Courtesy Olalekan Jeyifous
Brooklyn based architect turned artist Olalekan Jeyifous imagines what Lagos, Nigeria could look like in the future in his series Shanty Megastructures. The images juxtapose sites of privileged and much coveted real-estate throughout Lagos with colossal vertical settlements, representing marginalized communities.
Courtesy Olalekan Jeyifous
"I wanted to create something interesting that provides an alternative vision of the future on a continent and in a country that isn't depicted as much as it should be in sci-fi narratives," says Jeyifous.
Courtesy Olalekan Jeyifous
In his vision, shanty mega structures tower over the city's luxury real-estate areas. Slums, particularly in Lagos, are frequently viewed as unsightly eyesores to be bulldozed, often to make way for luxury apartments, he explains.
Courtesy Olalekan Jeyifous
"Lagos, as one of the fastest growing mega cities, is enormously fascinating and fertile ground for architects, and urban planners," says Jeyifous.
Courtesy Olalekan Jeyifous
Many of his images feature Lagos Makoko Canal, the infamous floating slum. Population estimates range from 85,000 to 250,000.
Courtesy Olalekan Jeyifous
"The dispossessed are given prominence and visibility, albeit through a somewhat dystopian vision that speaks to the fact that these communities often suffer from a lack of appropriate sanitation, electricity, medical services and modern communications," Jeyifous explains.
Courtesy Olalekan Jeyifous
Jeyifous notes that when it comes to razing poor neighborhoods to make way for richer developments, Lagos is not unique. "It is a practice that occurs from Chicago to Rio, and throughout the world," he says.
Courtesy Olalekan Jeyifous
"When people believe that the project is more of a real world solution than political commentary, they start to make critiques based on the efficacy of the design or the engineering feasibility," he notes, of some critics who struggle with their willing suspension of disbelief. This is not a prototype for a Lagos new build but to start a conversation, he says.
Courtesy Olalekan Jeyifous
The artist now aims to move his creations beyond photography through an interactive gaming and virtual reality experience.
CNN  — 

The sci-fi world has started to take notice of Lagos. The Nigerian city even had a starring role in the newest Captain America movie, sparking the tongue-and-cheek trending hashtag #CaptainAmericaInNigeria. Brooklyn-based Nigerian artist Olalekan Jeyifous has his own futuristic twist on the city. In a series dubbed Shanty Megastructures, he’s recreated a Lagos in 2050 where massive tin shacks tower over the city’s luxury real estate areas.

Jeyifous used a series of digital software to create his 3D visuals which he then later rendered into digital photographs. He says it’s to represent the country’s marginalized poor.

“Nigeria isn’t depicted as much as it should be in sci-fi narratives,” he says. “I wanted to create something interesting that provides an alternative vision of the future.”

Recognized as Africa’s biggest metropolis, Lagos is home to almost 20 million residents (more than London, Mumbai and Beijing).

“It is one of the fastest growing mega cities, and an enormously fascinating and fertile ground for architects, urban planners and anyone else intrigued by its potential,” says Jeyifous.

Aminu Abubakar/AFP/Getty Images
The rise of Africa's super-rich has put the continent on the map as the new frontier for global luxury brands. WealthInsight, a global research and analysis firm focused on the world's richest individuals, has singled out 10 cities where Africa's ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNWI), those with over $30 million of net assets excluding their primary residence, live.

Kano, in Nigeria's north, is in 10th place, with 10 UHNWI's in residence.
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Over the next five years, 13 of the 20 fastest-growing economies in the world are forecast to be in Africa. Morocco's bustling tourist center Marrakesh is in ninth place with 15 residents worth over $30 million.
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Real estate giant Knight Frank ranked Ethiopia's capital as one of its Global Cities of the future in its 2015 Wealth Report. The city is in eighth place, hosting 21 UHNWIs.
Credit PIUS UTOMI EKPEI/AFP/Getty Images
Nigeria is among the countries expected to have the most potential for luxury goods demand despite recent troubles. Its capital Abuja has 23 ultra-high-net-worth individuals in residence.
Laurence Bell/CNN
The rise of the urban middle class is encouraging modern retail development in many of the continent's major cities. Tanzania's trade center and economic capital Dar Es Salaam has 36 super-rich individuals.
Courtesy: Kenya Tourism Board
Single malt whiskey is a popular luxury alternative to beer in Kenya, a country whose economy has grown rapidly in recent years. The capital Nairobi has 69 UHNWIs.
Courtesy Cape Town Tourism
The number of African individuals with $30 million in assets is set to more than double over the next decade. Cape Town has long been one of the continent's most affluent cities, and has 115 ultra-high-net-worth individuals.
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In 2013, Lagos, which has 131 UHNWIs, spent more on champagne than the whole of South Africa. With three cities in the ultra-rich list, it's not surprising that Nigeria is now recognized as Africa's largest economy, following a recalculation of its GDP in 2014.
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Egypt's capital has the second highest number of high net-worth individuals -- 150. However, that's still only half that of the city which claims the top spot on the list.
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The commercial capital of South Africa has far more millionaires than any other African city. With 298 people with a net worth over $30 million, it's the city with the most ultra-rich individuals in Africa.

One of the locations the artist pays attention to in these dystopian imaginings is the city’s famous Makoko river slum, home to informal shacks built on stilts. Residents have been living under threat of constant eviction since 2012, when Lagos authorities undertook efforts to modernize the city’s infrastructure.

Many of its residents feel those efforts are to make way for luxury waterfront properties, similar to Bar Beach, a prime real estate site currently under construction just off Victoria Island in Lagos State.

It is estimated around 3,000 people were made homeless when demolition workers knocked down targeted structures in 2012.

CNN
Scores of residents in Makoko have been left homeless after Lagos authorities demolished many of their homes.
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The demolition left possessions and the remnants of people's lives floating away.
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Makoko is one of the many chaotic human settlements that have sprouted in Lagos in recent years.
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Makoko has been called the "Venice of Lagos." But for some, villages like Makoko need to be torn down if Lagos is to develop into a world class city.
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About 70% of Lagos's population is estimated to live in slums under difficult environmenal and health conditions.
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A mother paddles her canoe through a waterway in Makoko. The population explosion in Lagos has resulted to unprecedented demand for land.
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Lagos needs to quickly develop its overburdened infrastructure to accommodate the needs of a rapidly increasing population.
CNN
Lagos is Nigeria's commercial capital and economic nerve center with a population of some 15 million people.

“Slums are frequently viewed as unsightly eyesores to be inevitably bulldozed, leaving their inhabitants completely displaced,” Jeyifous explains.

Gated communities created for middle- and high-income earners are popping up in the city often excluding its previous poorer residents.

“A primary take away (from the visuals) is that development should include the disenfranchised and not just the rich or middle class.”

While the works have been well received, some have taken their appreciation just a little bit too far.

“People will occasionally be inclined to confuse architecturally inspired artworks that make a social or political commentary with real-life, solutions-based design projects.”

“When people believe that the project is more of a real world solution,” says Jeyifous, “they start to make critiques on the engineering feasibility.”

Although this can make for some “very interesting feedback,” Jeyifous notes, this isn’t the prototype for a Lagos new build.

Olalekan Jeyifous is exhibiting at London’s 50Golborne in September 2016, and San Francisco’s Museum of the African Diaspora, in October 2016.