Frank Mbanefo’s Enugu residence, both in Nigeria, and Owuso Addo’s Accra Cedi Tower (Ghana) (Fig. 3) were only recognised by few in Africa but not the African public. It would not be until the late 1960s when the monumental architectural infrastructure framing the Ghana Remembrance Square, Race Course and the FESTAC Theatre, both in Lagos, that the public would engage with the architecture on view. The infrastructure construction however was largely subcontracted to foreign firms as design and building contracts. Thus, despite the resulting architecture having some engagement with its local environment, the design and production process was often foreign. More local projects such as the layout, school and staff housing for the University of Lagos did showcase the work of Alan Vaughan Richards, who later teamed with the Nigerian architect Alex Ibru to design future projects. By the 1980s with the past effects of the global oil crises and ongoing structural adjustment programmes, the transition from the International Style to a more global post-modern style was less clear. However, a few buildings such as the IMB Plaza, in Lagos, UBA Lagos, and the Shell HQ building on Victoria Island Lagos, were designed by local Nigerian architects, including the subsidiary firm James Cubitt and Partners. Buildings from the 90s to the 2000s have been built and developed in similar style, with the last two decades proving the most interesting in indigenous interpretation and change. The residences of Addo and Lokko in Accra are good examples of a broader indigenous African architecture re-emerging as with Kere’s Gando schools programme. The experimental is covered with Adeyemi’s Floating School. Significant new commercial buildings have also evolved such as the New Lagos Yacht Club, Ecobank HQ (Fig. 4) and One Airport Square, both in Accra. Meanwhile the African architect David Adjaye has plans for a national Ghana cathedral. Whilst this narrative has focused solely on West Africa, the same could be said of any of sub-Saharan Africa’s regions. What it seeks to show is that African architecture is not static and indeed is currently emerging as it should into its own. 3. PROBLEMS OF IDENTIFICATION, RELEVANCE AND CONSERVATION Despite this context, why is it that African architectural heritage and its conservation remains in such a poor state? We can appreciate the economic arguments; most sub-Saharan African countries are poor, and the investment made in building conservation is focused on stereotypical ideas of Africa’s indigenous culture. Furthermore, the post-colonial, anOla Uduku, Ilze Wolff Challenging Modern Movement Heritage Conservation in Africa
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ti-expatriate feelings articulated in the previous section has meant that there is limited local interest in the post-independence period architecture, the foundation of the African modernist architectural building canon. The other issues which face all urban areas in the emerging as in the developed world, include the rapid speed of urbanisation, high urban land values, and the difficulty of applying conservation orders. African cities such as Accra, Lagos and Luanda, all exhibit these characteristics. These would be common to cities such as San Francisco and Los Angeles in the late 19th century. This paper argues also however that in the African case, there is the need for indigenous communities and nation states to find ways to recognise and then own this heritage which is currently determined through a global view of heritage, which is not necessarily African or indigenously focused. Despite 221
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