NLÉ Architects, architecture, design, and urbanism practice led by Kunlé Adeyemi, has released its fourth prototype and third iteration of the Makoko Floating School - a prefabricated self-build system for water to address the challenges and opportunities of urbanisation and climate change. 

Called MFS IIIx3, the prototype was developed as part of Cosmopolis #1.5: ‘Enlarged Intelligence’ exhibition in collaboration with the Centre Pompidou and Mao Jihong Arts Foundation running from November 3, 2018 to January 6, 2019.

Installed  in Jincheng Lake in Chengdu’s new ecological belt, MFS IIIx3 offers an approach to, and revives, an ancient yet contemporary civilisational relationship with water, originally inspired by the water community of Makoko in Lagos, and now adapted for the water city of Chengdu.

MFS IIIx3 is introduced into the dynamics of a 2,200 year-old history of water management expertise, originating from the Min River (Minjiang) and from Dujiangyan — an ingenious irrigation system built in 256 BC, and still in use today — keeping the southwestern Sichuan province free of floods and drought and making it one of the most fertile and economically developed urban and agricultural areas in China.

Following NLÉ’s first prototype the Makoko Floating School (MFS I) developed in Africa’s most populous city of Lagos, Nigeria in 2013, Waterfront Atlas (MFS II) launched in Venice, Italy in 2016 and Minne Floating School (MFS III) in Bruges, Belgium, in 2018, NLÉ in collaboration with Fanmate and KRJS in Chengdu, has adapted and scaled MFS III into three modular sizes — small, medium and large. 

The three floating structures are constructed from wood and Chengdu’s abundant local bamboo — to create an open air concert hall, an indoor exhibition space and a small information center, all clustered around a communal plaza — bringing people together in a hub for reflection about the arts, water cultures and future ecologies.

‘Cosmopolis #1.5: Enlarged Intelligence’ presents artworks and programs by almost 60 artists and groups, exploring ecology, technology and the commons, and envisioning how we today may draw on intelligent technologies, as well as on ecological intelligence, to advance social values—rather than leaving capital to largely define the uses of these techniques and knowledge systems.

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