Date of Award
Spring 5-22-2026
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Landscape Architecture (MLA)
Department
Landscape Architecture
First Advisor
Jacob Mitchell
Second Advisor
Gavin Zeitz
Abstract
What if water was all you had, what if your only source of survival was a body of water? I shudder to think that some people get to be put in this situation in the world we live in. As I understand the importance of water to survival, it is obvious that water can be the only lifeline of survival for a community. This is the experience for residents of Makoko, Lagos. Their survival depends on the Lagos Lagoon, a large body of water flowing in from the Atlantic Ocean. This research looks beyond the surface of what this community is but dives deeper into what the community could be with infrastructure built to support the livelihood of the residents. This could be said for many other settlements across the world, that live on marginal spaces, spaces that are pushing the boundary of human survival.
As I continue to understand more of this community, I begin to see elements of spatial intelligence not obvious at first glance. Could the solution to self-sufficiency be found in places you wouldn’t think to look first? Places that look like a total systematic and infrastructural failure. The goal of this research is not to dwell on the lack of resources but to analyze and synthesize the experience in the community and proffer solutions that are scalable and transferable to places with similar context globally.
I understand my research may not be a total coverage of what life on this settlement may be but it captures a glimpse of the beauty of living on water. Water that is the prime element of human survival.
Recommended Citation
Peter, Gabriel Ofem, "Productive Armature" (2026). Masters Theses. 1682.
https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/masterstheses/1682
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
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