Reimagining cities through a dreamer’s eyes | Architecture & Virtual Reality

Step into the mind of Olalekan Jeyifous, a Nigerian-born, Brooklyn-based artist and architect known for crafting speculative, afrofuturist worlds that reimagine how cities could look, feel, and function, especially for historically marginalized communities.

In this intimate profile, we visit Jeyifous’ studio in the rapidly gentrifying Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, exploring how he blends architecture, VR, collage, 3D modeling, and public art to create vibrant alternate realities. We take a walk with him to see how he collects everyday urban details— graffiti, ghost signs, surveillance tech, or a patch of overgrown sidewalk— and expands them into immersive visual landscapes where communities thrive on their own terms.

His alternate realities ask, “What if our cities were built with everyone in mind from the start?” He shows us that daydreaming is more than a fantasy; it’s a question of perspective, power, and possibility.

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The comments and opinions expressed in this video are those of the speaker alone, and do not represent the views of The Museum of Modern Art, its personnel, or any artist.

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