This gift store, which sits on a busy and popular street in the Lekki Phase 1 area of Lagos, was created to marvel and to draw in crowds into a small-scale business looking for a foothold in Lagos.

An adaptive reuse of an existing residential building with a single raised floor, we invented a facade that was both crystal and machines. As a crystal, it advertises the movement through the building and the wares within, albeit in a fresh and enticing manner.

 

As a machine, it wraps the building while creating extra volume at the top of it. The overall effect being one of a chimney that helps to remove hot air rapidly.

Built with light-weight hollow metal, and clad in thin galvanized metal sheeting, the Cube is one of the first public uses in contemporary Lagos, of a Tyrolean mixture that contributes to the thermal performance of the building, while also acting as a canvas for artists to create graffiti on its surface periodically, making It a living building.