№09 · The register

Emerald City

26 terraces · 3 apartmentsAbuja, NigeriaOn site

Repetition is where a builder is found out. Every terrace on this site is built like the first one.

Emerald City is twenty-six terraces and three apartments at Kaura, Abuja: rows of three-storey homes sharing party walls, built to one set of details repeated without drift. Terraces are unforgiving work. A party wall carries two households, and a line that wanders ten millimetres at ground floor is a visible fault by the time it reaches the roof.

The photographs on this page are the site as it stands: shells cast, floors poured, openings formed, frames waiting on their envelope. We publish the works at this stage on purpose. A builder who shows you only finished houses is showing you the easy half.

The plates

Workers on site in front of the cast concrete shells at Emerald City — Plate I · The shells, and the men building themPhotograph, unretouched

The street formed between two rows of terrace shells at Emerald City — Plate II · Between the rowsPhotograph, unretouched

Footage · Shell, unglazedFootage, unretouched

Design visualisation of an Emerald City terrace row at dusk, every window lit — Plate III · The row, at duskDesign visualisation

Terrace shells at Emerald City with window openings formed — Plate IV · Openings formedPhotograph, unretouched

Construction works in progress at Emerald City — Plate V · The works, mid-programmePhotograph, unretouched

Aerial visualisation of the Emerald City terrace development — Plate VI · The development, from aboveDesign visualisation

Design visualisation of the Emerald City gate at dusk with the first row glowing inside — Plate VII · The gate, at duskDesign visualisation

Design visualisation along the paved court at Emerald City between two facing rows at dusk — Plate VIII · The court, with the palmsDesign visualisation

Design visualisation of the Emerald City main lounge: fluted panelling, an emerald media unit, emerald velvet chairs at the window — EM-04 · The main loungeDesign visualisation

Design visualisation of the Emerald City dining room with six emerald velvet chairs — EM-06 · The dining roomDesign visualisation

Design visualisation of the Emerald City kitchen in emerald lacquer and white marble — EM-05 · The kitchen, morningDesign visualisation

Design visualisation of the Emerald City master bedroom looking to the front terrace at dusk — EM-07 · The master bedroomDesign visualisation

Design visualisation of the Emerald City master bathroom in white marble and brass — EM-08 · The master bathroomDesign visualisation

Furnished top-down plan of the Emerald City terrace ground floor in the Emerald register — EM-P1 · The ground floor, furnishedDesign visualisation

Furnished top-down plan of the Emerald City terrace first floor in the Emerald register — EM-P2 · The first floor, furnishedDesign visualisation

The plans, published

Ground floor drawing for Emerald City — Ground floor1 : 100

First floor drawing for Emerald City — First floor1 : 100

Second floor drawing for Emerald City — Second floor1 : 100

Section · levels drawing for Emerald City — Section · levels1 : 100

Long section · four units drawing for Emerald City — Long section · four units1 : 100

The terrace unit in plan and in section. Three levels, a 31 m² main lounge on the ground floor and a 29 m² bedroom under the roof.

Cover of the Emerald City project brochure, 2026 edition

The book

Emerald City, on paper.

Twenty-six terraces built to one set of details, and the details themselves. The book is where the repetition stops being a claim and starts being a drawing.