Michael Olutusen Onafowokan (1912–1991)E-flux (2024). Find and Tell Elsewhere: Michael Olutusen Onafowokan was a Nigerian architect regarded as the pioneer of architecture in Nigeria and Commonwealth Africa.Obiora Moneke (16 December 1985).Pa Onafowokan, 73, eyes Architecture. The Guardian Newspaper. He was one of the pioneers of Tropical Modernism an architectural design era that took into consideration the climatic condition of the region and attempted to curtail or utilize the climatic condition through the use of design elements, styles and concepts.Oluwaseyi, D., Ajibade, A., & Idowu, S. (2016). "Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew Partners: The Contributions of British Architects to Built Environment in Colonial Nigeria, 1946–1959". História. Revista Da FLUP. Porto, 4, 269.
Early life and education
Michael Olutusen Onafowokan was born in Ikorodu, Lagos State Nigeria where he attended the Methodist Primary School Ita-Elewa Ikorodu and St. Peters Primary School Faji-Ajele Street Lagos. For his secondary education, he attended the Methodist Boys' High School in Lagos. He passed the Junior Cambridge Examination in 1932, after which he attended the Public Works Department technical school and obtained a diploma in Civil Engineering in 1938.
In 1982 he was awarded the Order of the Niger.
Architectural philosophy and style He worked on projects and his style is typified by the utilization of green spaces in his design and the complete integration of the building with environmental elements, his style of design was mostly asymmetric.
He championed the architectural philosophy of Tropical Modernism in Nigeria, ensuring that the users of buildings are not affected by the climate. The hospitals like the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital,Lasuth. (2019). Lagos State University Teaching Hospital. Lasuth.Org. the Patriarch Bolaji Methodist Church which was designed in 1969 are examples of tropical modernism architectural design philosophy at play in Nigeria.Oluwaseyi, D., Ajibade, A., & Idowu, S. (2016). "Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew Partners: The Contributions of British Architects to Built Environment in Colonial Nigeria, 1946–1959". História. Revista Da FLUP. Porto, 4, 269.
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