The second edition of the Southern Urbanism Co-Net Conference has called for a rethink of urban planning and architecture in Africa, with participants saying that the continent’s rapidly growing cities require solutions rooted in local realities.

The two-day conference, held on August 24 and 25, 2026, at the Arthur Mbanefo Digital Centre, University of Lagos (UNILAG), was preceded by a six-day student workshop and exhibition held from August 17 -22, 2026.

The programme brought together students, academics, architects, urban planners, policymakers and practitioners from Nigeria and beyond.

The conference followed the inaugural edition held in Shanghai, China, in 2024.

Vice-Chancellor of UNILAG, Prof. Folasade Ogunsola, while speaking at the event, said that Lagos State provided an important setting for conversations about rural-urban migration and the challenges created by rapid urbanisation.

Ogunsola said that the increasing movement of people into cities required African countries to rethink how their urban spaces were designed and managed.

“Everybody is interested in Lagos, and we know the number of people who come into Lagos every day and don’t leave. I think Lagos typifies what rural-urban migration looks like and the challenges that come with it,” she said.

The vice-chancellor said African cities had often adopted architectural approaches from other parts of the world without sufficient consideration for whether they were suitable for local environments.

She, therefore, called for greater use of indigenous ideas, materials and architectural practices in developing modern cities.

“I think it is now becoming very clear that we have to do something indigenous, something that speaks to the spaces that we live in, to make these places truly liveable,” she said.

Ogunsola said Lagos could serve as a starting point for developing approaches that could be adapted to other cities facing similar urbanisation pressures.

She, however, challenged participants to consider how rural communities could be made sufficiently attractive and liveable to reduce the pressure created by migration to urban centres, calling for cities to be planned to become more inclusive, resilient, climate-responsive, culturally grounded and innovative.

Earlier, Chairman of the conference, Dr Babatunde Johnson, said the gathering was intended to provide a platform for rethinking urbanism from the perspective of the Global South.

He said urban questions confronting southern countries could no longer be understood solely through theories and frameworks developed elsewhere, noting that cities and communities in the region are producing new realities and challenges, as well as new forms of knowledge.