Because temperatures and rainfall are constantly peaking toward all time highs, we propose an architecture that protects the staff of AISL from the adverse effects of the Nigerian climate. Borrowing from the terracing techniques of traditional Yoruba architecture, the overarching idea is for the building to act as a screen that enables it take what it needs, and reject what it does not need. For instance, the Screen takes the light of the sun, but rejects its heat and harms like ultraviolet rays; while its balconies allows the teaching and non-teaching staff take in views from the adjacent roads yet shields them from the prying eyes and noise that come with peak periods of vehicular traffic.

Though the site presents a dilemma of views: one facing a periodically busy Adetokunbo Ademola Road, the other a lush green sports field; the building continues to act the Screen by orienting its primary activity of living (programmed as apartments) towards the lush green sports field so that they enjoy its view and warmth everyday. Through materials and methods, this screen combines a healthy mix of low thermal mass and a high preference for natural tactics like planters, cross ventilation and airflow cuts.

By articulating the building into two wings so that one may be built before the other, our proposal to touch ground in phases not only reduces carbon footprint at an instant time but helps drive down costs of commissioning; while its earlier mentioned healthy mix of low thermal mass and high preference for natural tactics drives running costs aground.

Like its precedent, the traditional Yoruba houses, the building does it give-and-take not only with the sun, but with views. Its balconies, designed for thermal control, become intermediary zones to take in the view of the road while shielding them from the sights and sounds of vehicular traffic. Furthermore, while the building takes in the brilliant light of the sun and lends itself for the flow of fresh air; it breathes out same through its planters so much that more of it could serve as air conditioners during hot and dry seasons and as rain shelters during wet and cold seasons, for the city of Lagos.

Thus, the Screen is not just green building as a noun but a verb: a subtle pedagogical device that orients the teachers towards a greener Lagos.

Location: Babatunde Jose Street, Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria
Site Area: 4750 sqm.
Architects: HTL
Head of Design: James George
Design Team: Wale Kasumu, Ikenna Agugoesi
Photographs: HTL
Client: AISL, American International School Lagos
Project Date: 2016