Made in Nigeria is a collaboration between students at Yaba College of Technology, Lagos and the Royal College of Art, London. It grew out of a proposal from Nigerian sculptor Olu Amoda for a workshop in which international designers would work with the street welders of Lagos.

In this interpretation of the original proposal, Olu Amoda and British designers Martino Gamper and Tom Dixon mentored the 12 students in a 10-day interdisciplinary workshop which brought together students from product and furniture design, engineering and fashion. The students were challenged to prototype contemporary products that had export potential and reflected the local character of Nigeria. The imperatives of sustainability and affordability required the students to be resourceful with scrapyard waste and low-cost, available materials.

Given the recent government ban on the import of furniture into Nigeria, the workshop was timely. Nigerian designers and makers now have an opportunity to increase their market share and encourage Nigerians to buy locally-produced goods in an environment where imported products carry high status. We aim to raise awareness of the importance of design both in commerce and in cultural expression; and to preserve and upgrade indigenous craft skills through the application of design.

The students made a series of products for the home and industry. Max Lamb, RCA, produced a stacking chair using minimum materials and processes. The combination of cane and metal is intended to encourage joint enterprise among the street welders and cane weavers. Max also produced a concrete bowl as an example of how the local concrete block and brick makers can diversify their range by combining existing materials with simple steel moulds. “Lagos was positively amazing. My eyes have been opened completely” Max said: “Design all seems so much more real there; the needs all too apparent, and greater than ours”.

Robert Phillips, RCA, and Femi Odeleye from Lagos produced an irrigation system by using readily available materials - a wheelbarrow, a length of plastic hosepipe and a plastic water tank. Water is dispensed at a steady rate as the wheelbarrow is pushed along. The product itself is simply a set of assembly instructions that can be posted to the farmer.

Thomas Letourneux, RCA, produced fruit bowls with the steel industrial off-cuts. “The local scrapyards perfectly illustrate how resourceful Nigerians are at re-using metal components, but the system still generates a huge quantity of unused metal. Off-cut 01 and 02 demonstrate the potential of these forgotten pieces”. Gen Suzuki, RCA, inspired by the recycling imagination and handcrafting skills of the people of Lagos, produced hand-crafted garden tools from standard 2" steel pipe. Having witnessed motorway cleaners struggling to sweep the Lagos traffic lanes with a small handbrush, Max Lamb and Robert Phillips, RCA, converted a standard handbrush into a broom and designed a matching pivoting dustpan from a bucket.

The students are continuing to send models to prototyped in Nigeria. For more information about this project and the similar workshop run by Martino and Tom in India, with the support of the British Council, take a look at www.platformtwo.net. We should like to thank Virgin Atlantic and the National Gallery of Art, Nigeria for their generous support.