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Thresholds of Architectural Morphology of Yoruba Buildings
in Southwest Nigeria till the Millenia
Folahan Anthony Adenaike
Lagos State University of Science and Technology, Ikorodu, Nigeria
Akunnaya Pearl Opoko
Bells University of Technology, Ota, Nigeria
Abstract:
The literary materials on Yoruba architecture that are more common
are descriptive. They dwell mostly on the massing of units, individual
configurations within buildings and cultural patterns in
ornamentation. The direct links between the living spaces and their
socio-cultural implications are emphasized to explain the origin of
the forms. The morphological chronology in the building patterns is
regarded as vernacularisation processes especially from the
traditional patterns to the vernacular traditions. There are hardly any
publications of Yoruba architectural buildings beyond the later
vernacular patterns like the Afro-Brazilian style. While these volumes
of literature are mostly limited to the traditional and vernacular styles, the ethno-acculturation of more
contemporary and foreign building patterns like the "international" and the "postmodern" styles into the
body of indigenous architectural building patterns of the Yoruba of Southwest Nigeria are not being
investigated and published. The culture of a people is preserved in their architecture. If the culture of the
Yoruba is preserved in their buildings, the cross-pollination of the Yoruba culture with different inputs
from foreign cultures should be evident in the new indigenous buildings that are evolving up till the end
of the twentieth century. This chapter material has organized the different lines of thought in the
morphology of indigenous architectural building patterns of the Yoruba into a continuum that extends
beyond the limits of the current body of literature on the topic. It attempts to decipher the new forms
and elements of the buildings of later Yoruba indigenous architecture up till the turn of the twentieth
century. The emphasis is on the definition of newer building patterns that can be termed as "indigenous"
to the Yoruba culture in Southwest Nigeria. Having increased the ambit of the Yoruba architecture
concerning the building patterns beyond the exposition of the previous publications, the current surcease
on the morphology of Yoruba architecture in print can be broken to open up more research and
publications on contemporary thresholds of the indigenous Yoruba architecture. The chapter is
concluded with a guide on the identity of buildings of indigenous architecture of the Yoruba even within
the morass of foreign building patterns that crowd the Yoruba towns in Southwest Nigeria.
Keywords: Ethno-acculturation, Indigenous, International, Postmodern, Traditional, Vernacular.
Origins of Yoruba Buildings
The basic building forms and elements of the
Yoruba are subsumed within a continuum of
responses of indigenous peoples of West Africa,
south of the Guinea Savanah. The region which
comprises The Sudan and the West African
tropical rain forest stretches across the West
African region up to central Africa. The climate
and landforms are homogenous. While the
Suggested Citation
Adenaike, F.A. & Opoko, A.P.
(2024). Thresholds of Architectural
Morphology of Yoruba Buildings
in Southwest Nigeria till the
Millenia. European Journal of
Theoretical and Applied Sciences, 2(2),
180-193.
DOI: 10.59324/ejtas.2024.2(2).17
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181
ethnic groups are different, the origins of the
architectural structures are quite similar
(Anifowose & Olatubosun, 2020; Adenaike and
Opoko, 2020). This is sometimes regarded as a
concomitant of the basic materials that are
available for construction in the whole spread
and the climatic conditions which dictated the
response. At the point of transcending from
wandering groups to settle down to vocations
which were mainly farming, the Yoruba of
Southwest Nigeria erected basic single room
structures known as the "farm house”
(Asomani-boateng, 2011). The farm house
(Figure 1) which was a quadrilateral structure
that was highly limited by the available
technology started with thatch as the only
material and gradually progressed to more
durable materials like mud for the walls while the
roof was made with materials from the forest
and grass. The transformation into social groups
and subsequent evolution of building clusters to
form the urban groups saw the families erecting
the structures both in the clusters and on the
farms with more permanent materials being used
in the town. The houses on the farms were just
forest materials while the towns evolved faster
with earthen materials for walls and the
introduction of technologically limited openings
for doors and windows (Auwalu, 2019). The
farm house at its most stable threshold in
morphology was a room with one door and one
window (Figure 1). Archaeological pieces of
evidence suggest that the people had started
locating to areas where the Yoruba currently
occupy since the fourth century A.D. but the
living clusters started developing between 700
and 900 A.D. The evolution of the Yoruba cities
witnessed the morphology of the farm house
into bigger units especially the two-room farm
house. There were also more complex
configurations to address the changing socio-
cultural demands as the societies evolved
(Osasona, 2007). Rather than achieve larger
structures, they opted for ever-increasing
massing using the basic farm house as a modular
unit for the configurations (Figure 2).
Figure 1. A Farm House Unit
Figure 2. An Evolving Urban Settlement
in the Early 1900s
There is no evidence that this disposition of the
Yoruba towards their built structures was altered
until the British arrived in the early 1800s. The
arrival of colonialists and the influences relating
to the Fulani from the north did not change the
basic forms of the buildings. The use of more
durable materials started from the larger
commercial settlements and centres of
administration. The buildings erected by the
colonialists were departures from the existing
traditional buildings while the traditional farm
house exposition continued till the middle of the
twentieth century. Monumental structures like
palaces and shrines were all of farm house
configurations to achieve complex spreads with
multiple courtyards.
Traditional Architecture of the Yoruba
The traditional building style of the Yoruba of
Southwest Nigeria started from the farm house
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era up till the adoption of more foreign materials
like corrugated iron sheets for the roof and the
consciousness to render the mud walls. The
Yoruba of Southwest Nigeria and other ethnic
denominations that existed within the enclosure
were mostly farmers. The structure of the
buildings was limited by the available technology
(Vlach, 1984) and materials. As urbanization
developed, the culture encouraged the
maintenance of two homes. One of the homes
was located in the town while the other was
situated on the farm. The two buildings are
similar in structure, forms and elements. The
basic structure which is the farm house, often
referred to as the farm house is usually a
rectilinear structure of earthen material and
grass. The dimensions of the floor were usually
a square of about 1800mm to 3000mm in length.
When the technology evolved from strictly
forest materials, it achieved a threshold where
the walls were built with 600mm thick mud at
the base and gradually tapered to about 250mm
thickness at the soffit of the roof. The height of
the farm house could range between 2500mm
and 3600mm with almost half of the total as roof
depth. The forms and elements that constituted
the farm house were consistent throughout the
region with gradual changes from locality to
locality depending on the level of craftsmanship.
Using the basic square as a module,
configurations including two or more units
gradually replaced the single unit. The two-room
configuration was popular as it was more
functional and gave more privacy to the inner
room. The social head of the farming family had
exclusive access to the inner room. Social spaces
for cooking and meeting also had the basic
square floor plan though some of them were not
fully walled. The structure of the roof was held
in place with timber beams and columns. Tree
trunks and branches were cut to size before
being buried in the foundation and the low walls.
The slanting beams which formed the rafters
gave lateral support while the king post rose
from the floor to the apex of the roof. The roof
form was symmetrical and in a simple gable
configuration. The loft which was as deep as the
walls had no ceiling and were used as storage by
hanging items like farm produce from the
rafters. The development of hipped roof forms
helped to resolve the challenges associated with
erecting the gable wall to the apex of the roof
(Figure 3). The thatched roof offered very little
protection for the walls from the elements and
the tropical rain easily eroded the higher walls,
most of the surviving farm houses have hipped
roofs. The elevations of the farm houses were
rectilinear without finishes. The later versions of
the farm houses and their combinations which
are still visible in sedentary areas have rendered
walls (Figure 4).
Figure 3. Yoruba Indigenous Building Style
Figure 4. Elevation of an Old Family
Compound
Vernacular Exposition in Yoruba
Architecture
The morphology of Yoruba architecture went
through a period of vernacularisation from the
traditional buildings. The vernacularisation
process was a transition from the building
patterns that were regarded as basic responses to
the challenges of overcoming the elements and
problems of security to buildings that exuded
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delight, more durable materials and better
craftsmanship. All these were made possible
through the cross-pollination of the building
culture by foreign influences. This conscious
form of architecture took a foothold in
Southwest Nigeria in the 19th century (Kazeem
et al., 2021; Jiboye & Ogunshakin, 2010). The
use of forest materials and mud in the humid
environment meant that the buildings were
weathered out within a very short time. The
adoption of corrugated iron for roofing helped
to preserve the architectural legacy of the later
traditional buildings. The traditional style tarried
in southwest Nigeria till the middle of the
twentieth century (Figure 5).
Figure 5. A Relic of the Early Vernacular
Style
The turning point in the morphology of
indigenous architecture was the extroversion of
the Yoruba buildings to face the street and the
village court rather than the internal courtyard of
the family compound (Markus, 2016; Jolaoso &
Bello, 2019). The extroversion of the buildings
arrived at the same time with the organisation of
the urban setting along European styled streets.
Previously the compounds were organized in
concentric circles around the city centre which
housed the palace of the king, the market, the
city square and the religious centre. There were
no clear-cut streets and movement was around
family compounds. This change in orientation
combined with the more durable materials and
finishes to arrive at another threshold in the
morphology of Yoruba architecture that lasted
from the beginning to the later parts of the
twentieth century. At the peak of the vernacular
style was the introduction of the Afro-Brazilian
style into the body of the indigenous
architecture.
The Afro-Brazilian style was very prominent in
the evolution of Yoruba vernacular architecture.
The style was popularized by the generations of
returning slaves who started arriving in the early
1900s (Femi Emmanuel Arebanifo, 2017) with a
new wealth of craftsmanship and structural
expertise to erect larger and more beautiful
buildings with plaster on walls, wooden floors
and decorations (Oliver, 2020; Osasona, 2007).
The front and side colonnades, balconies,
verandahs and vestibules suited the extroversion
that had become the character of the vernacular
tradition (Figure 6). The more visible aspects of
the Afro-Brazilian style were the multiple floors,
large fenestration, raised pedestals and heavy
ornamentation.
Figure 6. Vernacular Architecture with
Brazilian Style Influence
The monumental buildings of the period also
exhibited a lot of features that were synonymous
with the Brazilian style. Susan Wenger’s building
in Oshogbo (Figure 7), Osun state is an example
of monumentality in Yoruba architecture with a
lot of vernacular influences. In the building,
there is a conscious effort to preserve the
Yoruba cultural household organisation with a
lot of foreign forms and building elements.
Monumentality is exhibited within a cocktail of
foreign vernacular influences.
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Figure 7. Susan Wenger’s Building,
Oshogbo
Derivatives of International Style in
Yoruba Indigenous Architecture
The “international style” in architecture has its
origins in Central Europe from about the 1920s.
It was at that point a conjecture in the conscious
development of a modern style of architecture
that was to depart from the dominant eclectic
styles of architecture and building. It evolved
with contributory influences from all over the
world especially the West through decades of
modification and attrition. By the early 1950s, it
had achieved a stable form of presentation,
defined by flat roofs within parapet walls, free
floor plans, absence of ornamentation, and
simple geometrical forms. The style could easily
be accommodated in the temperate zones of the
world. It was unsuitable for the Yoruba climate
and culture (Ebuz & Donatus, 2018; Iheanacho,
2022; Prucnal-Ogunsote, 2002). The
international style first found its initial
expression in Southwest Nigeria during the run
to the independence period. The first set of high-
rise buildings in Southwest Nigeria especially
around Lagos and Ibadan were erected in the
impersonal style.
Over the years, the style permeated the building
culture of the Yoruba and was adopted with
input from the indigenous building patterns to
arrive at another threshold beyond the
vernacular style. Some notable features of the
mature international style are the prominent use
of reinforced concrete and glass. The flat roofs
and exposed parapet walls created management
problems within the local climate and were de-
emphasised over time. The roof form of the
international style was eventually tropicalized.
Pitched roofs with deep eaves which were
synonymous with the vernacular style were
adopted as cover for the evolved style (Figure 8).
The use of decorative elements that attained
their peak in the vernacular era was completely
jettisoned with the coming of the international
style. The flat surfaces and cuboid forms
remained, to give a local derivative for the
international style in Yoruba Southwest Nigeria.
While this ethno-acculturation of the
international style was going on with the
residential buildings, the institutional and
commercial buildings of the era were not
indigenized. The high rise buildings and larger
structures even for the residential uses continued
their morphology along the path of modern
architecture towards contemporary designs.
Figure 8. A Local Derivative of
International Style
Postmodern and Contemporary
Architectural Styles within Yoruba
Culture
The postmodern architectural style of building
was introduced into the building patterns of the
Western world around the 1960s. It took a
strong foothold in the Yoruba parts of Nigeria
in the middle 1980s. The style upturned the strict
formality and lack of reverence for individual
cultures that were characteristic of the modern
architectural style. It also paved the way for a
reintroduction of some elements of eclecticism
in its statements ( Haddad, 2009; Portnova et al.,
2019; Trisno & Lianto, 2019). The postmodern
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style became the precursor of contemporary
building styles. The three major branches of the
postmodern architectural styles are neo-
classicism, high-tech architecture and
deconstructivism (Haddad & Rifkind, 2014).
With the successful progression from the
vernacular to the international style, Yoruba
indigenous architecture in its morphology which
had always tailed the imported patterns through
vernacularisation and ethno-acculturation has
also shown some dynamism as it merges itself
with the different styles that have been vested on
the Nigerian architectural building space at the
close of the twentieth century.
Defining architectural styles and building
typologies often come after the conclusion of
building and architectural morphological
discourses. Architectural typologies and styles
are usually tied to formal or aesthetic
representations of movements that may be
cultural or philosophical. Futurism, brutalism,
cubism, postmodernism and deconstruction, are
but a few movements that the morphological
discourses have tried to define. Usually, they are
discussed tangentially from the reference points
of indigenous architecture, vernacular styles,
classical patterns and contemporary architecture
(Oliver, 2020; Lodson et al., 2018). Yoruba
indigenous architectural building morphology
which is the subject of this discourse is defined
by the architectural styles and typologies that are
culture-specific to the indigenous population of
the Yoruba of Southwest Nigeria.
Recent advances in instant access to information
and communication technology, computerised
building information modelling, fluid and cross-
platform integration of extant fields like Biology,
cognitive and behavioural sciences, physical
sciences and arts have made the more recent
typologies very difficult to define. The gamut of
available entities that are at the disposal of the
spatial technocrats as inputs for designing
buildings is endless. There is also a conscious
departure from the concept of "urban ensemble"
towards designing unique buildings. This
approach has diminished regularity in buildings
of the recent epochs giving the impression that
no individual style is dominant within the new
urban space. At best, all the buildings that cannot
be associated with the past styles up to the
postmodern styles are referred to as
contemporary styles. The assignment of
materials, forms and elements in the recent
buildings are however easily deciphered for
aggregation to represent the new architectural
styles. More often, current discourses on the
architectural (building) morphology also tend to
reflect on the socio-political influences that are
tied to certain periods and places (Guney, 2007)
when referring to the newer styles. The
postmodern and contemporary styles were the
last architectural building styles to be introduced
in Yoruba Southwest Nigeria before the end of
the twenty-first century.
Ethno-Acculturation of New Forms
and Elements
To decipher the new threshold of the Yoruba
architectural morphology at the end of the
twentieth century. The previous approach of
typifying the patterns according to distinct
architectural styles is too challenging. There are
no pre-conceived styles to categorize the
buildings into and the old trends in the urban
ensemble have disappeared. The cybernetic
approach in systems theory of managing the
parts and feedbacks to gain full control of the
whole system can however be deployed in the
circumstance. The forms and elements of the
evolving patterns coming out of the ethno-
acculturation of the postmodern and
contemporary styles can be analysed without
trying to fuse them into a full-body style as was
done in the past,
Recent studies carried out in some parts of
Southwest Nigeria confirmed with statistical
analysis that some forms and elements of the
buildings in the areas have been altered in
varying degrees to blend with trends in the
evolving architectural space. It is pertinent to
identify those changes that are in line with the
indigenous building patterns. Some changes can
also alter the architecture towards patterns that
are not indigenous to the area.
Some building forms changed in shape and
volume while others changed in dimension.
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Dimensional changes which are evident in doors
and windows are needed for the changing
functionality of the buildings. Such changes are
subsumed in the ethno-acculturation trends
since they are dictated by socio-cultural and
architectonic functions. The general shape of the
buildings which are changing from box-like
forms to more complex forms with additive and
subtractive forms cannot be fully associated with
the indigenous building patterns. Increasing
socio-cultural demands on the buildings in the
traditional setting often necessitated the addition
of more structures and spaces. On this premise,
the additive forms like porches and verandahs
on the ground floor are more likely to fit into the
indigenous styles. The subtractive forms are
more dependent on advanced levels of
technology. An example is the balconies.
Balconies in buildings arrived with the late Afro-
Brazilian building patterns. Over time, they have
been assimilated into the indigenous patterns if
they are well integrated into the building
structure. The balconies that appear additive like
the case of cantilevered balconies are however
less likely to be accommodated within the
indigenous style. The changes in building sizes
do not alter the socio-cultural outlook of the
buildings. Building sizes within the indigenous
patterns have always been increasing. With the
introduction of the postmodern and
contemporary styles, there has been a further
increase in the average building size of the area.
The roof shapes have gone a full circle of
changes for the indigenous building pattern. The
international style promoted shallow roof forms
which were in some instances, flat roofs. The
forms were adopted in some vernacular style
buildings of the era. Over time, the indigenous
buildings started to reject the shallow roof
forms. These roof forms are only retained in the
high-rise commercial buildings which do not
depict the indigenous building pattern. The
more recent residential buildings have deeper
pitched roofs like those in the purely traditional
buildings. There are however more intricate
compositions of gables and pitched ends sitting
on more complex geometrical floor plans to
replace the simple pitched roof covering the
rectangular traditional buildings. The jettisoning
of ornamentations which were a noble feature in
the vernacular buildings is another throw-back
to the purely traditional pattern which had no
ornamentations. The neo-classicistic style of
postmodern buildings may have influenced the
recent adoption of the traditional forms over the
vernacular styles. The features of the traditional
style are common in the neo-classic postmodern
style.
The gradual changes in the materials used in the
building elements for the buildings are easily
accommodated within the indigenous building
pattern. Plaster, timber, aluminium and glass are
the major materials used in recent buildings.
Their adoption does not deviate from the
continuum of ethno-acculturation of the
buildings unless their application completely
alters the outlook of the buildings towards full
commercial use. An example is the use of glass
curtain walling. It is more common in
commercial and institutional buildings. Where it
is used extensively for residential buildings, the
building loses its indigenous identity.
A delineation has to be made between the
general changes in the building patterns and
those that alter the indigenous architecture
without taking away the present cultural
disposition of the resident population.
The architecture of highly introverted spaces
that characterized the purely traditional buildings
(Ikudayisi & Odeyale, 2021) had given way to
more extroverted structures in the vernacular
era. Forms and elements were also changing.
While some of the changes went as far as
bringing in foreign styles like modern
architecture which did not correlate with the
culture of the people, some changes easily
became integral parts of the evolution of
indigenous architecture. When changes that are
easily integrated into the prevailing building
patterns are adopted, they take the indigenous
pattern to another threshold(Baca & López,
2018; Siwalatri et al., 2015; Olotuah et al., 2018).
The acculturation of foreign forms and elements
to become part of the indigenous building
morphological input can only be possible if the
relevant technology for its integration is readily
available on the one hand. On the other hand,
such forms and elements must be acceptable to
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the indigenous culture. In this discourse, those
foreign building patterns, forms and elements
that could not fit into the acculturated ethno-
architecture of the indigenes of the study area
will be stepped down. Only those that have been
integrated into the visible continuum of
indigenous architecture of the Yoruba of
Southwest Nigeria will be visited.
New Forms and Elements of Yoruba
Indigenous Buildings, 2000AD
Some field studies on the changes that are taking
place in the building patterns of the Yoruba
cities of Southwest Nigeria were carried out in
2018. It is pertinent to limit the outcomes of the
research that are being used in this discourse to
those that affect the indigenous building
morphology. The import of this position is the
sifting of the results to be able to identify those
results that align with the objective. At the end
of the exercise, a conceptual image of the new
threshold of the indigenous building
morphology was assembled for future
references. The architectural forms investigated
in the study included building shape, building
symmetry, door sizes and shapes, window sizes
and shapes, building size, opening
ornamentation and roof shapes. The
architectural elements and materials considered
were wall finishing materials, door finishing
materials, eaves & external ceiling materials, roof
finishing materials, entrance area delineation and
window finishing materials. All the forms and
elements mentioned are those that are visually
discernible from the street elevations of the
buildings. Those that eventually showed
significant levels of changes within the
indigenous architectural morphology were
building sizes and shapes, window sizes and
shapes, entrance delineation, roof forms and
roof finishes. The rest of the forms and elements
did not feature enough changes in the
indigenous architectural morphology in the late
twentieth century.
Basic Shapes and Sizes of Buildings
The threshold of the building geometry for the
indigenous architectural morphology before the
advent of the postmodern and contemporary
styles was fairly regular and decipherable. The
forms at the recent level of the vernacular
architecture attained in the Yoruba area were
basic rectangular forms for the superstructure
and double-pitched roof as capping. Most roof
ends along the streets are gabled. The tendency
to integrate additive and subtractive elements
into the building pattern was high. The buildings
that had subtractive elements in their elevations
are more inclined to the postmodern building
styles than the indigenous styles. The newer
structures also had some subtractive forms
mostly for display. True indigenous architecture
is not synonymous with commercial buildings in
the Yoruba towns. The major commercial and
institutional buildings follow the regular patterns
of foreign contemporary designs without ethno-
acculturation. Having commercial activities
integrated into the main building structures was
a new phase in the indigenous building
morphology. The subtractive elements are
common in the new buildings and renovations
of the period. They have the benefit of ease of
integration into the prevailing styles of the
period (Figure 9).
Figure 9. Subtractive Forms of Indigenous
Style
Additive and subtractive elements in basic
rectilinear building forms of indigenous building
morphology are acceptable. Once other
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individual forms and elements that give the
character of ethno-acculturation of the buildings
are present, additive and subtractive elements
that alter the basic shapes are easy to integrate
(Figure 10).
Figure 10. Additive Forms Among
Vernacular Buildings
Shapes and Sizes of Windows
The small square-shaped windows of the
traditional era were true to the available
technology and the socio-cultural demands of
the traditional era. The rectilinear shape has been
retained to a very large extent but sizes have been
altered. From the square shape that characterised
the traditional house, increment to a rectangular
form with more distensions along the horizontal
axis has continued to take place. The upper
limits of the windows in the new houses remain
the structural lintel. The geometry of the
contemporary windows is determined by the
building designer and will reflect the basic
function. The issue of regularity in sizes was
popular with the buildings of the vernacular era.
Modular designs and dimensional coordination
which were popular in the era of modern
architecture (Ajayi & Oyedele, 2018) had direct
influences on the vernacular building patterns of
the people. During the period, designers and
manufacturers fixed the sizes of fittings like
doors, windows and cabinets. Standard heights
and widths were fairly regular during the period
(Figure 11). The aluminium blade carriers for the
glass louvres only came in three standard
heights. They were 600mm, 900mm and
1200mm. such levels of standardization limited
the size options available for window
geometries. Even the glass louvres to be fitted
into frames were cut into standard lengths.
Figure 11. Standardisation of Window Sizes
and Components in Vernacularised
Buildings of the Modern Architecture Era
in Southwest Nigeria
The integration of the larger and sometimes
small window sizes into the indigenous building
morphology is well accommodated as the culture
of the resident population has become more
extroverted.
Roof Forms and Materials
The new structures in the region at the end of
the century spotted coated aluminium roofs. The
material became prominent in the 1980s at the
full maturation of the international style in the
area. Apart from the essence of durability and
aesthetics, the use of aluminium sheeting does
not alter the ethnocentricity of the indigenous
building pattern (Figure 12). Although the
migration from the use of thatch as a roofing
material has given the latitude to reduce the
depth of the loft of the roof, the indigenous
community have not moved their roof forms to
the domain of very shallow lofts or flat roofs that
came with the modern style. The high-pitched
roofs without parapets still symbolize the
indigenous roofing pattern, irrespective of the
finish (Figure 13).
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Figure 12. The Use of Contemporary
Roofing Finishes with Deep Eaves is in
Line with the Indigenous Architecture
Figure 13. Use of Modern Materials and
Vernacularized Forms for a Roof in Yoruba
Buildings of the Postmodern Era
The geometry of the roof is more important in
its identity as an indigenous style. At the end of
the twentieth century, the roof forms in the
study area are becoming more eclectic in the
depths of the lofts. A throwback from the
shallow roofs of the modern architecture
building style to the very deep lofts and high
gables of the traditional era is becoming more
popular among the new buildings of indigenous
morphology.
The convenience and overall cost implication of
replacing old roofing sheets must also be
considered. The corrugation of the long span
aluminium roofing sheets is very different from
that of the corrugated iron sheets. They cannot
be combined within the same continuum. Where
they are forcibly brought together, the
composite whole becomes an aberration. It is
better to continue with the corrugated iron
sheets until the patron is ready to change the
whole roof covering. The mix in Figure 10 is
made possible because the aluminium sheet is
only going on top of the additive structure.
Eaves and External Ceilings
The traditional building pattern did not
emphasise the extension of the roofing beyond
the limits of the external walls. The wooden
trusses that supported the thatch and thereafter
the corrugated roofing sheets did not have
cantilever bearers. They were let into the wall
head. This meant the roof finishing material had
to bear its weight. There is just so much weight
that is protruding beyond the wall that the thatch
or roofing sheets can bear. The limitations of the
techniques of traditional construction methods
were overcome in the vernacular era. There was
however the functional demand for the external
eaves which has been highly limited by the
system in the socio-cultural organisation of the
family functions. The deep eaves towards the
courtyard were not required outside the building.
The external eaves from the late vernacular era
were standardized and constantly erected at
600mm deep. This was during the era of extreme
modular coordination of modern architectural
building pattern.
Figure 14. 1000mm Deep Eaves of a Recent
Building
The morphology of the indigenous pattern has
however had to contend with more external
functions and activities in the evolving culture.
The use of wall finish materials like tiles and
stones that need protection from the elements
also demand deeper eaves (Figure 14). There are
also buildings with eaves that are more defined
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190
than the ones in the vernacular building patterns.
The eaves by definition serve functions and use
more modern materials for the ceiling finish.
Entrance Design
Influencing cultures and building styles like the
Afro-Brazilian, introduced the concept of
porches and entranceways into the vernacular
styles. The courtyard system which was the hub
of activities for the compounds had given way to
the central corridor (Osasona, 2007) in the
indigenous building pattern. In the late
vernacular morphology, the entrance which had
become a vestibule for the building led through
a door to the central corridor. Recent
renovations at the end of the twentieth century
have tried to apply the postmodern columns and
embellishments to better define the entrance
with visible results.
Figure 15. A Renovated Indigenous
Building with Efforts to Define the
Previously Uncelebrated Entrance
However, the changing of cultural demands on
the buildings brought about the adoption of
hierarchies of public spaces within the living
space like reception, ante-rooms, pre-sit and
sitting areas. This organisation of spaces was
adopted with the modern architectural style and
is popular in many evolving cultures south of
The Sudan. There is however very little
compliance in the Yoruba buildings at the end of
the century. Only the outermost entrance space
is defined for the more recent buildings (Figure
16).
Figure 16. A Commercial Building with
Features of Both Indigenous and Modern
Building Patterns. The Entrance is not
Defined
Window Materials
The materials for panelling and framing of
windows have evolved from all wood to
composite assemblies of steel, aluminium and
glass. The contemporary materials used in
window construction in the upgraded areas are
aluminium for frames with glass panelling.
Modern architecture favoured the use of glazing
with metallic frames extensively. Curtain walls
are also very common in buildings of the
postmodern styles. The occurrence of buildings
with extensive curtain walling in the study area is
limited to commercial structures. The buildings
that have the larger curtain walling do not fit into
the indigenous building morphology. They are
better typified among the modern and
postmodern styles (Figure 17).
Figure 17. Aluminium Curtain Walls and
Windows of Contemporary Buildings
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The indigenous morphology at the end of the
twentieth century was able to subsume windows
made with aluminium frames and glass panelling
without altering its socio-cultural identity. The
frames occur in different colours and the glass
panels are either tinted or plain.
The indigenous building morphology is altered
but less dependent on the window materials. The
socio-cultural implications of window materials
only affect panelling. The wooden panel shuts
out the light from the rooms while the glass
panel admits light into the rooms. The
extroversion of the late vernacular culture
integrated the use of glass panels for windows
into the indigenous buildings. Only the
traditional buildings and the early vernacular
structures used materials that shut out the light
from the rooms.
Conclusion
The morphology of Yoruba architecture was
well defined up till the vernacular tradition.
Beyond the period and up till the end of the
twentieth century, foreign styles dominated the
architectural landscape with the indigenous style
only evolving in their trails. The research and
documentation of the evolution of the
indigenous architecture beyond the vernacular
styles have not received the type of robust
reportage witnessed earlier. To move forward,
there has to be a fresh basis for defining the
indigenous architecture to be able to transcend
the vernacular styles and decipher the
contemporary representations of the
architecture. Any building that can be termed as
indigenous must possess strong links to the
resident culture and the organisation of the
spaces, the forms and the elements must
promote the cultural identity of the people
(Adenaike, 2023). This basic guide which is not
new was adopted to project the architectural
building morphology of the Yoruba beyond the
vernacular styles which had attained a
formidable threshold by the 1960s towards the
end of the century. New variants of the foreign
styles that have become popular in the region
were found to be eligible for integration into the
body of Yoruba indigenous architecture. This
discuss concentrated on the visible forms and
elements of the building morphology without
attempting to typify them as new styles. Those
that show direct links to the progression from
the past styles are regarded as promoting the
identity of the indigenous culture. The forms and
elements that are wholly introduced afresh
without direct links and that are not acculturated
are regarded as foreign. This approach ensures
that Yoruba architecture can still be discussed in
future without the challenge of typifying it in
styles. The constituent parts of the buildings can
be viewed as aspects of the morphology that can
be organized in a time frame for discussion. The
architecture remains indigenous with the
changing forms and elements.
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