Information Market Centre Lekki Lagos State: (Architecture as a Tool for Public Englightenment)

Nigeria is by far the most populated country in Africa blessed with a large reserve of human resources with over 150 million inhabitants and the population is projected to reach 221 million in 2020 a figure that will make Nigeria rank amongst the highest populated countries in the world. This huge population of our country is therefore largely responsible for the increase in unemployment rates because a majority of our skilled labour are seeking white collar jobs which are not available. The scarcity of jobs in the country is severely affecting the growth of the country and standard of living of the general public particularly the lower class. A lack of adequate job creation to cope with the increasing population is a major cause of this unemployment problem graduates now sit at home doing nothing because of lack of opportunity to practice what they learned in school. For this reason the ministry of education has included entrepreneurial studies in the curriculum of secondary schools to prepare the upcoming generation for entrepreneurship but this is not enough because many of the unemployed graduates are already out of the school system and can't be covered. This creates the need for a system to be put in place where the disadvantaged public can be educated for the current global conditions. This thesis presents a solution to this problem in the form of a building structure that is dedicated to the cause of education of the disadvantaged public. The project highlights how architecture can be used to solve a problem by creating a space where the the people in possession of knowledge can educate those without knowledge and generate revenue in the process.