Ijora Power Station Revival

Power Pass Power is an architectural ‘dance’ staged at the historic Ijora Power Station in Lagos. This dance blends the building’s spatial character with the city’s vibrant energy and resilient creative spirit to give the old station a new life as a cultural powerhouse for Nigeria’s creative industry.

This proposal restores the existing building and remodels its interior to create spaces for exhibitions, experiences, education, and empowerment. An extension increases the building’s capacity, and external facilities like soundstages are developed in phases to support art and film production. Furthermore, our masterplan strategy includes wetland restoration, slum rehousing, recreational parks, dedicated pedestrian and cycling routes, and a ferry terminal for waterway access to the site.

Lagos’ informal sector inspires our reimagination of the power station. This sector’s spatial morphology embodies flexibility, modularity, agency, and symbiosis, and offers unorthodox social spaces like newspaper stands. Besides being art in itself, this sector features spaces like roadside galleries and film shops that bring art and cinema to the public realm.

Our design mirrors this language by creating adaptable spaces and communal areas that facilitate collective artistic development. The proposed extension also draws on the informal sector’s agency by extending over the station’s lower volume on the southern axis. This formal strategy shades the existing building from the sun and extends its footprint for additional functions.

Beyond the inherent sustainability of adaptive reuse, our proposal integrates passive design strategies, reuses deconstructed and locally sourced materials and incorporates a system that converts kinetic energy from foot traffic and performances into electricity.

Here, the phrase "Power Pass Power" does not reflect a struggle between energy forms. Rather it acknowledges the city’s abundant creativity as a vital form of power. This power restores the station, revitalizes the neighborhood, boosts economic development, creates jobs, and fosters a vibrant creative community.