Modern Heritage in the Anthropocene Proceedings, 2022
This paper considers multiple modernities in architecture using examples from Nigeria’s architect... more This paper considers multiple modernities in architecture using examples from Nigeria’s architectural scene from the colonial to the post-independence period. The British colonial administration through its Public Works introduced the strain of Modern Architecture called colonial modern or colonial modernism from the late 19th century to Nigeria, which was an eclectic blend of European-originated motifs and responses to the local conditions. However, through the decolonisation period from 1945, by the practice of European architects, some working for the colonial administration, another strain of modern architecture, called Tropical Architecture or Tropical Modernism, emerged. This was essentially an adaptation of the International Style to the tropical climate. Furthermore, after Independence in 1960, a post-colonial/post-independence modern architecture or post-colonial modernism arose in Nigeria, driven by Nigerian and foreign architects. This was post-colonial chronologically and conceptually, as it was the antithesis of the colonial and tropical modern. Through a critical examination of the buildings emerge the indicators that delineate their modernities and reveal the ideas underlying their production, including the architecture's purpose, functional articulation, aesthetic expression, and architectural vocabulary. These pointers, though intertwined, embody the characteristics of each strain of modernity. Nevertheless, buildings of these multiple modernities in architecture are part of the Nigerian modern architectural heritage worthy of conservation. This broad definition responds to the call of the Cape Town Document for expanded definitions of modern heritage and the recognition of its diversity and complexity. Such an expanded understanding of what constitutes the modern, while enabling the accounting for and stratification of multiple memories and narratives, allows the inclusion of many types of modern architecture in conservation conversations.
A Treasure Trove of Modern Architecture: Arieh Sharon’s Obafemi Awolowo University Campus, Ile-Ife, Nigeria (1960-1976), 2021
This paper considers the Obafemi Awolowo University campus, Ile-Ife, as a treasure trove of moder... more This paper considers the Obafemi Awolowo University campus, Ile-Ife, as a treasure trove of modern architecture – not only for its architectural significance but also for its palimpsest of meanings. Located in the tropical forests of southwestern Nigeria, on a tabula rasa removed from city life and designed by a Bauhaus alumnus on an aid mission from the State of Israel, the campus presents a unique spectacle, offering itself as a modernist city built into the natural forest landscape with hills in the background. It employs the forms, materials, and technologies of the Modern Movement, stretching them to the limits of creativity. Yet the design differs from the popular colonial Modernist architecture in its adoption of form following climate and cultural sensitivity. Postcolonial in both chronology and concept, the architecture carried meaning for the university as an institution in an African setting, and for its patrons as leaders of the Western region, where it was viewed as a sign of progress, development, a political tool, and an expression of ideology. Deconstructing the architecture and these layers of meaning reveals the aesthetic, historic, and social values and show that modern architecture does not have to be acultural to be significant.
Proceedings of the Environmental Design and Management International conference EDMIC 2017, 2017
History and the historical method provide perspectives for understanding the world and phenomena ... more History and the historical method provide perspectives for understanding the world and phenomena with various potential benefits. The discourse of the built environment field has different foci but excludes history although the field’s disciplines include it. This paper examines the study of history in the built environment and its disciplines. A polemic approach based on the critical appraisal of the extant literature on history, the built environment, and the built environment disciplines is the method employed. The benefits of history to the built environment disciplines and their discourse points to its utility for the built environment. The relationship of the discourse of the built environment to history is that of an unconscious ambivalence because the field and its disciplines take the concepts, methods, and strategies used in the past yet do not study history, which explicates the attendant conditions that could facilitate their more appropriate application. A focus on history in its discourse has the potential of uniting the dialogues in the built environment field, as it does architecture and the fine arts. Given the significance of history to the built environment disciplines, the need for its greater inclusion in their discourse and that of the built environment field is apparent.
Modern Heritage in the Anthropocene Proceedings, 2022
This paper considers multiple modernities in architecture using examples from Nigeria’s architect... more This paper considers multiple modernities in architecture using examples from Nigeria’s architectural scene from the colonial to the post-independence period. The British colonial administration through its Public Works introduced the strain of Modern Architecture called colonial modern or colonial modernism from the late 19th century to Nigeria, which was an eclectic blend of European-originated motifs and responses to the local conditions. However, through the decolonisation period from 1945, by the practice of European architects, some working for the colonial administration, another strain of modern architecture, called Tropical Architecture or Tropical Modernism, emerged. This was essentially an adaptation of the International Style to the tropical climate. Furthermore, after Independence in 1960, a post-colonial/post-independence modern architecture or post-colonial modernism arose in Nigeria, driven by Nigerian and foreign architects. This was post-colonial chronologically and conceptually, as it was the antithesis of the colonial and tropical modern. Through a critical examination of the buildings emerge the indicators that delineate their modernities and reveal the ideas underlying their production, including the architecture's purpose, functional articulation, aesthetic expression, and architectural vocabulary. These pointers, though intertwined, embody the characteristics of each strain of modernity. Nevertheless, buildings of these multiple modernities in architecture are part of the Nigerian modern architectural heritage worthy of conservation. This broad definition responds to the call of the Cape Town Document for expanded definitions of modern heritage and the recognition of its diversity and complexity. Such an expanded understanding of what constitutes the modern, while enabling the accounting for and stratification of multiple memories and narratives, allows the inclusion of many types of modern architecture in conservation conversations.
A Treasure Trove of Modern Architecture: Arieh Sharon’s Obafemi Awolowo University Campus, Ile-Ife, Nigeria (1960-1976), 2021
This paper considers the Obafemi Awolowo University campus, Ile-Ife, as a treasure trove of moder... more This paper considers the Obafemi Awolowo University campus, Ile-Ife, as a treasure trove of modern architecture – not only for its architectural significance but also for its palimpsest of meanings. Located in the tropical forests of southwestern Nigeria, on a tabula rasa removed from city life and designed by a Bauhaus alumnus on an aid mission from the State of Israel, the campus presents a unique spectacle, offering itself as a modernist city built into the natural forest landscape with hills in the background. It employs the forms, materials, and technologies of the Modern Movement, stretching them to the limits of creativity. Yet the design differs from the popular colonial Modernist architecture in its adoption of form following climate and cultural sensitivity. Postcolonial in both chronology and concept, the architecture carried meaning for the university as an institution in an African setting, and for its patrons as leaders of the Western region, where it was viewed as a sign of progress, development, a political tool, and an expression of ideology. Deconstructing the architecture and these layers of meaning reveals the aesthetic, historic, and social values and show that modern architecture does not have to be acultural to be significant.
Proceedings of the Environmental Design and Management International conference EDMIC 2017, 2017
History and the historical method provide perspectives for understanding the world and phenomena ... more History and the historical method provide perspectives for understanding the world and phenomena with various potential benefits. The discourse of the built environment field has different foci but excludes history although the field’s disciplines include it. This paper examines the study of history in the built environment and its disciplines. A polemic approach based on the critical appraisal of the extant literature on history, the built environment, and the built environment disciplines is the method employed. The benefits of history to the built environment disciplines and their discourse points to its utility for the built environment. The relationship of the discourse of the built environment to history is that of an unconscious ambivalence because the field and its disciplines take the concepts, methods, and strategies used in the past yet do not study history, which explicates the attendant conditions that could facilitate their more appropriate application. A focus on history in its discourse has the potential of uniting the dialogues in the built environment field, as it does architecture and the fine arts. Given the significance of history to the built environment disciplines, the need for its greater inclusion in their discourse and that of the built environment field is apparent.
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