Research Presentation

14 May was a PhD research presentation day at the school of architecture. Students were required to describe the progress made in their research; what had been done in the previous year, what the foregoing research plan is, and how they intend to get it done. Going by these guidelines, I outlined how my research had developed from inception to its current stage of findings. I equally provided a Gantt chart to relay the progress made, as well as the projections for ensuing months.

My research has been examining Nigeria’s Public Works Department (PWD), with specific interest in the composition and outputs of its architectural unit between 1900 and 1960. The explorations have largely been conducted along three historiographical strands. First is on the department’s administration and its linkages to the wider colonial system of the day, the second on standardized building production practices it employed, and third on its architects; who they were, why they came to practice in Nigeria and how this relates to the wider notion of empire building. Going by the PWD flourish period also, these architects appear to provide the pioneering legacy in the study of Nigeria’s architectural profession.