Improvised Obsolescence: Olusosun Computer Village

Over the last 20 years, exportation of used electronics have contributed immensely to shaping the economic landscape for developing countries like Nigeria. While 20% of these used electronics get refurbished, about 80% are deposited in nearby landfills. In Lagos Nigeria, the prolonged relationship between landfills and waste pickers, has generated a community that exhibit and inhabit collaged spatial qualities – an improvised small scale city in contrast to the banal conventions of its larger context. This expression ranges from improvised shanties, changing scavenging pathways, makeshift storages, markets, workstations and the overall immediacy of overlapping activities. Through an appraisal of the conditions of a Lagos landfill site and a major refurbished-electronics market nearby, this thesis proposes a spatial resolution that explores an alternative approach to making. The agency of scavenging and improvisation towards a process of remediation that acknowledges the scavenger, the scavenged, and the future eventuality of this expired wasteland.