The Obafemi Awolowo University (formerly the University of Ife) campus in Nigeria is one of the identifiable modern heritage sites of Africa. It is significant to the history of tertiary education and the political history of Nigeria and especially to the global history of modern architecture as an exemplar of buildings shorn of ornamental colonial ostentation, emphasizing lightness and green vegetation and aspirational for the newly independent African states. Its manifestation is often labeled “tropical architecture”, interpreted as the adaptation of modern architecture to the tropical climate. This paper presents an argument for the importance of this work to Modern Heritage of Africa.

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