whose very survival depends on improvisation, networking, and risk-taking. In 2001, architect Rem Koolhaas and filmmaker Bregtje van der Haak went to Lagos to document one of fastest growing cities in Africa. Based on research by Koolhaas’ Harvard Project on the City, they made an interactive film presenting an intense and chaotic engagement with a then hardly documented city, capturing multiple perspectives of a volatile moment in its evolution. In 2014, the film was developed into an online experience.