Alan Vaughan-Richards

Alan Vaughan-Richards (1925–1989) was a British-Nigerian architect who was active in the post-colonial architecture industry of Nigeria. He engaged architects on the potential influence of African forms in architectural design through publication of the journal West Africa Builder and Architect.

Vaughan-Richards incorporated the works of Nigerian artists in many of his projects. Trained in modern architecture in England, he then studied cultural uses of architecture in Nigeria, and many of his commissions were hybrids of both influences.

Education Vaughan-Richards was educated at London Polytechnic (now University of Westminster) where he obtained a diploma in architecture in 1950. He also enrolled for a newly created course on Tropical Architecture at Architectural Association, London in 1956.

Career Vaughan-Richards began his career in the 1950s working with the Architect Development Board in Iraq and subsequently Architect Co-Partnership in London. The firm was engaged in the design of a newly reconstructed Bristol Hotel and housing for oil and gas companies in Lagos. In the course of the project, Vaughan-Richards was involved in preliminary design and as a site supervisor visited Nigeria during tours of the projects.

Vaughan-Richards co-founded and edited the West African Builder and Architect to provide information about architecture in Africa and later co-wrote Building Lagos with Kunle Akinsemoyin, a book documenting the development of Lagos. Many of his works were neglected or poorly maintained. In the 1950s, new construction projects designed from adopted modern European architectural forms with consideration for Nigerian climate and which was led by Maxwell Fry and London trained Nigerian architects began to emerge as the dominant style in Lagos. a departure of the orthodox styles emerging in the 1950s that largely incorporated adaptation to the climatic conditions in Africa. His personal house built in the 1960s was an experimentation of traditional West African architectural forms with modern architecture principles such as the use of curvi-linear and circular geometries. Other projects such as the Ola-oluwakitan House stood out for the consideration given to African forms

Personal life He married Ayo Vaughan-Richards (née Vaughan), a nurse who was the daughter of a hotelier from the Vaughan family of Lagos. They had four children including the filmmaker Remi Vaughan-Richards.

Publications "Le Nigeria" in Rives coloniales : architectures, de Saint-Louis à Douala. 1993. . Editor. West African Builder and Architect. Journal. 1963 - 1967. Co-author. Building Lagos. 1977. Pengrail Ltd