CoDesign Collective

When you build for fifty thousand souls, the invisible threads- like light, power, and structure - cease to be mere technicalities. They become the rhythm of life itself. ✨

At the Keys to the City II Mixer, our Convener & Founder Anthony Baba-Oladeji | Anthony Baba-Oladeji set the intention: to bring the city builders, energy pioneers, policy architects, and into one room. Not just to construct buildings, but to conceive African cities with enduring soul. Where Sango's raw lightning power, Enwonwu's 'Sango' at old ECN*Marina, The Electricity Act 2023 and energy minigrids in communities; all "Create ways of doing Power and Industrializing".

The conversations moved like a quiet, steady current:

Prof. Peter Oluseyi | Peter Olabisi Oluseyi called on our cohort to design real estate where power is woven into the very first blueprint, not retrofitted as an afterthought.

Omoruyi Edoigiawerie | Omoruyi Edoigiawerie Esq challenged us to seek ways to 'sachetize' power [in buildings] and meet the demand of our communities.

Seyigbena Hinvi | Seyigbéna Carlos reminded us that true innovation scales only when built through collective trust and quiet partnerships.

In the room, energy innovators from Africa Minigrid Development Association AMDA stood side by side with real estate visionaries, turning shared aspirations into shared ground. Eight developers from our seventeen-strong cohort stepped up to share their sequence of proofs.

Who are the builders shaping tomorrow? More in our next post. 👁️

Keys to the City II received great support from
Alliance Française de Lagos | Mike Adenuga Centre Alliance Française de Lagos
EandC Legal | EandC Legal
Legrand Gulf of Guinea | Legrand Gulf Of Guinea.
Vibranium Valley | Vibranium Valley by VGG
Fokes Property |

Are you a young architect who thinks like an entrepreneur? 📐✨

We aren't looking for traditional designers. We are looking for someone who views architecture not just as physical walls, but as an ecosystem of products, media, and digital platforms.

If you are comfortable with deep research, big-picture strategy, and breaking architecture down into its constituent parts—from physical spaces to digital platforms, published books, and scalable products—we want you.

What we are looking for:
🔹 The Builder: You are comfortable with ambiguity and thrive when creating something from scratch.
🔹 The Partner: You want skin in the game. You are motivated by long-term equity, ownership, and building intellectual property rather than just a standard salary.

If this sounds like you, or someone in your network, let’s build the future together.

📅 Apply before 20 June 2026!
👉 Click the link to apply: [Insert Link]

“We were talking to the government, having all these meetings, and I realized… the conversations just weren’t going anywhere. We were a thriving architecture practice, but we were hitting a ceiling. If we wanted to actually cut the urban infrastructure deficit, we had to stop waiting for someone else to build the vision."

We had to become the developers ourselves.
I sat down with Issa Diabaté recently, and he was remarkably candid about that 'gutsy move.' It’s one thing to design a singular object for a client; it’s another to design the finance, the heritage, and the infrastructure for a continent.

When I invited him to participate in our ‘600 Million African Super City’ exhibition at the University of Lagos, I wanted people to see that progression. It wasn’t just a theory. It started with 6 units of housing. Then 32 at Les Chocolat Residences. Then 226 at Abatta Village. Now, they are promoting a 50,000-unit model in Venice.

As Issa puts it: ‘When you get to that scale, you have to look at the things architects usually don’t like—energy, waste, and governance.’
He’s also proving that if we trust the ‘village model’—the established developmental logic of Africa that was so often erased—we can create places where people actually live, work, and play together. It’s why the jury led by Viavo Hunponu-Wusu reasoned that Koffi + Diabaté Group should be awarded the Cutstruct Prize for 600 Million African Futures. They aren't just designing buildings; they are designing the makeup of the firm that produces the work.

We applaud Issa, as well as the brilliant teams at StudioNeida and HTLAfrica. They are showing us that if the infrastructure deficit is to be met—from Nigeria to Congo, Togo to Kenya—it will be because we had the guts to change the scale of our ambition.”

_________________________________________

Want to dive deeper? Explore the "Village Model" and the rise of the Architect-Developer in The Unknown 3, featuring Diabaté and other visionaries reshaping our urban future on . Out on 30 April 2026.

To build the 600 Million African Super City, we must sanitize how Africa builds — starting with the broken, informal procurement chain.

CutStruct () led by John Oamen is supporting this exhibition to open new portals for trust, transparency, and transformation across Nigeria and Africa.

Register here (if you are attending virtually or in-person): bit.ly/600MillionAwarenessEvent.

(Also in bio).

“Universities hold vast land, young talent, and management capacity—together, they form ideal ecosystems to drive Africa’s next generation of city-building.”

— Anthony Baba-Oladeji & Daniel Evwibovwe.

CoDesign Africa believes that the future of African cities cannot be built in isolation. The continent’s next leap will come from its learning grounds — where ideas, innovation, and land meet purpose.

Their vision is bold yet deeply grounded: transforming universities into living laboratories for sustainable growth, where students, researchers, and city-builders co-design the next generation of African urbanism.

At The 600 Million African SuperCity Exhibition, they stand not alone, but in community — with architects and dreamers who see Africa’s future as a shared project, not a solitary pursuit.

Because for CoDesign Africa, building cities is not just a profession — it’s a promise to generations.

🗓 15 October 2025
📍 JP Clark Building, IADS UNILAG
⏰ 12:00 PM WAT

🔗 Register to experience it: bit.ly/600MillionAwarenessEvent

Supported by CutStruct | — simplifying procurement, powering development.

“Afrofutures are built on understanding legacy. Transforming what needs updating and conserving what is of value. For Africa’s cities, this means working with existing spaces and structures and adapting them for the challenges ahead.”
— Fabiola Buchele x Jeanne Autran-Edorh.

In a time when many dream of starting anew, chooses to begin with what already is.
They see value in the walls we walk past, the markets that hum with memory, the courtyards that once held laughter. To them, the future is not a demolition — it’s a dialogue with the past, present and future.

They build not by abandoning history, but by weaving it into tomorrow’s fabric.

At The 600 Million African SuperCity Exhibition, they join visionary studios across the continent to show how Africa’s cities can evolve, not by forgetting, but by remembering differently.

Come see how legacy becomes light.
How adaptation becomes art.
How the future learns from its roots.

🗓 15 October 2025
📍 JP Clark Building, IADS UNILAG
⏰ 12:00 PM WAT.

🔗 Register to experience it:
bit.ly/600MillionAwarenessEvent

Supported by CutStruct | — simplifying procurement, powering development.

📸: StudioNEIDA

“The city built for speed, which has been the mark of success in the recent past, has sped to its destined end and is now on its last legs.”

— James Inedu-George.

HTL Africa | , led by visionary architect James Inedu-George , stands at the crossroads of urgency and renewal — reminding us that cities must once again learn to breathe.

To build smarter
To build wiser.
To build for humanity, not haste.

At The 600 Million African SuperCity Exhibition, HTL Africa joins the continent’s leading studios to ask:
What does it mean to rebuild Africa not for speed, but for soul?

Step into their world.
See the future they are crafting.

🗓 15 October 2025
📍 JP Clark Building, IADS UNILAG
⏰ 12:00 PM WAT.

🔗 Register to experience it: bit.ly/600MillionAwarenessEvent

Supported by CutStruct | — simplifying procurement, powering development.

Across the vast, red earth of our continent — from Abidjan to Lagos, Lomé to Kinshasa — a new chorus is rising.

It is the sound of builders who dream not just of structures, but of futures. CoDesign Africa believes the task of shaping the African city is too grand, too sacred, to be borne by one alone.

They remind us that no single hand can hold the blueprint of tomorrow, only collective imagination can.

And from Côte d’Ivoire, Koffi & Diabaté Group stand as pioneers of both building and thought — weaving architecture with philosophy, and cities with conscience.

“It is not by building one house after the next that we will have impact,” says Issa Diabaté, “but by imprinting our vision upon the city itself.”

Together with StudioNEIDA (Togo), Mpotó Architecture & Design (DR Congo), and HTL Africa (Nigeria), we gather under one roof — to reimagine how 600 million Africans will live, work, and belong.

Join us for this awakening.
Behold the works.
Witness the ideas.

Step into the blueprint of the future.
🗓 15 October 2025
📍 JP Clark Building, IADS UNILAG
⏰ 12:00 PM WAT

🔗 Register to experience it: bit.ly/600MillionAwarenessEvent.

Supported by CutStruct — simplifying procurement, powering development.

By 2030, 600 million Africans will join the workforce — the largest surge of human potential anywhere on Earth. What kind of cities will receive them?
On 15 October 2025, we gather at JP Clark Building, University of Lagos (and virtually too) to imagine, question, and co-create those future cities.

Featuring bold visions from:
🇳🇬 CoDesign Africa | .designafrica
🇳🇬 HTL Africa |
🇨🇮 Koffi + Diabate Group
🇹🇬 StudioNEIDA |
🇨🇩 Mpoto Architecture & Design
🌎 Martha Schwartz Partners MSP.

A jury led by Viavo Hunponu-Wusu, Managing Partner, Blackstone Legal Advisory will select the most promising proposal and announce the 600 Million Futures Prize endowed by CutStruct (.tech)

Join us as we explore how infrastructure, culture, and innovation can converge to build cities worthy of Africa’s next generation.

🔗 Register: bit.ly/600MillionAwarenessEvent (also in bio)

Introducing the second in our Community Voices series: Egba Daniel Evwibovwe |

Anthony and I first met in an office — exchanging ideas over a table, staying late to turn daydreams into design proposals.

My life has been a series of moves — Niger Delta to Enugu, Lagos to Benin, now South Carolina. Each move came with a new table — a place that held my books, my laptop, my plans.

When CoDesign Africa was born, we weren’t in an office. We were at kitchen tables, coffee tables, planks on stools at project sites. Some of our most ambitious projects were born there — Zoho’s country office, Vibranium Valley, UNDP’s UNIPOD.

We realised a table is not just furniture. It is the first MVP of collaboration. So when we opened our Lagos studio, the first thing we built was a table — our table. It became the center of our process, the place where the work lived and deals were won.

That experience became the blueprint for the DE.AL Table — named after our initials - Daniel Evwibovwe and Anthony ‘Ladeji but designed for you. A table that can be anywhere — at home or at the office — ready to hold your ideas, collaborations, and breakthrough deals.

We partnered with FOLM Manufacturing
to bring this table to life. This isn’t mass production — it’s a collaboration between designers, makers, and the very people who will use it to create the future.

Join the exclusive waitlist: bit.ly/BuyDEAL
(link in stories & bio)

Limited spots!
Get priority production,
insider updates & your table
delivered in 4–5 weeks.

Buy DE.AL. Close DEALs.