ABOUT US

Historical Background

The history of Architectural Education at the University of Lagos can be traced to the establishment of the School of Environmental Design in 1970 as a project in the Faculty of Engineering. Following the intervention of Arc. S. I. Kola Bankole, Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Architects, the first Director Professor J.S. Myers of the School of Architecture at the
University of Minnesota, accepted the offer to start the school.

The School started to function in the academic year 1971/72 with 18 students who matriculated for the core Bachelors of Engineering Studies (B.E.S.) programme. The School became autonomous as the Faculty of Environmental Design in the 1973/1974 session and in the 1975/76 session, the two-tier discontinuous BES, MED (Architecture) degree structure was introduced. At the end of the 1975/76 session the first students successfully completed the Master in Environmental Design (MED) Degree Programme.

In the 1977/78 session, the unit course structure was introduced and the Urban Design option was added to the MED (Architecture Programme). The exchange programme with the German foundation, the DAAD, was also established.

Under the German exchange programme, the DAAD supported the visit of Professor Elmar Dittman, Dean 1976-1979, Mr. Von Mende, Senior Lecturer in Building Technology, 1977-1980 and Adolf 5chroeter, Visiting Professor of Architecture and Historical Reservation Expert, 1981/82. Two graduates of the Department completed Ph.D programmes in the University of Berlin and Illunich under the DAAD programme.

An exchange programme was also established with the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, University of Sao Paulo, in the session 1981/82 Professor David Aradeon taught a post graduate seminar on drican Architectural Technology in Sao Paulo in the second semester of 1982 and three graduate alumni took the post graduate degree course in Urban Design in Sao Paulo under a Brazilian Government funded scholarship within the Programme.

In the 1980/81 Academic year the Faculty was restructured into three interdependent and mutually cooperating Departments of Architecture, Building Technology, and City & Regional Planning. Thus, Architecture became a distinct teaching unit in the Faculty of Environmental Design.

Another important development during this same Academic year was the introduction of the six-year continuous B.E.S/B.Arch. professional degree programme to replace t BES, MED programme. The decision to effect this change was informed by the introduction of the four year undergraduate degree programme in the University and realization that the MED programme did not conform to the requirement of the School of Postgraduate Studies which came into existence in 1980/81.

Faculty of Environmental Science New building

Following rationalization of programmes and units in the University in 1986, the Faculty of Environmental Design was again restructured to the present Faculty of Environmental Sciences with four departments, namely: Architecture & Design, Building, Estate Management and Geography & Planning. Another rationalization of the programmes of the University in 1997, changed the composition of the Faculty to, the Department of Architecture, Building, Estate Management and Urban & Regional Planning. In 1999/2000 session, the Department began to run a B.Sc./M.E.D. programme with the M.E.D. programme under the School of Postgraduate Studies. The following postgraduate programmes are now available in the Department: P.G.D.E.D, M.E.D., M.LA., MUD, M.Arch and M.Phil/Ph.D.

The Department of Architecture at present is located in the Academic South sector of the University Campus in parts of the complex originally designed for the Faculty of Science. In the meantime, Phase III of the Faculty complex is about to be completed while the lecture Theatre is just at the foundation level. The Department will move as soon as this complex is completed.