Design Week Lagos asks what Africa will make next
For years, the international conversation around African design has often begun with visibility and recognition. But what comes after the world starts paying attention? This year, Design Week Lagos turns its focus from showcasing creativity to building the industries that can sustain it.
Running from 18 to 25 October, the festival takes Making a New Africa: From Material to Market as its theme. Its programme brings design, research, manufacturing, culture and commerce together around one question: what will Africa make next?
At the centre is 180 New Ideas, a presentation spanning furniture, lighting, textiles, architecture, product and industrial design, prototypes and experimental work. The larger Design + Innovation Exhibition at the National Theatre features more than 100 designers, studios and innovators. Organised across five perspectives - Nigeria, the African diaspora, and Anglophone, Francophone and Lusophone Africa - it resists the idea of a single African design aesthetic. Chicago-based designer and curator Norman Teague leads the programme.
Mama Nike and Titi OgufereI attending events during the thriving programme at Design Week Lagos
The festival also honours figures who have shaped design and culture. At the IDEA Honours on 21 October, architect and educator Lesley Lokko received the Architectural Leadership Honour; Marva Griffin, founder and curator of SaloneSatellite, received the Architectural Legacy Honour; and artist Yinka Shonibare received the Cultural Impact Honour. Lokko has helped widen access to architectural education and bring African perspectives into global debates. Griffin’s SaloneSatellite gives emerging designers a platform, while Shonibare’s work explores colonial history and cultural identity.
Its programme brings design, research, manufacturing, culture and commerce together around one question: what will Africa make next?
Demas Nwoko at ADDec-African Designs Development Centre-Idumuje Ugboko (image credit Joseph Conteh)
Nigerian artist, architect and designer Demas Nwoko designed the IDEA Honours plaques. He is also the subject of Demas Nwoko: A Living Legacy, an exhibition bringing together his work across architecture, art, design objects and cultural thought. Nwoko’s practice draws on African aesthetics and local resources, while embracing modern techniques. Selected material from his acclaimed Venice Architecture Biennale presentation features in the show.
The festival’s industrial ambitions extend beyond the exhibitions. Nigerian industrialist Aliko Dangote was announced as the opening keynote speaker at the Industry Forum, where the programme addresses manufacturing, finance, investment and market access. Design Week Lagos also includes the pre-launch of Design Museum Africa at the Yoruba Museum. The proposed institution aims to document, develop and present African design, while connecting designers with manufacturers, collectors, museums and international markets.
Design Week Lagos is asking what it takes to build something lasting: how African materials, knowledge and creative talent can become products, businesses and industries. The future of African design, it suggests, depends not only on what gets made, but on who can develop, produce and bring it to market.
Titi Ogufere