IDIA Cultural Impact Center - Abuja, Nigeria

The IDIA Cultural Impact Center is a 30,000 sf. new facility that seeks to utilize sustainable and resilient infrastructure to create transformational opportunities for Nigerian youth and positively impact the future of Nigeria. The building and landscape draw from cultural instances of the Edo people to provide design direction. The act of threading beads into a necklace was the leading design concept for the building plan concept. The beads represent the building structures, and the threads represent pedestrian circulation and movement, and a connected network of uses. For the facade, the goal was to explore an interdependent and responsive method that communicates a clear relationship between design intent and design response. By using parametric design, we were able to explore the mimicry of both fluid and solid cultural elements that brought us to a dynamic concept. The exploration of this facade concept opened greater opportunities for shading, ventilation, and overall visual appeal.