Avinash Rajagopal, from Metropolis Magazine, presents an intriguing survey on the most creative neighbourhoods in the world. Rajagopal lines up 10 growing cities as great white hope for a cultural change including; Lagos (Yaba), Hong Kong (Upper Sheung Wan), Fukuoka (Daimyo), Cape Town (Silo District), Madrid (Malasana) and others.

Lagos(Yaba)

Nigeria’s Victoria Island is generally known as the cultural epicenter of the new, prosperous Lagos, but the gentrified neighborhood is too upmarket now for emerging talents, and will soon be the site of a multibillion-dollar mixed-use development called Eko Atlantic. Meanwhile, newer tech companies and young entrepreneurs have flocked to Yaba, a once-derelict suburb. Low rents and a rezoning initiative by the city have encouraged tech giants like Google and Microsoft to create spaces for start-ups. Other forms of creativity also flourish in Yaba—internationally renowned architecture studio NLÉ created the prototype for its award-winning floating school in Yaba’s waterfront Makoko community......Continue Reading

Top image: Artist Olalekan Jeyifous created his Shanty Megastructures project to imagine a vertical future for informal settlements in Lagos. To make a statement about the pressures of real estate development in the Nigerian capital, Jeyifous gives its marginalized communities, like the one in Makoko, a presence in the urban skyline. Courtesy Olalekan Jeyifous

> via Metropolis