Abstract
The growth rate of cities urgently requires serious attention not merely to design and planning but also to deeper questions of meaning and purpose. Any attempt to address the complexities of the city needs more than a power-driven approach. The task is how to relate city-making to a image of the human spirit and what augments it. Contemporary urban planning disregards the inner resources of individuals urban life. Urban spirituality must be seen as a fundamental part of the human connectedness in the context of urban existences. Spirituality is a part of an individual security, the concept of spirituality and the need for human connectedness should be taken into account while planning a more legible urban life. This study focusses on the identity in urban spirituality: a critic of Eyo masquerade festival in Lagos Island. The findings show that spirituality not only encompasses human connectedness but also reveals such human needs as belonging, safety, wholeness and communication, which are by nature entwined. This study is driving by the concept of the soul of the city, city DNA and city identity. It is library research, underpinned by philosophical hermeneutic method rooted in historiography. Conclusively, urban spirituality is mediated through a number of innate needs, and challenged in the urban context via materialistic, relational, moral and transcendental means. The understanding of the role of spirituality as a binding force in the pursuit of a more distinct urban identity consciously transform the inhabitants’ values and worldviews. The study theorizes a framework in which spirituality is manifest in the built environment. Keywords: City DNA, City Identity, Place Identity, Soul of the City, Urban Spirituality
