Alan (Kenneth Hamer) Vaughan-Richards
(b Maidenhead, 1925; d London, 29 May 1989). English architect. He went to Lagos, Nigeria, to work and there married Ayo Vaughan (1928-93), daughter of a prominent Lagos family. A student at the London Polytechnic from 1945 to 1950, he graduated with a Diploma in Architecture in 1950. After two years of apprenticeship in Britain, he worked in northern Iraq with the Iraqi Development Board. In 1954 he enrolled in the Tropical Course at the Architectural Association, London, under the direction of Maxwell Fry, who was to have a far-reaching impact in shaping the idiom of contemporary architecture in Nigeria. In 1956 Vaughan-Richards went to Nigeria to work in the Lagos office of Architects Co-Partnership (ACP). Back in their London office in 1957, he designed the award-winning (RIBA Bronze) undergraduate accommodation for St John's College, Oxford. As the scheme was structured around the hexagonal dormitory space and rest-room facilities, it was affectionately nicknamed the 'Beehive'. In 1958-61 he was the ACP associate partner in the Lagos office, and in 1961, when ACP withdrew from Nigeria, he opened his own one-man practice. During the period 1961-70, he produced for the University of Lagos a series of elegant buildings, notable for their sensitive siting, discreet entries and daring use of local material. The six-storey University Flat (1964) is perhaps the most dramatic, with the geometry of the spaces reinforced by the orientation inducing strong ventilation. Building Lagos (1976), co-authored with the journalist and historian Kunle Akinsemoyin, is a beautiful testimony to the culture and architectural history of Lagos and confirms Vaughan-Richards's pre-eminent role in the Historical Buildings and Monuments project in Lagos State (1985-7). In several of his projects, he collaborated with Nigerian artists: for example Felix Ibudor (1928-91) contributed sculpture to his Investment House (1959) and mosaic murals to the Bristol Hotel (1957), while Ben Enwowu (1921-94) produced sculpture and Bruce Onobrakpeya painted murals for the temporary complex (1962) for the University of Lagos, Idi Araba. In 1970, Vaughan-Richards and Roye Ibru (b 1935) merged their practice. The Ibru, Vaughan-Richards Partnership was responsible for several major institutional projects including the master-plans for the universities of Benin (1971) and Lagos (1980). Vaughan-Richards was a member of the NIA and a Fellow of the RIBA.
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