Acclaimed Lagos-based architecture practice Oshinowo Studio (formerly known as cm Design Atelier) has designed sports and streetwear label adidas’s first West African flagship store in Lagos. Located in the sought-after Victoria Island area, Oshinowo Studio won the project following a design competition held by ONL Estates with a brief to draw together Nigerian art, culture and aesthetics with the global brand’s style and personality.
The design draws inspiration from Lagos itself, the home of urban culture in Nigeria and a global centre of creativity. The two-floor, 380 square metre project is a retrofit of an existing 1970s building and is conceived as a combination of clean lines overlaid with a façade that adds a layered texture, reflecting the depth and complexity of the upcycling, reuse and regeneration that can be found throughout the city.
Constructed using a combination of solid and perforated corrugated aluminium sheets traditionally used as roofing in Lagos’s mass housing projects, the striking façade also features LED linear lighting to illuminate the ridged surface, creating a dynamic and unexpected visual effect. In this way, simple and functional materials are elevated to create an optical illusion in which the level of transparency depends on the viewer’s distance from the building. This ingenious façade configuration means that the store has a visible shop window, as well as ample natural sunlight that is sufficiently diffuse to prevent the interior from overheating.
In addition to the aluminium-clad façade, Oshinowo Studio’s approach involved adding a steel frame and glass extension, a solar power system, a sewage treatment plant with capacity for the reuse of waste water as irrigation, and an advanced air conditioning system. Existing, 25 year-old Roystonea regia trees have been retained, alongside the installation of a new basketball half court and stage for entertainment, which present opportunities for customer events and activations.
The project represents an opportunity for adidas, which also carried out the interior design and fit-out of the store, to collaborate with contemporary Nigerian artists Chinelo Ezewudo, Osa Okunkpolor, Dennis Osadebe, and Ayoola Gbolahan.
Tosin Oshinowo, Founder, Oshinowo Studio, said:
“We have relished the opportunity to create a scheme that combines our love of Lagos and of Nigerian contemporary culture, with our global perspective and approach. Our design is inspired by the city ’s resilient, adaptable and go-getter resolve, building a place of convergence for sports and culture.”