Maa-Bara : catalyzing change in Nigeria's Niger delta

Can architecture catalyze economic growth? This thesis serves as a design contribution to the war against poverty by proving that small-scale architectural interventions can propagate large-scale economic growth. It demonstrates how by 'rethinking relationships'- which is the essence of design thinking- synergistic innovations are created, capable of unleashing economic growth of pandemic proportions. Case in point: Nigeria's Niger Delta, home of the nation's oil wealth, and paradoxically home of the nation's poorest citizenry. Where over 85% of the populace are without access to safe water and an average of 13 million barrels of crude oil annually spill to contaminate the soil and water. Obviously, this is no architectural problem. Through the Maa-Bara (translated: Water-Farm, from Ogoni language) which is a careful splicing of aquaculture technologies, local building technologies and capacity-focused development strategies with design thinking, innovation of great economic potential is born.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2011

Author dc:creator

• Okiomah, Ogheneruno E. (Ogheneruno Elo)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Shun Kanda and James Wescoat.

• Architecture.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/63053

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/63053