In a world where nothing left is right and nothing right is left, which path should we take? On one part, most things done seems wrong. On the other all we have is a void, nothing to work with. So I turn around and I go back because the past gives us identity so that the future may hold the promise of fulfillment. There are times in our lives when we realize our past is what we always make it to be- A story. But rewardingly, for our stories and with our stories we can change or at least shape the future. Humanity hardly replays history, for we are the same people our ancestors were and our descendants are going to face a lot of the same situations we do face now. It would definitely be instructive and all the way appalling to imagine how they would react. But again with our stories. the past has obviously been there all along, reminding us that with time, hopefully against all odds we will get things right.

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THE LAGOS BUILDING: STORY'S UNTOLD
Preprint · June 2021
DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.12024.78084
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2. 1
THE LAGOS BUILDING: STORY’S UNTOLD
BY OGBODO EUGENE ENYINNA
UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA ENUGU CAMPUS
In a world where nothing left is right and nothing right is left, which path should we take?
On one part, most things done seems wrong. On the other all we have is a void, nothing to work
with. So I turn around and I go back because the past gives us identity so that the future may hold
the promise of fulfillment. There are times in our lives when we realize our past is what we always
make it to be- A story. But rewardingly, for our stories and with our stories we can change or at
least shape the future. Humanity hardly replays history, for we are the same people our ancestors
were and our descendants are going to face a lot of the same situations we do face now. It would
definitely be instructive and all the way appalling to imagine how they would react. But again with
our stories. the past has obviously been there all along, reminding us that with time, hopefully
against all odds we will get things right.
There was a time in our past when one could walk down any street and be surrounded by
harmonious buildings. Such a street wasn't perfect, it wasn't necessarily even pretty, but it was
alive. The old buildings smiled, while our new buildings are faceless. The old buildings sang, while
the buildings of our age have no music in them.
I have often wondered what it is an old building can do to you when you happen to know a little
about things that went on long ago in that building. From my four years as an architecture student,
I’ve deduced that old ideas can sometimes use new buildings and new ideas must use old buildings.

3. 2
The Lagos building stands today as one of the oldest structures built in the 1950’s for the then
College of Arts, Science and Technology located at the very heart of Enugu city before it was
commissioned to be a subsidiary campus for the University of Nigeria Nsukka Campus in 1961.
The Lagos building, old but strong, evokes emotions so sparingly that for years even at a second
glance I still did not appreciate its poise. Humbly sitting strategically at Latitude 6.4246° or
6° 25' 28.5" North and Longitude 7.5056° or 7° 30' 20.1" East this building block of the 1950’s
consisting of 150 external free standing columns, 858 windows, 65 external doors, screams to tell
its story, a perfect machine, is it?
This is a form too simple yet with a view not devoid of impression. At first glance, it looks so rigid
with emphasis on rectangular forms of horizontal and vertical lines. But close inspection reveals
emphasis on honesty materials of block work, concrete, glass and the ever greens which are so
humbly vivid. The apparent nature of this building block points greatly towards the modernist
architectural style.
The building orientation was obviously carefully considered, was adjusted to make the smaller
axis face the Eastern and Western part of the site obviously to minimize the effects of solar
radiation and locating the stairs to the building at those corners having only two window openings
on each of the four walls to lighting up the stairway. Circular roof vents could also be seen on
these side of the walls.
A single building block consisting of two single banked buildings, intricately linked by 2 open
lobby embankments defines a courtyard so generously relating the exterior and interior spaces.

4. 3
The wide lobbies with external free standing columns placed at successive intervals faces the
courtyard and offers a view, unapologetically beautiful.
Three floors high, greatly simplified with elaborate horizontal and vertical massing, giving way to
clean aesthetics where material members meet in simple, well executed joints with the stairways
tucked at the corners through a lobby of classrooms and administrative spaces. This building
currently houses the Faculty of Environmental studies.
The horizontal and vertical masses were managed through extruding concrete fin walls and
concrete floors slabs over floor levels below each other and receding the windows positioned. The
windows were craftily matched against each other with all the lower level of each floor made
openable and the higher level turned to fixed light. The openable parts of these windows are of
two types- Casement windows and Sliding windows. Comparing both, the Casement windows
looks older than the Sliding windows and as though it came with the original building design. The
Casement windows are of opaque glass and metal mullions and so are the fixed lights positioned
above.
Stepping through the lobbies, a grand courtyard could be seen, beckoning to be used from the
lobby embankments yet circulation routes cuts continuously through the courtyard at both ends
and at center creating the famous “love garden” known to all in the school. This invariably became
a symbol of social and psychological transformation.
I do not mind dying as a “symbol” for my country but to die as a “monument”? I most certainly
do not wish that because I have seen for years what inclement weather has and is doing to this
building and yet as old and cherished as it should be, things yet remain unchecked.

5. 4
We are one of the countries in the world that trashes its old buildings. But I hope it isn’t too late
for we all to realize how very much we need them.
There may have been a time when preservation was about saving an old building here and there,
but those days are gone. Preservation is in the business of saving communities and the values they
embody.
For us in Nigeria at the moment, common universal values such as justice, morality and peace
cannot be disputed any longer and it is for this reason that we must undeniably pursue the
restoration of historical truth.
My efforts towards and through this paper are guided by the belief that environmental preservation
and restoration are a critical part of the legacy we leave to future generations.
Old, strong and now radiates of stories untold.
The Lagos building, what more do you have to convey?
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