Submarine Channel

In this thirty-minute long interview, the internationally-renowned architect Rem Koolhaas discusses what he learned through his research on urbanization in the fast-growing metropolis of Lagos. A must-see for anyone interested in architecture in the developing world.

Interviewer Bregtje van der Haak collaborated with Koolhaas on the interactive documentary “Lagos Wide & Close” which was released on DVD in 2004. The documentary is now online in a new interactive format.

Lagos: Wide & Close

10 years after its release, Submarine Channel’s timeless interactive documentary with Rem Koolhaas et al. has been ported from DVD to the web, with improved features. Explore the sprawling African megalopolis of Lagos. Choose at any moment between a bird’s eye view or a close up view of Lagos, and choose between three different audio tracks.

As one of the first interactive documentaries ever made, it offers a rare documentation of Lagos at a volatile moment in its evolution.

The interactive film is based on the Lagos research project by Rem Koolhaas and The Harvard Project on the City.

Bregtje van der Haak is a documentary filmmaker and journalist. Since 1997, she has been directing international documentaries on social change with a focus on urban life and globalization. Her documentaries have been shown on television, in film festivals and in art exhibitions internationally and include Saudi Solutions (2006), Satellite Queens (2007), Grand Paris: the president and the architects (2009), California Dreaming (2010), Aftermath of a Crisis (2011) and DNA Dreams (2013). As an editor-in-chief for VPRO Television, she initiated Creative Commons distribution of public television programming and developed new collaborative media projects including Metropolis TV (2008), Urban Century (2009), Aftermath Project(2011), Multiple Journalism and Atlas of Pentecostalism (with Richard Vijgen, 2013).