Form follows culture: decolonizing Nigerian dwellings through neo-vernacular design

Abstract

Traditional Nigerian architecture celebrates impermanence, the cyclic nature of life and architectural spirituality. As African creation myths tell us, “Earth makes man, and everything man makes is bound to the Earth because man was formed from clay”. The trans-Atlantic slave trade, colonization and globalization reshaped the design of contemporary homes, blending styles from Europe and Brazil while displacing the use of local materials. These shifts were driven further by modernist design philosophies such as “ornament is crime,” “less is more,” and “form follows function” (Van der Rohe, Loos, Sullivan), which posed several issues as they displaced traditional markers and stripped homes of their cultural characteristics. This thesis proposes restoring culturally relevant homes made from locally sourced biogenic materials pertinent to the current culture. It will achieve this through neo-vernacular critiques, material collage studies, artifact craft explorations, and an iterative process of thinking through model making. It will redefine dwellings as materially diverse homes that can be adapted for multigenerational households and evolve with the culture of Nigeria.