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British Colonial Architecture

Late Colonial Architecture in Ghana, Journal Article

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July 18, 2014
Africa, British Colonial Architecture, Fry & Drew, Tropical Architecture
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In the laboratory and in the field: hybrid housing design for the African city in late-colonial and decolonising Ghana (1945–57)

Viviana d’Auria, The Journal of Architecture Volume 19, Issue 3, 2014

This paper considers the case of late-colonial and ‘transitional’ Ghana (1945–57) to qualify the way in which ‘native’ dwelling practices were harnessed for housing design. Theories about the ‘colonial modern’ have underpinned the ambivalence of residential schemes and urbanisation strategies developed during decolonisation by modernist architects. Most documented among these is work in North Africa, with projects from Casablanca and Algiers taken as the epitome of how modernism memorably embraced the vernacular to amend its tenets in the early 1950s; however, British involvement in the colonies has more commonly been documented in relation to the tropical architecture canon, with a focus on institutional buildings rather than housing projects, especially in West Africa. Housing design, on the other hand, makes manifest the significance of the social and cultural dimensions as a basis for housing and urbanism during decolonisation in Ghana, downplayed to date because of a focus on climatic and economic factors. Projects by Fry, Drew, Drake and Lasdun, and by Alfred Alcock and Helga Richards, are discussed to gauge the extent of transcultural exchange while socio-economic surveys, experiments in building science and anthropological studies increasingly inspired the design process.

Read the full article here: http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/feTHdMSVJgz2GHV5Biux/full

Architecture of Independence

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July 14, 2014
British Colonial Architecture
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Scottish independence. Should there be an independent Scotland, or should Scotland remain an integral part of the United Kingdom? As the clock ticks closer to the proposed referendum on 18 September 2014, the debate rages on. Although the mid-twentieth century independence of West African nations took place under completely different circumstances, this article uses the present independence debate to re-ignite a discussion on Nigeria’s decolonization years, the attainment of independence and the architecture which emerged as a consequence.

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The Governor General of Nigeria Sir James Robertson, and the new Nigerian Prime Minister Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa on Oct 1, 1960

 

The clamour for independence and self-rule in West Africa gradually began after World War II.  This achieved its highpoint in 1957, when Ghana became the first African nation to attain independence and transit from colonial rule to self-governance. One feature which perhaps, became widely synonymous with the country’s drive for independence was the Pan-Africanist movement and the frontline role of Kwame Nkrumah, who later became Ghana’s pioneering president. However, a less referenced but equally important tribute to Ghana’s independence, were the architectural monuments which were constructed to commemorate the event. Chief among these is the Accra independence arch.

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Independence Arch, Accra, 1957

 

As with Ghana, self-governance calls had pervaded different levels of Nigerian society before the October 1 1960 independence date. The most prominent perhaps were those propagated through African edited newspapers like the West African Pilot, and which echoed the voices of native elites and politicians. Nigeria’s formal decolonization process however appears to have started with the 1945 promulgation of Richard’s constitution. Not only had this constitution granted greater levels of native participation in the legislative house, it equally paved way for the much sought after regional system of governance. Nigeria was therefore reorganized along political and administrative lines into a Western region with headquarters at Ibadan, a Northern region with headquarters at Kaduna, and, an Eastern region with headquarters at Enugu, while Lagos remained the Federal Headquarters. With this new organizational structure came the formation of regional houses of Assembly and the election of its representative members.

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Design for Eastern Nigeria parliamentary complex, 1960

Of equal importance were the new parliamentary complexes being built to usher in the emerging era of self-governance, beginning from October 1 1960. The new buildings may therefore be described as some of Nigeria‘s most prominent symbols of transition to self-rule, and were indeed the ‘architecture of independence’.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Research Presentation

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May 26, 2014
British Colonial Architecture
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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.

 

Exhibition Review: Charles Correa at the RIBA

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April 28, 2014
British Colonial Architecture, India
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‘Charles Correa India’s Greatest Architect’

This review was originally published (without the photographs) in the JSAH Journal, Vol 73, no.1, March 2014.

 

‘Charles Correa India’s Greatest Architect’ exhibition featured at the RIBA, London, as part of its ‘Out of India’ season, that also included numerous events running throughout the summer. Film screenings, discussions, a symposium with Charles Correa, and a lecture by the great man himself will subject the work to an extended period of interrogation where proper debate can ensue.

India has become something of a hot topic, with recent high profile visits made to the country by Prime Minister David Cameron, coupled with numerous television programmes and radio broadcasts, trade delegations and educational visits; the UK is hungry for all things Indian.

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The exhibition at the RIBA forms part of this renewed interest, but was largely triggered by Correa’s decision to donate his personal archive of over 6,000 artifacts to the RIBA – the largest single donation to their collection by a non-British architect. This fine array of drawings, models and written ephemera spanning from 1958 to the present, promises to be a most valuable resource to scholars and students, and for those unable to visit London, has been digitized in its entirety (more about this later). Correa is at liberty to give his work to whomever he pleases, but the choice of a British Institution, and a Royal one at that, may raise some eyebrows and probably came as a shock even to the RIBA. Correa was born during the colonial era and his work has consistently looked to develop an architecture that was modern, firmly entrenched as Indian, and certainly not European. Despite this, Correa felt that the RIBA would look after the work and ensure that it is properly catalogued and preserved – a feat that sadly would be difficult to achieve in India (a visit to the Chandigarh City Museum demonstrates how Le Corbusier’s drawings have been treated…)

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The exhibition, designed by David Adjaye and curated by Irena Murray, is spread over two floors with the lower level including a series of timber plinths painted in the delightful hues of paprika, turmeric and saffron invoking the Jawahar Kala Kendra project. It is a dramatic introduction to the work that leaves one expectant of something really special but sadly the exhibition fails to do justice to this enigmatic architect. Architecture exhibitions are peculiar affairs, not least because the architecture rarely features in architecture exhibitions, instead, we see the machinery created as a result of, or to enable the production of, the artifact in question – what Correa calls the trail left by a snail. The gap between drawing and architecture is especially apparent when viewing Correa’s work; the buildings and spaces (‘the empty centre’ in Correa’s parlance) really need to be moved through, set against an open sky and as Adjaye describes in the catalogue, absorbed through the soles of the feet. His work is not really captured by a rendered elevation or static photograph, nevertheless, considerable pleasure is gained from studying his sketches that go someway in connecting us to the person behind the drawings. Through the pencil lines and coloured crayons we can discern something of the architect who made the marks – but at this exhibition we are not even looking at the actual drawings. Instead, they are scanned reproductions on mountboard. Perhaps this would not matter if they were not so grossly enlarged to the point that they are pixelated. I found this to be most distressing, as when viewed in the catalogue (which is excellent and highly recommended) they look wonderful. As the original drawings could not be displayed due to the lighting at the RIBA it might have been a better idea not to show any at all, or just to reproduce the images as the small drawings that they are, rather than distorting them in this manner. The photographs are more forgiving, but some of them are also pixelated and not really of exhibition quality. Despite these distractions, the models go a long way to make things better. The Hindustan Lever Pavilion model in tropical hardwood is spectacular and still a radical design despite being over fifty years old, and the model of the Kanchanjunga Apartments stands at over 6ft tall putting the apartments at eye-level and immediately showing the vantage points and interiors. The housing section is the real strength of the exhibition, and arguably of Correa’s career – from the ‘Tube House’ and one-off houses in the Ahmedabadian brick and concrete style, through to the courtyard houses of Belapur and the PREVI experimental houses in Peru he has demonstrated how to design dwellings. It is these schemes, along with Correa’s analysis and proposals for Mumbai that put him up there as one of India’s greatest architects (what will the RIBA call the exhibition if Doshi follows suit with his archive? India’s Greatest Architect 2?)

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The rest of the content I found lacking and slightly predictable; I was hoping to see some of the less well-known designs, or greater analysis of some of the larger projects. For example, the confrontational LIC building in Delhi is sadly missing from the exhibition – how does that building fit with Correa’s objective of site and context, for instance? In many ways the designer and curator have played it too safe, and other than the outstanding project in Lisbon, Portugal, and the Po-Mo British Council building in Delhi we are not shown much of the playful later work.

The digital archive interface has been carefully crafted and as well as including the entire collection of drawings contains photographs of the models, buildings and scans of magazine articles and books that discuss the projects in question. The digital archive should have played a central role in the exhibition and broken away, at least in part, from the static mode of exhibiting and the passive role of viewing an exhibition – it was the perfect opportunity to project all of his work in a small space and to use the displays to critically examine the work, and perhaps to further explore why Correa might just be India’s greatest architect.

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The catalogue: Irena Murray, Charles Correa India’s Greatest Architect (London, RIBA Publishing, 2013), price £9.95

Transnational Architecture Group in Sicily

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April 17, 2014
Africa, British Colonial Architecture, Fry & Drew, India, Middle East, Tropical Architecture
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Transnational Architecture Group in Sicily

The Transnational Architecture Group (TAG) were participants in the just concluded Cost Action conference, “Rethinking European Architecture Beyond Europe”, from 13 to 16 April 2014. Pictured are the founder of the Group, Dr Iain Jackson on the far right, along with three members; Dr Ola Uduku (2nd Right), Yemi Salami (middle), and Jacopo Galli (far left).

Dr Jackson is a Senior lecturer at the School of Architecture, University of Liverpool, and Yemi Salami is running her PhD in the same department under he’s supervision. Dr Uduku is a Reader at the Edinburgh School of Landscape Architecture (ESALA), and Jacopo Galli a PhD Student at University of Venice Italy, (IUAV) .

At the conference, Dr Jackson and Dr Uduku had co-chaired the session titled ‘Examining tropical architecture in different international contexts’, while Yemi and Jacopo had both presented papers within the same session. Yemi’s paper, titled “British Architects in the colonial PWD: Unravelling Nigeria’s early Government Architecture”, saw her examining Nigeria’s colonial administrative architecture, though a time-line of events that produced a network of architects and specialized building design mechanisms. Jacopo’s Paper is titled “From tropical Medicine to tropical architecture.” In it he examines the generic process by which tropical health parameters had determined climate influenced designs for the tropical regions.

By and Large however, the conference provided an opportunity to deliberate on research trajectories in a varying range of subjects within the conference theme, present current research findings, get useful feedback on on-going research, and of course to savour some Mediterranean cuisine and sunshine!

 

 

 

Conference: Beyond Architecture Beyond Europe

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April 16, 2014
Africa, British Colonial Architecture, India, Tropical Architecture
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European Architecture Beyond Europe ; E-Cost Action

The final conference for the ‘Architecture Beyond Europe‘ network has just finished in Palermo, Sicily. We met in the wonderful Scarpa restored Palazzo Chiaramonte Sterri, and as usual it was a very interesting gathering with participants, contributors and audience members hailing from all corners of the world. Six packed sessions covered the Transnational, Development Aid, Tropical Architecture, Identity, Methods and Exile. In addition two keynotes were given by Sibel Zandi-Sayek (William and Mary, Virginia) on the Ottoman-British Networks and Lukasz Stanek (Manchester) on Architects from socialist countries working in Ghana. The full programme is attached here: FC_program_final

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The network has opened up many new opportunities and collaborative endeavours, as well as a high quality new journal (eager to receive submissions): for more details see:  ABE.

Current Research: Modern Architecture in Nigeria

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February 21, 2014
Africa, British Colonial Architecture, Fry & Drew, Tropical Architecture
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‘Suitable lodgings for students’: modern space, colonial development and decolonization in Nigeria

Tim Livsey has recently published his research into Ibadan University in Urban History Journal. The article argues that development and modernity have had spatial manifestations. It considers understandings of modern space in colonial and post-colonial Nigeria through the study of University College Ibadan, the country’s first university institution founded in 1948. It contends that the university was shaped by existing West African conceptions of modern space and university buildings took on new meanings with the shifting politics of decolonization. The article also suggests that colonial development involved a range of groups and forms of knowledge. It seeks to recognize the strength of colonial institutions and cultures but also the limits to and contingencies in late colonial power.

It also has some great archival images of Ibadan University from Cambridge University and SOAS Archives.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0963926813001065

Fry and Drew Current Research: Tema Manhean, Ghana

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February 14, 2014
Africa, British Colonial Architecture, Fry & Drew, Tropical Architecture
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The planning of late colonial village housing in the tropics: Tema Manhean, Ghana

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The Surf Boat Harbour at Accra, before the construction of Tema Harbour. Image c. 1920s, courtesy of Wirral Archives

This paper examines the planning, physical development, and housing in Tema New Town, an appendix of the newly created Tema industrial and harbour city, located on the northeastern part of Accra in the Greater Accra Region in Ghana. The city and its appendage were designed and built during the 1950s, as the country was rapidly approaching political independence. Tema, originally an old Ga-fishing village, became a significant part of a much larger and ambitious scheme, known as the Volta River Project proposed as part of Kwame Nkrumah’s domestic policy, embracing multifaceted and multidimensional development projects. These projects were to serve as a symbol of ‘progress’ and were part of Ghana’s desire for modernization as it emerged from a colonial past. The related schemes were largely funded as a result of the British Colonial Development and Welfare Acts, and this paper investigates the implementation of this policy and the effect that it had on physical planning and provision of architectural solutions in Ghana.

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Maxwell Fry’s sketch of the ‘traditional’ Compound House, from Village Housing in the Tropics

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One of Fry and Drew’s plans for the fishing village of Tema Manhean, Ghana.

The full paper, published in Planning Perspectives can be read at: http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/cWc4hRPQWT7yCai5GkjS/full

Cross Country

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February 10, 2014
British Colonial Architecture
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There have been recent debates in the UK media on the need (or not) for the high speed train, HS2, that is being proposed to run from London to the central belt of Scotland. This brought into my remembrance the establishment of the railways in Nigeria beginning from 1895, and its 29 year extension into the hinterlands that concluded in 1926. The establishment of Nigeria’s railway system has often been credited to Sir Thomas Carter, who was the colonial Governor of Lagos from 1891 to1897.

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Sir Gilbert Carter in 1893

Certain events however built up to the coming of the railways. After the annexation of Lagos in 1861, the British initially adopted the policy of non-interference with the Yoruba hinterland. Lagos had therefore being administered from Sierra Leone and later the Gold coast. Around 1886, Lagos was detached from the Gold Coast, became an independent colony and began taking a kin interest in the affairs of Yoruba land, particularly with the looming threat of French intervention in the region. Yoruba inter-ethnic squabbles were not only at their pick within this period, the disputes had also resulted in trade route closures to the interiors. This generated a lot of frustration for Britain’s quest into the interiors, as well as for British and native merchants who desired to trade in the hinterlands. By the third year of his appointment in 1893 therefore, Governor Carter set out on a grand tour of Yoruba land, concluding treaties and agreements with the native Egba and Ibadan chiefs. On the successful completion of the tour, he was able to obtain control over routes and the right to build railways.

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Construction of rail tracks

The PWD was therefore authorized to conduct a railway survey by the colonial office in 1885 under the then colonial secretary, Joseph Chamberlain. By 1896, construction began from Ebute-Meta on Lagos mainland towards the interior. By April 1899, the line was extended to Abeokuta, and by 1900 the following year, the line was open for traffic to Ibadan, a 120 mile distance from Lagos. The next major construction was the 1909 extension from Ibadan to Jebba, after which several other extensions and new lines were added. By the end of 1926, the total mileage of the system had attained 1,597, with a plan in place for an additional 150 miles of construction every year.

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Railway map of Nigeria, Circa 1928

Though the PWD survey and engineering units undertook the land surveying and rail track constructions in this all new transportation project, its architectural unit had equally designed and constructed the train station buildings. These buildings currently constitute part of Nigeria’s vast colonial architectural heritage, and help raise questions about the PWD’s building programme; For example, were PWD standardized practices employed in the production of these buildings? Was there a ‘type design’ for the larger and busier stations and another for the less patronized? Were these ‘type designs’ strict prototypes enforced country-wide, or were there variants introduced? Where the designs a direct replica of train stations from Empire’s metropolis, or did they reflect local realities? These and other questions of interest could present a basis for further study.

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Old Ebute-Meta, Lagos, Platform (Undated)

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New Ebute-Meta, Lagos Terminus, Circa 1955