India, along with 100 other nations, will ratify the Paris “COP 21 Global Climate Agreement” in New York on April 22, Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said in Mumbai on Saturday.
Indian Environment Minister, Prakash Javadekar
“The COP 21 agreement would be ratified at a high level signing ceremony to be convened at the UN Headquarters in New York on April 22,” Javadekar said at a symposium at the University of Mumbai.
“All countries have decided to walk the green path as per their common but differentiated responsibilities. India was always perceived to be a naysayer and negative in its approach and took a corner seat in most of the international conferences. But in Paris, Prime Minister Narendra Modi introduced the concept of climate justice driving home the message of sustainable development,” Javadekar said at the symposium titled “COP 21 Building Synergies, Shaping Actions”.
Saying that climate change was a reality with 1-degree rise in temperature caused by 150 years of uncontrolled carbon emission by the developed countries, Javadekar said India was responsible for only three percent the global carbon emission. Thirty percent of the cumulative contribution was that of the United States, 50 percent by Europe, Canada and other developed world and 10 percent by China.
“Though India is not part of the problem, it wants to be part of the solution. Our commitment is reflected in every programme being pursued by the government,” he said.
Describing the Paris Agreement as a victory of multilateralism and the one which helped correct the image perception of India, the minister said: “If the developed world followed India’s example and levied higher taxes on coal, billions of dollars would accrue to pursue clean energy programmes.”
The minister also said that the proposed Compensatory Afforestation Funds Bill 2015, would unlock Rs. 40,000 crore of funds for the ‘Green India’ initiative. The fund would be released during the resumed Budget session.
Union Minister of State for New and Renewable Energy, Piyush Goyal, on the occasion said that India has launched the world’s largest renewable energy programme by scaling up the target for solar energy by pushing ahead the 20,000 megawatts of solar electricity generation to 1,00,000 megawatts by 2022.
Goyal also lamented ‘lack of commitment’ of the developed world in fulfilling their obligations.
“India’s green energy programmes will be carried out whether we receive support of the western world or not”.
The 21st Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 21) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) 21 was held in December 2015 in Paris where 195 countries adopted the first-ever universal, legally binding global climate deal. The agreement sets out a global action plan to put the world on track to avoid dangerous climate change by limiting global warming to well below 2-degree Celsius. The agreement is due to enter into force in 2020.
Bothered by the incessant collapse of buildings in the bustling city of Lagos in Nigeria, town planner and planning advocate, Yacoob Abiodun, who resides in Parkview Estate in Ikoyi, explores the challenges facing physical planning and urban development in the state, and proffers a solution
Rescue workers at a building collapse site
March 8, 2016 is a date most residents of Lagos cannot forget in a hurry. They woke up to the sad news of the collapse of a five-storey building under construction on Kusenla Road, Ikate-Elegushi in Lekki Phase I area of Lagos Mega City, which caused the death of 34 people and over 100 others severely wounded. Lekki Gardens was identified as the developer of the building.
Reports from the dailies sequel to the unfortunate incident attributed varying degree of causes responsible for the collapse of the building which, inter alia, include: over building (from three to five floors) by the developer contrary to the building plan initially approved for the company by the Lagos State Planning Permit Authority, lack of proper supervision by officials of the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA), hasty development of the building without recourse to laid down construction procedure, inexperience workers and recalcitrant developer who would not comply with extant planning laws of Lagos State.
In a nutshell, we have a situation of criminal neglect of responsibility by State officials who should have nipped the disaster in the bud and prevent it from occurring, having realised that the developer was not law-compliant. The next culprits are the officials of Lekki Gardens who acted above the law to the detriment of the lives of 34 innocent people who died at the site of the collapsed building. Another system failure is the neglect of enforcing the law as and when it is absolutely necessary.
Without mincing words, the causes of frequent building collapse are many and are interwoven. Meaning: you cannot address one and leave the other unaddressed. It is therefore in the best interest of the Lagos State Government (LASG) to approach the issue of building collapse with an open mind (my emphasis). The government should listen to the numerous suggestions from a gamut of professionals in the built environment (builders, architects, town planners, structural engineers, environmentalists and allied professionals) to guide its final decision on how to curb the menace. As they say, two heads are better than one, while nobody has a monopoly of knowledge. The array of commentaries in the dailies after the incident lends credence to this school of thought.
This article will focus on physical planning aspect which could be partially responsible for building collapse often caused by human error, neglect of responsibility or corruption. We shall also probe into the issues of urban development in the Lagos Mega City region, which require fine- tuning as part of effort to curb incessant building collapse in the state.
Periscope on physical planning in Lagos
To all discerning minds, especially among the professionals in the built environment, particularly Town Planners, one can rightly critique that physical planning in Lagos has many deviations from established standard in terms of planning rules and regulations, compliance and enforcement of extant laws, promotion of urban aesthetics, conducive land use, zoning, proper monitoring and ethical rectitude among those who have the remit for urban planning.
Causes of (avoidable) urban development problems in Lagos
Arising from the above observation about the deviations from what ought to be done and not done properly in accordance with planning best practices; urban development scene in Lagos has continued to be plagued with numerous problems, the most noticeable of which are listed for the sake of emphasis:
Incompatible land uses where offices are located in residential areas, industry next door to a school, a church sharing the same premise with a residential building and other planning oddities too numerous to mention due to space constraint.
Man-made traffic problems where commercial buildings banks, fast-food joints and event centres are located in ever-busy arterial roads without minimal standard of required parking space.
Unsustainable increase in housing density creating problem of air circulation due to lack of minimum space prescribed by physical planning regulations. In some instances, houses are built like pack of sardines.
Institutional inefficiency and lack of constant monitoring of on-going development/construction activities in the Lagos Mega City region as evidenced in the collapsed building at Lekki Phase I earlier referred to.
Ridiculous building plan approval at variance of extant approval order for certain localities (Parkview Estate is a classic example. Too many planning violations abound in that estate).
Lawless developers who would not comply with development regulations and ready to cut corners thereby endangering the lives of the citizenry as witnessed in the recent building collapse at Lekki Phase I last March.
Flagrant violations of operative Lagos Model City Plans in such districts as Victoria-Island/Ikoyi, Apapa, Agege/Ifakoijaiye).
Non-existence of an Urban and Regional Planning Tribunal required by extant LASG physical planning law, where cases of planning violations/disputes can be petitioned and adjudicated by an Independent jury.
Feeble citizens’ participation in plan formulation and the processes leading to it.
Under-staffed and not-well-equipped Physical Planning District Offices for effective performance of routine supervision and monitoring of developmental activities within assigned local planning district(s).
Paucity of useful information online for public use from the websites of all government institutions responsible for physical planning, environment, building control and allied matters.
Arbitrary conversion of building without the necessary permit from planning authority for change of use.
The way forward
If all the lapses identified above are to be rectified, the LASG must have the political will to do certain things that government had been repeatedly advised to do over the years in order to improve physical planning, urban development; and to drastically reduce the incidences of building collapse in the state. To buttress this point, the issue came to the fore after the building collapse at Lekki. In the Tribune edition of Tuesday, March 29, Mrs Kehinde George, who is the first female Town Planner in Nigeria and a seasoned planning practitioner, remarked as follows: “The government shares part of the blame because it has not implemented some of the earlier recommendations made by experts on building collapse.”
Her view was corroborated in the same newspaper report by the ex-president of Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV), Mr Bode Adediji, who argued that “the government must be dedicated to put an end to it (cases of building collapse). “Since we have been recording such incidents, no one has been made to face the law so as to serve as deterrent to others.”
The views of other experts who spoke on the same subject matter were also in tandem. In other words, they are saying that government needs to be assertive, take the bull by the horn and protect the citizenry. Government cannot be doing the same thing over and over again and expect a different result.
Kudos to Governor Ambode
Since the sad incident of building collapse at Lekki under reference, Governor Ambode took some initiatives for which he must be commended. The Governor sacked the General Manager of Lagos Sate Building Control Agency (LASBCA) and three other key officials for negligence of duty and set up a Committee to advise government on how to improve the efficiency of LASBCA in accordance with its statutory responsibilities. Governor Ambode let it be known that there is a new sheriff in town and that it won’t be business as usual. This writer is in total agreement with the governor, but wishes to draw his attention to the following list of quick fixes which Governor Ambode would need to take immediate actions.
Actions the Lagos State Government must urgently take
Constitute the Urban and Regional Planning tribunal as specified in the relevant provision of the state physical planning law. The failure in setting up the Tribunal since the law was enacted in 2010 is an unnecessary bureaucracy.
Equip the various District Offices with necessary tools to facilitate better job performance of field officials (operational vehicles, modern office equipment, base maps, faster mode of communication etc.)
Recruit more professionals in the various fields (town planners, structural engineers, builders, environmentalists, etc) to do the job of physical/environmental planning and supervision especially at the outpost offices which are closer to the delineated Local Planning Areas (LPAs). Lagos is an extraordinary large and densely populated planning region. The current staff strength is far inadequate to effectively police the entire region, planning wise.
Occasionally organise Town Hall meetings on planning and urban development as a platform for citizen participation and sundry stakeholders’ involvement in the planning process.
Establish Citizen Planning Academies (CPAs) designed as community education programmes, which will facilitate and support understanding of planning and planning policy between the local government and its citizens.
Conduct regular in-service training for government officials to update their knowledge about emerging/best practices in urban planning.
Restructure all government MDAs for effective service delivery, eradicate duplication of statutory functions and encourage inter- agency collaboration among ministries/departments/agencies/authorities.
Direct the Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development to be proactive, publish quick read planning fact sheets/brochures/resources for public information and consumption. Access to planning information by the public should be unfettered both online and through direct contact with the designated offices of the Lagos State Government. The public must have easy access to government regulations in order not to run afoul of the laws.
Implore the MPP & UD to be IT-compliant and regularly update its website with useful planning information and downloadable. The present information on the website is very scanty. No downloadable. It should be regularly updated.
Strict enforcement of planning laws should be total. It should not be selective, arbitrary, punitive or arrant display of executive high handedness or recklessness.
District officers must be held responsible for any planning gaffe/negligence within their areas of operation and where found culpable for aiding and abetting any violation; such official(s) must be sanctioned and reported to the disciplinary committee of his/her professional association for appropriate punishment.
Proper land use planning
In conclusion, proper land use planning practice is sine qua none to harmonious urban living, promotion of aesthetics and tool for controlling urban decay. In practice, the Lagos Mega City Region is an unfortunate victim of improper land use practice thereby creating a nebulous and irritating urban landscape and housing overcrowding. Government must promote better land uses through the instrumentality of zoning in line with global best practices, to befit the status of Lagos as a Mega City and to showcase appealing attractions for local and international tourism.
Every culture has its own traditions surrounding the birth of a child. While we celebrate newborn girls by sending pink dresses and dolls, in the village of Piplantri in Rajasthan, India, they celebrate by planting 111 trees.
Over the course of the past six years, a quarter of a million trees have been planted in Piplantri
That’s right, every time a little girl is born in Piplantri, 111 trees are planted in her honor!
In most Indian villages, the birth of a daughter was historically considered a burden for a family. Rural villages operate on the dowry system which contributes to the high cost of marriage for households with daughters. As a result, daughters were often regarded as lesser than their male counterparts and many were married before they reached the age of 18; few received a proper education.
Violence against women derived from these attitudes is still a heated topic in India. The documentary “India’s Daughters,” was recently banned due to its upfront portrayal of rape and abuse in the country.
In juxtaposition, the tradition of planting trees to welcome the birth of female children in Piplantri seems to completely reject these historical constraints, fostering hope that attitudes towards women can change.
This amazing custom was started by former village leader Shyam Sundar Paliwal to honor his daughter who passed away when she was young. Although Paliwal no longer serves as the village’s leader, the tradition has continued nonetheless.
When a girl is born, village members band together to raise a sort of “trust” for the girl. The parents contribute one-third of the sum of 31,000 Rupees, equivalent to $500, and the money is set aside as a 20-year fund for the girl. This ensures that she will never be considered a financial burden for her parents.
In return for this trust, the parents sign a legal affidavit that states that the daughter will only be married after she reaches the age of 18 and has received a proper education. The affidavit states that the 111 trees must be taken care of as well.
It’s a clever little catch, but the practice of planting trees in conjunction with the birth of a child actually works to ensure that the local environment will be able to support the ever growing population.
Not only does this tradition foster a deep appreciation for females in the village, but it also instils a remarkable sense of environmental stewardship.
Gehrilal Balai, a father who planted 111 saplings last year, told Hindustan Times that he felt the same happiness in looking after the saplings as lulling his daughter to sleep.
The trees become a symbol for the baby girl and the villagers work just as hard to protect the trees from termites, by planting aloe vera, as they do the girls from all the hardships of life.
Seeing the intimate connection between the social health and environmental health of the village, Paliwal’s tradition has created a truly sustainable future for community members.
Over the course of the past six years, a quarter of a million trees have been planted in Piplantri. Villagers credit the harmony that this tradition has brought to their community with the dramatic drop in crime. Not to mention their renewed adoration of little girls.
United Nations (UN) Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, has commended Thursday’s Joint Presidential Statement on climate change by the leaders of the People’s Republic of China and the United States announcing that both countries will sign the Paris Agreement at a special ceremony at the United Nations on 22 April, the first day the Agreement is open for signature.
President Barack Obama of the US (right) and President Xi Jinping of China
He further welcomed the announcement that both countries commit to taking steps in their respective countries to join the Agreement as early as possible this year, while urging other countries to do so as well so that the Paris Agreement can enter into force as early as possible.
According to the UN Secretary-General, he is encouraged by the commitment of the world’s two largest emitters to work for successful outcomes this year to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through the Montreal Protocol, the International Civil Aviation Organisation Assembly, and at the upcoming G-20 Summit in Hangzhou, China.
According to the UN, the 22 April Signature Ceremony will build on the strong political momentum from Paris for urgent global action on climate change by all countries which, it adds, is essential for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and creating a more prosperous, equitable and liveable future for all people.
UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon at COP21. Photo credit: ibtimes.co.uk
The U.S.-China Joint Presidential Statement on Climate Change reads thus:
Over the past three years, climate change has become a pillar of the U.S.-China bilateral relationship. Both countries have taken strong measures at home to build green, low-carbon and climate-resilient economies, helping galvanise global action to combat climate change and culminating in the Paris Agreement reached last December. With their joint announcement of ambitious climate actions in November 2014, President Barack Obama and President Xi Jinping sought to lead by example, and by the time the Paris conference opened a year later, some 186 countries had put forward their own climate actions. In September 2015, the two leaders laid out a common vision for the Paris outcome during President Xi’s State Visit to Washington and also announced major domestic policy measures and cooperative initiatives to combat climate change, as well as significant progress on climate finance. In Paris, the United States and China, working together and with others, played a critical role in crafting a historic, ambitious global climate change agreement.
Today, the two Presidents announce another significant step in their joint climate efforts. The United States and China will sign the Paris Agreement on April 22nd and take their respective domestic steps in order to join the Agreement as early as possible this year. They encourage other Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to do the same, with a view to bringing the Paris Agreement into force as early as possible. The Presidents further express their commitment to work together and with others to promote the full implementation of the Paris Agreement to win the fight against the climate threat.
The Presidents recognise that the Paris Agreement marks a global commitment to tackling climate change and a strong signal of the need for a swift transition to low-carbon, climate-resilient economies. In this regard, the Presidents are also committed to working bilaterally and with other countries to achieve successful outcomes this year in related multilateral fora, including on an HFC amendment under the Montreal Protocol pursuant to the Dubai Pathway and on a global market-based measure for addressing greenhouse gas emissions from international aviation at the International Civil Aviation Organisation Assembly. To accelerate clean energy innovation and deployment, they will work together to implement the goals of the Mission Innovation initiative announced at the Paris conference and carry forward the work of the Clean Energy Ministerial. They support a successful G-20 Summit in Hangzhou this year, including strong climate and clean energy outcomes, and call on the G-20 countries to engage constructively in international cooperation on energy and climate change. And they will continue to deepen and broaden bilateral cooperation through the U.S.-China Climate Change Working Group, the U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Centre, and other efforts.
Finally, the Presidents commit to taking concrete steps to implement the commitments they made in their September 2015 Joint Statement to use public resources to finance and encourage the transition toward low carbon technologies as a priority. Since the Joint Statement, the United States led an effort in the OECD to successfully adopt the first-ever set of multilateral standards for support of coal-fired power plants using export credit, and China has been strengthening its green and low-carbon policies and regulations with a view to strictly controlling public investment flowing into projects with high pollution and carbon emissions both domestically and internationally.
The joint efforts by China and the United States on climate change will serve as an enduring legacy of the partnership between our two countries.
Health and environment experts want governments at all levels to allocate more resources to help cushion the effect of extreme weather condition in the country predicted by the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET).
Extreme weather: Windstorm destroys a home in a Lagos neighbourhood
NIMET had recently in its annual rainfall prediction told Nigerians to get ready for more hot days, warm nights and heat waves this year.
The experts believe that the hot weather is likely to accelerate devastating health challenges in different parts of the country, and could only be managed if proper planning is on ground.
According to Dr Tunde Segun, a public health practitioner, if the hot weather comes as predicted, there would be an acceleration of heat relates diseases including meningitis, with children and pregnant women among those that will be mostly affected.
“Exposure to extreme heat can cause illness and even death for some people,” he disclosed.
While urging the authorities to get ready to manage disease epidemic, Dr Segun advised Nigerians to ensure proper ventilation of their homes, among other measures, in order to cope with the situation.
“We need to keep our body temperature in the range of 35.5 to 37.5°C as this protects our vital organs and allows the body to function normally. Adaptive behaviour, such as staying under the shade, indoors in air-conditioned places and using fans to circulate the air, would be helpful,” he added.
To environmentalists, the prediction of more hot days, warm nights and heat waves has only confirmed the widely held impression that climate change is real, adding that inhabitants of Mother Earth are in “serious trouble” if urgent steps are not taken to address the impending disaster.
The prediction by NIMET is noteworthy, what with the global average air temperature hitting one degree hotter than it was at the start of the 20th Century.
Nigeria is particularly said to be among the most vulnerable countries to the effects of climate variation, as the nation experiences issues such as desertification in the North, flooding and coastal erosion in the South, gully erosion in the South East, as well as loss of biodiversity and intense heat.
Environmentalists say the launching of an aggressive tree planting initiative and preservation of existing forest reserves remains the most sustainable ways of controlling extreme weather conditions, including the hot weather that was predicted by NIMET, as the trees absorb the excess carbon that constitute high percent of greenhouse gasses that cause warming.
Reacting, the Director-General, Chartered Institute of Environmental & Public Health Management of Nigeria, said that all hands must be on deck to take care of the environment, otherwise the human race faces the threat of being eliminated from the face of the Earth.
His words: “Man is now an endangered species and, in some 50 years’ time, environmental scientists have warned that if we do not do something now, tomorrow will be too late.
“The world is changing gradually. If you look at the Antarctica, in those days it used to be very cold and the ice would spread. But these days global warming has caused the ice to melt, thus inducing sea level rise and flooding.
“Greenhouse gases from faulty cars, refrigerators, air conditioners and others have destroyed the ozone layer. The sun is now able to penetrate the earth and in the process living things are dying, deserts are increasing. The tidal waves of the ocean are becoming more ferocious”.
He noted that climate change would worsen diseases such as malaria and cholera, and that the onus lies on the government to plan ahead to avert it.
“It is an incontestable fact that the whole world is facing a barrage of environmental challenges, more than ever before. These challenges range from pollution, waste management, erosion, deforestation, desertification and, most importantly, climate change. According to a report by the Unites Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), climate change could worsen existing inequalities among the 2.3 billion children across the world. Consequently, more children would be exposed to malaria, cholera and other variety of heat related illnesses.”
An environmentalist, Professor Oladipo Olukayode, who noted that the kind of hot weather predicted by NIMET usually causes meningitis and other heat-related diseases in Northern Nigeria, maintained that the weather across the country remains normal, unless the hotness continued till next month.
“Normally, after the hammatan the months of March and April are usually very hot. That is the major cause of meningitis in the Northern part of the country. But if it exceeds March and April, then we are in trouble,” said Prof Oladipo.
According to NIMET, due to the long persistence of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the current warming would continue beyond 2100, even when the emission of greenhouse gases are reduced.
NIMET had advised the country to adopt adaptation strategies and engage in climate resilient practices to cope with the unsavoury developments associated with extreme weather.
Zaha Hadid, the Iraqi-born British architect was the first woman to be awarded the Pritzker Prize – architecture’s equivalent of the Nobel Prize – in 2004. She died on Thursday morning in Miami, aged 65.
In the course of her outstanding career, her use of unusual shapes became apparent in early competition proposals for The Peak terminus in Hong Kong (1983), the Kurfürstendamm in Berlin (1986), and the Cardiff Bay Opera House in Wales (1994).
But it was the 1993 Vitra Fire Station in Weil Am Rhein, Germany – her first major built project – that thrust Hadid into the spotlight. Although the building was deemed unsuitable by users, its angled concrete walls and sharply pointed portico gained attention from critics and launched her career.
Hadid’s work with concrete continued with projects such as Innsbruck’s Bergisel Ski Jump (2002) and Cincinnati’s Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art (2003), which both demonstrated how she used the material to create irregular angular forms. In larger projects such as the BMW Central Building in Leipzig and Phaeno Science Centre in Wolfsburg, both completed in 2005, Hadid was able to further experiment with concrete’s sculptural capabilities – introducing dramatic curves to the angled structural elements, ceilings and window shapes.
As Hadid’s career advanced, projects continued to grow in size and budget, and her use of curves and sinuous shapes became even more ambitious.
The MAXXI museum in Rome, one of her most critically acclaimed projects, features black staircases and light fixtures that snake through the strips of structure. The building won Hadid the Stirling Prize in 2010, and she accepted Britain’s most important architecture award again the following year for the Evelyn Grace Academy in London.
Hadid, along with Schumacher, was a champion of Parametricism, which relies on algorithms to dictate the shapes of digital models that become architectural forms. Their firm used this technique to design buildings including the 2014 Dongdaemun Design Plaza in Seoul.
Among Hadid’s most important recent works is the Heydar Aliyev Center in Baku, Azerbaijan. Doubts surround the ethics of the project, but the impact of the building’s sculptural skin rising from the ground into giant waves is unquestionable.
Zaha Hadid Architects has a vast number of projects in progress. Eagerly anticipated buildings such as the soon-to-complete parasitic Port Authority building in Antwerp and a major new airport terminal in Beijing will cement Hadid’s legacy as one of the most tenacious, divisive and celebrated architects of her generation.
MAXXI museum, Rome, 2009Evelyn Grace Academy, London, 2010Pierresvives, Montpellier, 2012Olympic Aquatics Centre, London, 2012Dongdaemun Design Park and Plaza, Seoul, 2014Heydar Aliyev Centre, Baku, 2014Messner Mountain Museum, Corones, 2015Zaha Hadid
A statement released by her office said: “It is with great sadness that Zaha Hadid Architects have confirmed that Dame Zaha Hadid, DBE died suddenly in Miami in the early hours of this morning.”
Hadid was born in Baghdad in 1950. After graduating from the Architectural Association in 1977, she joined her former professors, Rem Koolhaas and Elia Zenghelis, at OMA. She established Zaha Hadid Architects in 1979, which she ran with Patrik Schumacher.
Significant early projects included The Peak in Hong Kong (1983), the Kurfürstendamm in Berlin (1986), and the Cardiff Bay Opera House in Wales (1994) – but she garned most attention for her Vitra Fire Station in Weil Am Rhein, Germany (1993).
Hadid’s many accolades include the Pritzker Prize, which she was awarded in 2004. She received the Republic of France’s Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, Japan’s Praemium Imperiale and in 2012 was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
Hadid taught architecture at schools around the world, including the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University, the University of Illinois, Columbia University, Yale University and the University of Applied Arts in Vienna.
Archigram founder Peter Cook, who nominated Hadid for the Royal Gold Medal, described her as “our heroine”.
“For three decades now, she has ventured where few would dare,” he said. “If Paul Klee took a line for a walk, then Zaha took the surfaces that were driven by that line out for a virtual dance.”
“Devastated by the loss of a great architect and colleague today,” said Libeskind. “Her spirit will live on in her work and studio. Our hearts go out.”
Richard Rogers told The Guardian newspaper that the news of Hadid’s death was “really, really terrible”.
“Among architects emerging in the last few decades, no one had any more impact than she did. She fought her way through as a woman,” he said. “She was the first woman to win the Pritzker Prize. I got involved with her first in Cardiff when the government threw her off the project in the most disgraceful way. She has had to fight every inch of the way. It is a great loss.”
Other architects to pay their respects include Frank Gehry, who described Hadid as a “great architect and a great friend”, and Herzog & de Meuron, who said she will “leave an indelible mark on that extraordinary moment in the history of architecture”.
Amanda Levete called the architect as a “dear and loyal friend” and “one of the most extraordinary talents of our time”.
“Her global impact was profound and her legacy will be felt for many years to come because she shifted the culture of architecture and the way that we experience buildings,” said Levete.
“She was an extraordinary role model for women. She was fearless and a trailblazer – her work was brave and radical. Despite sometimes feeling misunderstood, she was widely celebrated and rightly so,” she added. “I will miss her deeply, as will the world of architecture.”
“[Hadid was] the first ‘Grande Dame de l’architecture’ and a great figure in many ways,” she told Dezeen. “She has opened so many doors for women in architecture. She has become free and without any fear after having been forced to fight against sexist attitudes. Her architecture reveals her own freedom.”
Royal Institute of British Architects president Jane Duncan told the BBC that Hadid had “made space fly” with “unbelievable” designs.
In a statement to Dezeen, Duncan said: “Dame Zaha Hadid was an inspirational woman, and the kind of architect one can only dream of being,” she said. “Visionary and highly experimental, her legacy despite her young age is formidable.”
“She leaves behind a body of work from buildings to furniture, footwear and cars, that delight and astound people all around the world,” added Duncan. “It was only last month that I had the enviable task of awarding Zaha the 2016 Royal Gold Medal for architecture – she was delighted to receive the recognition and added the medal to an amazing collection of awards, not least winning the RIBA Stirling Prize two years running. The world of architecture has lost a star today.”
“Her contribution to architecture as a pioneer and visionary cannot be overstated, and barely a week goes by without a landmark building opening somewhere in the world,” they said.
“Zaha Hadid was not only a great architect but also a great artist and she leaves an extraordinary body of work not only as built form but also paintings and drawings where she often explored the ideas that would later be transformed into architecture,” they added. “We are honoured to have collaborated with her on numerous occasions and her loss will be deeply felt by us and the world over.”
Numerous architects, designers and industry figures have paid tribute to Hadid on social media.
US designers Yitan Sun and Jianshi Wu have proposed transforming Manhattan‘s Central Park into a sunken landscape encircled by a below-grade megastructure with office, housing, retail and cultural space.
New York Horizon envisions a sunken Central Park wrapped with a mixed-use megastructure
Titled “New York Horizon,” the project won first place in the eVolo Skyscraper Competition, which invites architects and designers to conceive futuristic towers. The annual ideas contest began in 2006.
Sun and Wu have proposed converting Central Park – which encompasses 843 acres (341 hectares) in Upper Manhattan – into a sunken landscape with hills, lakes and meadows. The reimagined park could be used for hiking, climbing, swimming and other outdoor activities.
“We came up with the idea that returns the park to its natural state, when Manhattan once looked more like this — a rugged, bedrock-strewn landscape,” said the designers, who both recently graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design.
The Hive scheme won second place in the competition
“We want to bring back the ‘real nature’ and uncover opportunities for a future skyscraper by doing so.”
This natural terrain would be bordered by a megastructure, or “sidescraper,” with a reflective facade.
“With its highly reflective glass cover on all sides, the landscape inside the new park can reach beyond physical boundaries, creating an illusion of infinity,” said the designers.
As America’s most-densely populated city, New York — particularly Manhattan, one of its five boroughs — is well known for its towering buildings.
Central Park offers a break from the city’s density and verticality, but most residents aren’t able to enjoy the park on a daily basis because they don’t live nor work nearby, said the designers.
By building downward, rather than upward, the designers aim to offer more residential and office space around the park.
“The ambition is to reverse the traditional relationship between landscape and architecture, in a way that every occupiable space has a direct connection to the nature,” they stated.
Their proposed megastructure would completely wrap the sunken park and “create space along the new cliff”. The soil removed from the original park would be relocated to various neighbourhoods.
The megastructure would be 100 feet deep (30 metres), with walls that would rise 1,000 feet (304 metres). The building would contain apartments, stores, museums, libraries and other types of programming.
The floor area would total seven square miles (18 kilometres), which is about 80 times greater than the Empire State Building.
“This system breaks the traditional perception of large-scale skyscrapers without taking valuable ground area of Manhattan,” said the designers.
The third place winner is the Data Tower, a conceptual skyscraper in Iceland for web servers
Constructed between 1858 and 1873, Central Park was designed by noted landscape architects Frederick Law Olmsted and Calver Vaux. Popular among both tourists and local residents, it is the most-visited urban park in America.
The second place winner in this year’s Evolo Skyscraper Competition is The Hive, designed by the US team of Hadeel Ayed Mohammad, Yifeng Zhao and Chengda Zhu. Their scheme features a vertical control terminal for drones in New York.
The third place prize went to Data Tower by the Italian team of Valeria Mercuri and Marco Merletti. The proposal envisions a sustainable skyscraper in Iceland for web servers.
The jury also awarded an honourable mention to 21 projects, including an air-purifying skyscraper, buildings that create rain and towers that prevent a city from sinking.
The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN), member organisations of Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) and community-based groups from the Niger Delta have called on the Nigerian government to match talk with action in the implementation of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Assessment on Ogoniland.
Land degradation from oil spill in Ogoniland, Nigeria
At a recent meeting on the non-implementation of the UNEP assessment report on Ogoniland held in Abuja, the groups said the call became imperative in the light of the observed inactivity in relation to the clean-up of Ogoniland nearly one year after government released a $10 million grant for the commencement of the exercise.
The groups said that, on the contrary, the plight of the Ogoni have worsened following the politicisation of the exercise, a development that has spurred violence in the communities as the local people are denied the basics of life such as clean water, a clean environment and sustainable livelihood.
ERA/FoEN Executive Director, Godwin Ojo, said: “As we march towards the fifth year of the release of the UNEP assessment and its non-implementation, no one is in doubt that the Ogonis continue to bear the burden of the environmental degradation, livelihood losses and other fallouts that is blamed solely on Shell.”
Ojo expressed dissatisfaction that even after the announcement of the take-off grant for the clean-up by President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015, the administration is yet to put in place the relevant institutional structures and frameworks to actually instigate the commencement of the exercise.
He explained that while the present administration must be commended for taking the bold initiative of committing to take actions that the previous administration did not, the $10 million still remains the only action taken, “and this represents a mere 1% of the N1 billion that the UN agency recommended as take-off fund for the exercise.”
Geert Ritsema of Milieudefensie said: “We stand in solidarity with the Ogoni people in their legitimate demand for immediate actions to remediate their degraded environment. There should be no delay in making Shell take full responsibility for this mess.”
In a similar vein, Paul de Clerck of Friends of the Earth Europe (FoEE) said: “Justice delayed is justice denied. The more the delay in commencement of the clean-up recommended by the UNEP, the more the people suffer deprivation.”
The groups reiterated their position that Shell is liable and should be prosecuted for the crime of ecocide since it had “wantonly destroyed the environment of the people of the Niger Delta consistently and over a long period.”
They also demanded among others: Compensation for Ogoni people, the need for establishment of a clean-up fund of $100 billion for the entire Niger Delta and the baring of Shell from the clean-up process except financial contribution in line with ERA/FoEN recommended Polluter Pays Principle.
The highpoint of the engagement was the release of a report titled: “No progress: Will Shell evade justice?” which pinpoints specific issues the government has failed to address in getting the implementation of the UNEP report on auto pilot.
Ako Amadi, Head of Community Conservation and Development Initiatives (CCDI), in a recent chat with Augustina Ogbonna-Armstrong, sheds some light on the relationship between deforestation and harmattan, a dry and dusty north-easterly trade wind which blows from the Sahara Desert over the West African subcontinent into the Gulf of Guinea between the end of November and the middle of March. He is also of the opinion that the El Nino phenomenon is remotely impacting the country
Ako Amadi
Is the El Nino phenomenon ravaging some parts of the world affecting Nigeria or parts of Africa?
Yes, it is. If you don’t study, you will never know. It is having a global impact in the sense that, when you have what we call upwelling. If you look at the marine environment, usually all those continents, North, South, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. On the west side of the continents, there’s a phenomenon called upwelling; which means that seasonally cold waters below 200 metres well up to the surface. These cold waters are rich in nutrient, mainly phytoplankton, which are eaten by plankton.
These phytoplankton and plankton are the main source of food for anchiove, sardines, sardinella, fungi. What we have in Nigeria are fungi, sardinella. If you go towards southern Europe, you have sardines and if you go to northern Europe you have herrings. This is the food of these small fish. So when suddenly the upwelling fails, you don’t have it anymore and instead warm water comes up. It changes the climate, the weather and that’s when you start having either severe storms and that sort of thing. It’s something a hydrographer, climatologist or meteorologist can explain precisely. I am explaining from the point of view of a marine scientist. This is what causes El Nino. Most of them are in Southern America off Peru. And Peru has very large upwelling. It’s one of the wealth of that country. Their whole oil is anchiove, which comes in millions. So this is what is happening now. I haven’t now looked at the details of where and when it is happening but it has put marine science and meteorology in very grave difficulty. Well, good for them that everybody is studying it now.
Is it having any impact here in Nigeria?
Yes, it is. Remotely.
What are the impacts?
The impact is that it puts the weather into uncertainties. You may be having heavier rains and you don’t know that part of it relates to El Niño that is going on in all parts of the world. Where warmer waters are coming to the surface instead of colder waters and, with that, that sort of adds to global warming and all of that disrupts atmospheric circulation.
Looking at Lagos now, you’ll notice that, sometime ago, the harmattan went and came back again. And then it became quite heavy. What can you say is responsible for this? We’ve never had this type in Lagos for a long time.
One thing I know is, when you have deforestation, you will have severe harmattan, because the dust coming from Sahara Desert is what makes the harmattan. It’s an Arabic word, harmattan. Because of the dust from the Sahara coming to the south. That’s what makes this cloudiness that you see. And if you look at your furniture, all of it is covered with dust.
So you’re saying that if Lagos is well forested, we won’t have all these dust?
Not even Lagos (alone), the whole Sahel (and all the forest in Nigeria). Nigeria has the highest rate of deforestation in the world, according to the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations (FAO). These are 2005 figures and they couldn’t have changed because we don’t have any re-afforestation.
But some sort of re-afforestation is going on through the Great Green Wall project in the north.
When did it start?
Two years ago.
When you see a governor watering a few seedlings, that’s not reforestation. I went to seven states in the north in 2013. It’s all seedlings, they haven’t grown to trees. Not much can happen right now. When you look at all those shrubs in the Sahel and savannah, it will take about 10 years for the seedlings to get to that height and start preventing dust from coming down to the south.
This is what we are saying. In ecology you can never be in a hurry because the turnover of life is not sudden. You know, if you want to have a vegetable garden you cannot plant today and harvest tomorrow. It will take some time. let alone talking of trees, which are actually either cultured trees or wild trees. Some of the trees that you see or most of it, like in the Cross River National forest where I am working now are about 80 years old. Sometimes when we tell people that: please don’t cut down very quickly. The cutting down lasts for about half an hour but the re-afforestation takes a lot of time.
The Calabar super highway project…
Aha, that’s another matter. It’s a very long story.
Has the project been re-directed? Has the master plan been changed?
No it has not been changed
So they are still going to cut through the forest.
Yes, after all your president went there to go and launch the project. And all the former governors of Cross River State were there. (Liyel) Imoke and Duke were there, and all those that call themselves conservationists.
