Alan Vaughan-Richards facts for kids
Alan Vaughan-Richards (1925–1989) was a British-Nigerian architect. He was very active in building new structures in Nigeria after it became independent. He encouraged other architects to think about how African styles could influence building designs. He did this through a magazine called West Africa Builder and Architect.
Vaughan-Richards often included the work of Nigerian artists in his projects. He learned modern architecture in England. Then, he studied how buildings were used in Nigerian culture. Many of his projects combined both these influences.
Education
Vaughan-Richards studied at London Polytechnic (now University of Westminster). He earned a diploma in architecture in 1950. In 1956, he also took a new course on Tropical Architecture. This course was at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London.
Career
Vaughan-Richards started his career in the 1950s. He worked for the Architect Development Board in Iraq. Later, he joined Architect Co-Partnership in London. This company was designing a new Bristol Hotel and homes for oil companies in Lagos, Nigeria.
Vaughan-Richards helped with the first designs. He also visited Nigeria to check on the building sites. When Architect Co-Partnership left Nigeria, Vaughan-Richards decided to stay. He became a Nigerian citizen.
His own house in Ikoyi, near the Lagos Lagoon, became his office. This house mixed modern style with ideas from Hausa village homes. He designed many private houses and staff homes for the University of Lagos. Clients liked his designs because they had large shared areas and wide hallways.
The American writer Elaine Neil Orr described Vaughan-Richards' style. She said he "often used curved shapes in his designs." These curves were sometimes decoration. But often, they were a main part of the walls and rooms. He also liked using designs made from repeating parts.
Vaughan-Richards helped start and edit the West African Builder and Architect magazine. It shared information about architecture in Africa. Later, he co-wrote a book called Building Lagos with Kunle Akinsemoyin. This book showed how Lagos grew and changed.
He later joined Felix Ibru's company, Roye Ibru and Co. Vaughan-Richards also supervised the Architecture department at the University of Lagos. His projects there included Jaja Hall and the University of Lagos master plan. He created modern designs that included tropical and West African styles. Examples are Olaoluwakitan House and his own home. Sadly, many of his buildings were not well cared for.
In the 1980s, he helped write a list of Brazilian-style houses in Lagos. This was for a group trying to save old buildings.
In the 1950s, new buildings in Lagos started to use modern European styles. These designs also considered Nigeria's climate. Architects like Maxwell Fry and Nigerian architects trained in London led this trend. Vaughan-Richards was a modern architect too. But he wanted to explore more with African forms, art, and materials like timber.
He believed that modern Nigerian architecture should include African culture and ways of living. This was different from the usual styles of the 1950s. Those styles mainly focused on adapting to the African climate. His own house, built in the 1960s, was an experiment. It mixed traditional West African building shapes with modern ideas, like using curved and circular designs. Other projects, like the Ola-oluwakitan House, were special because they focused on African forms and were very original. They later became models for other private houses.
Personal life
He married Ayo Vaughan-Richards (née Vaughan). She was a nurse and the daughter of a hotel owner from the Vaughan family of Lagos. They had four children. One of their children is the filmmaker Remi Vaughan-Richards.
