Augustine Akhuemokhan Egbor was born into a chieftain family in Ekpoma, Edo State, southern Nigeria, 23 December 1924. Around 1950, Egbor moved to northern England to study Architectural Design at the University of Durham, graduating with a Bachelor of Architecture (BArch), and persued further postgraduate studies on returning to Nigeria. Egbor became a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (FRIBA) and was an early pioneer in post-colonial West African architecture and an important figure in public and urban town planning in Nigeria. Augustine Akhuemokhan Egbor died in Florida, USA, in 2011.
Architect Augustine Akhuemokhan Egbor was born into a chieftain family in Ekpoma, Edo State, southern Nigeria on 23 December 1924. Egbor spent his formative years in rural Ekpoma, attending local government schools for his primary education. For secondary education, he studied at various institutions, notably attending Edo College in Benin City and later moved to the prestigious all-boys school, King’s College, Lagos. (KCL). Egbor’s entry into KCL was a significant marker in his education, as it offered classical pedagogy that included the humanities. sciences and arts, a British colonial curriculum in subjects not available to the local Nigerian population. According to Adetunji Ojo Ogunyemi, the ‘Nigerian colonial government did not take any meaningful steps in providing Western education’ (Ogunyemi, 2015, p.23). However, KCL, established in 1909, was the first institution to introduce a curriculum that offered students a competitive Western education. After graduating from KCL, Egbor pursued specialist architectural training overseas.
Around 1950, at the age of 27, Egbor moved to northern England, to study Architectural Design at the University of Durham, where he developed his portfolio, applying modernist ideas to African tropical architectural design. The 1950s marked a period of intense interest in the development of African modernist architecture, particularly in British architectural schools, which began to direct students towards the theories of tropical Modernism; Ola Uduku states that this ‘was coupled with the international reach of the Modernist Movement through the CIAM2 (Congress Internationale d’Architecture Moderne) […] held throughout Europe’ (Uduku, 2006, p.397). The emphasis on modernism inspired the creativity of indigenous architects, such as Egbor and his contemporaries. In c.1953, Egbor graduated with a Bachelor of Architecture (BArch), which he followed with postgraduate studies in architecture at universities in Nigeria, eventually becoming a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (FRIBA).
Egbor returned to Lagos, Nigeria, in c.1953 and began working in the public sector for the Ministry of Public Works (PWD), becoming Director of Public Buildings at the Federal Ministry of Works & Housing, Lagos (Feickert, 2022, p.16) and by 1970 he established his own architectural firm. Egbor and Associates. Egbor undertook a series of large projects for the planning and construction of local and national city buildings and universities. In 1967, Egbor was involved in a collaborative project in which he worked closely with leading Israeli architects, Arieh Sharon and his son, Eldar Sharon, in the construction of the University of Ife (Unife), now Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), in Ile-Ife, Osun State, Arieh Sharon was the highly praised master architect and expert town planner of the young State of Israel. The Egbor and Associates team shared the aspiration to create a modern, practical, and stylish building, based on Sharon’s implementation of European Bauhaus and Egbor’s African tropical architectural designs. Sharon had a long-term commitment in the University of Ife project, from 1962 until its final construction in 1980.
Egbor’s own projects were remarkable achievements, creating modern urban landscapes and expanding Nigeria’s skyline through modernist high-rises, such as the Independence Building (1960) in Lagos and the 21-storey Nigerian Industrial Development Bank (1976). According to Ololo Nneoma Grace, the Nigerian Ministry of Civil Aviation commissioned Egbor and Associates, in collaboration with Netherlands Airport Consultants, to undertake engineering and building design work for the original Murtala Muhammed Airport (Ololo, 2014, p.41) in the 1970s. Egbor became President of the Nigerian Institute of Architects (NIA) and was a recipient of numerous architectural awards and national honours, including the Officer of the Order of Niger (OON) and the Gold Merit Award in Architecture from the NIA. He was also appointed Associate Professor of Architexcture at the Univetsity of Lagos.
Augustine Akhuemokhan Egbor died in Tampa, Florida, USA, in 2011, where he had relocated later in life. Posthumously, Egbor’s architectural drawings, models, and designs featured in the exhibition Architects of Liberation: Modernism in Western Africa held at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA (2026). His work is not represented in the UK public domain
Joy Onyejiako.
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Publications related to [Augustine Egbor ] in the Ben Uri Library