
Professor Ola Uduku
Nominated Fellow, February 2023 - April 2023
Home Institution: University of Liverpool, School of Architecture
Ola Uduku is Head of Liverpool School of Architecture; prior to that she was Research Professor in Architecture at Manchester School of Architecture, (2017 – 2021). From 2011- 2017 she had been Reader in Architecture, and Dean for Africa, at the University of Edinburgh. Her research specialisms are in modern architecture in West Africa, the history of educational architecture in Africa, and contemporary issues related to social infrastructure provision for minority communities in the ‘West’ and ‘South’. She is an advocate of equity in all its forms in the workplace, particularly in the Architectural profession. She is co-lead of AHUWA, the Liverpool School of Architecture Research Centre focusing on Architecture and Urbanism in Western Africa, www.ahuwa.org
She currently plays an active role in promoting the Documentation and recording of Modernist Buildings and Landscapes, (Docomomo) in Africa, and is acting secretary for the Docomomo Group in Ghana. She is a founding member of the AFRAHUN research network., and co-housing domain lead of the African Cities Research Consortium, https://www.african-cities.org/ She is also currently a co-director of the Docomomo Shared Heritage Programme https://docomomo.com/research-projects/
She has in the past published in the areas of African Architecture, African Diaspora Studies, Gated Communities, Bagaeen and Uduku, Gated Communities; social sustainability in historic and contemporary Gated Communities (2010, Earthscan) and Beyond Gated Communities (2015, Taylor and Francis) respectively. Her monograph titled Learning Spaces in Africa: Critical Histories, 21st Century Challenges and Change, was published in 2018. Other recent publications include Uduku O. (2016) “The UNESCO-IDA School Building Programme in Africa: The Nigeria ‘Unity’ Schools, in Designing Schools, Space, Place and Pedagogy”, eds Willis and Darien-Smith, London Taylor and Francis, O. Uduku and I. Jackson ‘Sub-Saharan Africa’ in OUP Companion Volume Architecture & Urbanism in the British Empire (2016), and Uduku O. et al (2015), 'Architectural Pedagogy in Kumasi, Baghdad and Szczecin', in Radical Pedagogies Project (eds. Colomina B. and Kotosioris E. Volume 45 (2015) “Learning”). Her most recent publications include: Uduku, Satish BK, Zhao Y, and Treacy G. (2022) 'Critical Approaches to Teaching Comfort', in Nicol et al, A Handbook of Resilient Thermal Comfort, London, Routledge, Ch. 31, Uduku, et al, (2019) Journal of Architecture: 'The Volta River Project: Planning, housing and resettlement In Ghana 1950 -1965' and Uduku, N. (2019) 'The Alan Vaughan Richards Archive: Recovering Tropical Modernism in Lagos', Book Chapter, in Eds Lewi, Smith, and Lehn, International Handbook in New Digital Practices in Galleries, Libraries Archives, Museums and Heritage Sites, London: Routledge.
Project Title: Researching hospitals and healthcare architecture in Africa c.1900- 1970s
Ola is hoping to use her short Fellowship at IASH to investigate and record the kinds of health infrastructure, from missionary dispensaries to university teaching hospitals, that were built in Africa, focusing on West Africa, with a view to finding out what archival and other records related to these buildings and other health infrastructure exist in Scotland, and Edinburgh in particular. Time spent in the New College and University archives will hopefully yield information on this, as both the Presbyterian Church and Edinburgh University medical school were involved in medical missions in Africa.
This is important because whilst Africa’s encounter with Western medicine is now over a century old, the knowledge of this built health infrastructure which has underpinned the continent’s relationship to modern healthcare, from primary health care to vaccinations, lifesaving medicines and procedures, is limited. An understanding of this history and its influence on local communities, it is hoped, will better inform a critical analysis and understanding of what makes for successful healthcare infrastructure design in Africa today and its contribution in turn to better local healthcare. This also links into her ongoing exploration into the architecture of aid.