Cordelia Olatokunbo OSASONA is a registered Nigerian architect. She obtained B.Sc. and M. Sc. degrees in Architecture from the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University), Ile-Ife, and is the first female architect to be trained by the University. She is a mainstream academic, and presently the head of Architecture at OAU. She also holds a Master degree in Fine Arts.
Cordelia Olatokunbo OSASONA
is a registered Nigerian architect. She obtained B.Sc. and M. Sc. degrees in Architecture from the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University), Ile-Ife, and is the first female architect to be trained by the University. She is a mainstream academic, and presently the head of Architecture at OAU. She also holds a Master degree in Fine Arts.
Since her appointment in 1985, she has been teaching various courses including Freehand Drawing, Architectural Graphics and History of Architecture. She also teaches architectural conservation and restoration, which she has used to spearhead students’ involvement in heritage property-upgrading in Ile-Ife. In 1992, she was briefly at the Centre for Architectural Research and Development Overseas (CARDO), University of Newcastle, on a British Council fellowship.
Her research centers on African traditional/vernacular architectural forms, highlighting their art content. Her more recent works advocate a search for an authentic contemporary Nigerian domestic architecture (which she is convinced cannot be divorced of decoration!). She has published three books and several journal articles on these and other themes.
She is a member of the Nigeria Institute of Architects (NIA), the Association of Architectural Educators in Nigeria (AARCHES), the Society of Nigerian Artists (SNA) and the environmental-interest group, Legacy.
RESEARCH/PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
Several sub-themes in the arena of African/ Nigerian vernacular architectural practices have engaged Cordelia Osasona’s research attention. From a panoramic study of the traditional builtform of various Nigerian cultures (including the Hausa, Yoruba, Bini and Igbo) she has identified that rather than just being an aesthetic expedient, applied decoration often has other nuances; these could range from utilitarian functions (such as structural stabilization) to covert social symbolism (for instance, the conferment of prestige, as with the carved wooden posts of Yoruba architecture, or the ritualistic interventional expedience of mbari-house art). It is discovered that in these decorative enterprises, in many African cultures, women are the prime movers. Among some ethnic groupings (e.g. the Igbo and Bini of Nigeria), traditionally, they are even (selectively) involved in wall-construction.
Still on the theme of the art content of indigenous African architecture, Osasona’s book ORNAMENTATION IN YORUBA FOLK ARCHITECTURE, examines various features of Yoruba folk building, sporting decoration. These include fascia boards, goat-gates, doors, portals and wall cladding. She traces the evolution of the Yoruba “builder” – from anonymity (as, initially, building was a community craft) to a professional calling fostered by the dilated prospects of vernacular practices for which the British colonial intervention created the enabling environment. The work is a copiously illustrated documentation of decorative features, tools and crafting techniques of a class of builders whose practice is, unfortunately, fast becoming history.
Her research into what typifies Nigerian houseform, led to comparative studies of samples of Yoruba dwellings in the traditional heart of Ile-Ife, peripherally-located dwellings and transitional settlements, on the one hand, and the socio-cultural content of such traditional house-types, nationally, on the other. This line of research revealed that even though the Yoruba house has undergone (and is still undergoing) transformation (vis-à-vis such aspects as compound layout, space allocation, door and window sizes, structure and finishing), the socio-cultural content is still very much intact; what has been “lost” is invariably compensated for either by direct substitution (e.g. the exaggerated central corridor of the vernacular house replacing the traditional impluvium-cum-veranda), or progressive adaptation. She also discovered from this line of research, that covert symbolism may not only attach to applied ornamentation, but also to spatial configuration and material, in traditional Nigerian building. (In this regard, for instance, the eghodo among the Bini, is not merely an impluvium – a rallying-point for domestic interaction – but also a symbol of physical invincibility).
In the line of conservation, Osasona has facilitated service-learning among her postgraduate students. Buildings of heritage value, needing restoration, are identified in the town, and students are required to raise enough money for a tentative intervention. (Since there is no funding for this, apart from credits to the students, the opportunity to learn and render community service, the exercise is to sensitize such house-owners to the heritage value of their property, and challenge them to take responsibility for completing the task). The first of such architectural restoration experiments, in 2001, was on the Olayinka House – a notable example of the Afro-Brazilian building style in Ile-Ife, which had been the prestigious residence of S. J. Olayinka, the enigmatic man-of-many-parts (trader, certified money-lender and renowned medicine-man!). The project succeeded in effecting an albeit limited face-lift to the 70 year-old building, improving both the streetscape and the self-esteem of the house-owners, and conferring social/ community relevance on OAU’s academic programmes.
Cordelia Osasona successfully turned the international spotlight on some of Ile-Ife’s colonial architectural legacies, when her article on Ile Nla, the colonial city hall, was published by African Arts in 2001. Designed by the Welshman Taffy Jones of the PWD in 1922, it is unique for a number of reasons, notable among which is the fact of its being the first (and only) attempt made by the British in Western Nigeria, to relate political architecture to the human scale, as well as to articulate it in the appropriate cultural architectural vocabulary.
Her book, COLONIAL ARCHITECTURE IN ILE-IFE, NIGERIA (co-authored with Professor Anthony D. C. Hyland of KNUST, Kumasi, Ghana) is a more detailed analysis of the various buildings in the town designed and erected during the British colonial administration. These buildings include a hospital, schools, law courts, offices, churches, warehouses, post offices, residences and a museum.
More recently, Osasona has been looking into how, even in contemporary, pro-Western expressions of Nigerian builtform, complementary art (often on traditional themes) still features. At the STREMAH 2007 conference in Prague (July 6-8), she presented this aspect of her work. She posited that the applied art on public buildings – usually sponsored by governments and other corporate organizations – is usually the handiwork of highly-trained professional artists (like the “Spirit of Man in Flight” mural mosaic by Professor Agbo Folarin, at the Murtala Muhammed Airport); for art-in-architecture in the spirit of vernacular practices, less pretentious buildings are more representative. Authentication for the art-in-architecture tradition being a long-standing one, was provided by a panoramic survey featuring Igbo, Yoruba, Nupe, Bini and Hausa traditional/ vernacular architecture. The highlight of her presentation was the discussion of her current experiment in which she is re-introducing the vernacular carved fascia board of Yoruba architecture, into modern architectural projects that she is handling. She intends to further pursue this theme of reviving – possibly re-contextualizing – traditional motifs of art-in-architecture.
