CityLab Daily: The History and Design of Lagos Face-Me-I-Face-You Homes

To understand how Nigeria’s most populous city came to be, take a look at the beginnings of a common home style in Lagos in the latest offering from our iconic home design series. The Face-Me-I-Face-You homes, now popular among low-income families, are structured with rooms whose doors face each other with an axial corridor, so the first thing neighbors see is each other as they leave in the morning. But they didn’t always serve that function.

The structures were originally intended as whole houses for Nigeria’s upper class as society began to value private spaces and smaller nuclear families. The design, which allowed for rooms in large houses to open out to corridors instead of interconnecting, gained popularity for enabling interaction with others, and eventually moved down the class ladder as middle and then lower-class residents moved into the structures. Originally seen as a suitable solution for the rapidly expanding city and acting as a catalyst for change in Nigerian society, these buildings now have a reputation for poor living conditions and mistrust. But their complex history might still offer inspiration for Lagos’ future, writes contributor Paul Yakubu. Today on CityLab: How Face-Me-I-Face-You Homes Became a Way of Life in Lagos