Emanuel Omotayo Adeolu was born in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria in 1928, the son of a pastor in the Cherubim and Seraphim Church Society. He attended the Abeokuta Grammar School, Ogun State, from 1942-48 and, upon graduation, moved to Lagos, taking up a job in the architect’s department attached to the quantity surveyor section at the Yaba Technical Institute (now Yaba College of Technology) – and then studying there to become an architectural assistant. From 1952-54 he worked for the Lagos branch of Nickson and Borys Architects, before winning a federal scholarship which provided him to attend the Architectural Association (AA) in London. He entered the AA First Year in 1954 and rapidly progressed through the Diploma course, electing to join the AA’s Department of Tropical Architecture six-month course during in his final year of 1958-59. Following graduation Adeolu worked in the London office of the Architects’ Co-Partnership and then undertook further studies, in Town Planning, at the University of Liverpool until 1961. During this period in Liverpool, Adeolu also worked for Weightman and Bullen, a major practice renowned for their modernist churches. In 1963 Ahmadu Bello University, in Zaria, Nigeria, advertised positions for lecturers in the Faculty of Architecture and Adeolu applied and was accepted, becoming the first Nigerian lecturer employed there. Afraid for his safety, following the 1966 coup, Adeolu left Zaria and travelled to Lagos, where he joined the Civil Engineering Department at the University of Lagos (UNILAG). In the same year, his article on architectural education in Nigeria was published in The West African Builder and Architect, during in his own experiences, including a tour of 54 Nigerian secondary schools he had undertaken several years earlier in a drive to promote architecture as a career and profession. Adeolu’s own role within architectural education was of major significance - in 1971 he was responsible for developing the course and curriculum for the newly established UNILAG School of Environmental Design, for which he was to act as Professor of City and Regional Planning and, latterly, as Dean from 1984-86. Adeolu was also active as an architect and planner, with amongst his works being laboratories, St. Finbarr's College, Akoka, classroom blocks at Abeokuta Grammar School and projects for UNILAG Works and Services.
Sources
- Architectural Association Student Register 1945-1972, AA Archives
- Architectural Association Diploma Roll, 1924-1963, AA Archives
- Architectural Association Council Minutes Books, 23rd February, 1959, p317, AA Archives
- Architectural Association Membership List, 1961
- Adeolu, Omotayo, ‘Architectural Education in Nigeria’, The West African Builder and Architect, 9:1 (1969), pp. 28–29
- Africa Who’s Who, Africa Journal Ltd, 1991, p68
- Arukaino Umukoro ‘Reading Sharpens The Mind and Helps One Live Long – The 85 Year Old Professor…’ (interview with Prof. Adeolu). https://www.myschoolgist.com/ng/reading-sharpens-mind-helps-one-live-long-85-year-old-professor/ Accessed 7th Dec., 2022
- Federal Republic of Nigeria Official Gazette, Vol. 57, No.40, 9th July, 1970.
