Our collective amnesia as a people has been the bane of our corporate development as a nation. In every field of human endeavour, the design and engineering fields in particular, we find higher institutions churning out graduates into the job market who are always trying to reinvent the wheel. There is a lack of continuity in research and development efforts, thus the lesson learnt, say in a research paper delivered sometime in the 70s continues to gather dust on a long forgotten shelf somewhere while those same age old issues are engaged afresh from first principles three decades later, by somebody else…..nothing is updated, none of the ‘brilliant’ discoveries find their way into mainstream applications and to compound this waste in intellectual enterprise, most prescribed texts are imported from other climes...we willingly trade up on the value of our own experience. Enter John and Jill Godwin, the oldest and longest serving trained architects in Nigeria today who have jointly built up a formidable portfolio of work and a priceless wealth of experience in the profession in their 51 years of practice in Nigeria.
In the 1998 ‘souvenir’ to John Godwin’s 70th birthday, a 160 page collection of tributes, anecdotes and articles aptly titled John and Jill…along the line, a great opportunity was missed to jumpstart a much needed process of documentation. Arc Tunde Kuye who (together with Mrs. Biola Fayemi) now runs GHK Architects (of which the Godwins were at the helm of affairs until last year) wrote in the souvenir as editor that: Mr. (Steve) Rhodes insists that it must not be a book; I could only say “Yes, Sir”. He prefers it to be a souvenir. This tribute has taken off on a seeming tangent; however that tangent itself validates the need for the tribute. John and Jill Godwin are iconic figures in the history of architectural practice in Nigeria whose efforts demand proper documentation, the sort that goes well beyond occasional mention in newspaper & magazine articles or limited edition anniversary ‘souvenirs’ at that.
John Godwin was born in 1928 in Chalfont St Giles, Bucks to an AA trained architect father who worked for the Ministry of Works. He had his secondary school education at the Wrekin College in Shropshire before proceeding in his father’s foot steps to the Architectural Association School in London where he was trained from 1945 till 1950 under a Leverhulme Scholarship. He concluded his training as a Diploma par les Governement Medalist, a Societe des Architects and Bratt Colbran Scholar. The five years spent at the AA were fruitful in other areas too, for there did he meet his future wife- Gillian Hopwood, (born 1927 in Rochdale to a pair of Electrical Engineers) to whom he was summarily married in 1951 after they had both graduated in 1950. That their relationship was initiated and consolidated during those years of training in architectural school is of great significance, as Frank Mbanefo a long standing colleague and associate of the Godwins puts it in John and Jill…along the line: It is difficult to talk about John without mentioning Jill. You see, they are married in love, in profession and in practice.
Sam Odia, the architect well known for his Architectural Support Services and Archi-Mart magazine puts it more playfully this way:
John and Jill went up to school
To learn to draw a line or two
John fell in love & lost his heart,
And Jill came tumbling after…
John Godwin (JG) hardly ever talks about his period of national service in 1951 at the end of the 2nd World War. It must be the pacifist in him that would rather forget that season of conflict (this writer once saw him fume in annoyance when a party of expatriates he had invited for an excursion came along with a couple of menacing looking, armed mobile police escorts). But John is made of tough stuff. Len Stevens (a quantity Surveyor, formerly of Tilyard) recalls being extremely impressed with John’s ability to drink Star lager all evening and still be able to pick up a heavy chair, one handed, whilst kneeling down and eating ground nuts at the same time. (This writer again recalls once seeing JG tackle a wooden bench at one end -at age 72- lifting it from one end of a room to the other, while other younger ‘men’ looked on with jaws hanging. Felix Ohiwerei (of Lever Brothers and Nigerian Breweries fame) wonders if the generous intake of Star over the years might be responsible for JGs boundless energy.
The long sojourn in Nigeria began for the Godwins with JG’s arrival in Lagos in February 1954 as resident partner of the multinational architectural firm – Architects Co-Partnership. Gillian Hopwood joined him in March 1954 and before the year ran out, there was an addition to the family in the person of the young Tony Godwin, born in Lagos, Nigeria. An independent and questing spirit led the Godwins to open up their own practice in 1955 as Godwin and Hopwood Architects at 8 Oil Mill Street, Lagos. By 1959, their daughter Carey was born and within the same year, they moved house (residence and office) to 27 Boyle Street Lagos, which since then has remained strongly linked with their personalities. Assignments carried out for Police Colleges and other institutions in the North saw G&H opening offices in Kaduna, Kano, Jos and Maiduguri, between 1961 and 1973. By 1974, JG had embarked on two Sahara expeditions and the couple had opened an office in Ikeja, Lagos. In 1980, a Warri office was opened to facilitate work for the Shell Petroleum Development Company. In 1981, JG embarked on a third Sahara expedition and between 1982 and 1986, Tony Godwin (who later went on to head Godwin & Hopwood, London and the Commonwealth Association of Architects, UK as Executive Director) signed on with G&H as architect, Carey Godwin joined the firm as an interior designer while the up country offices were closed one after the other due to the depression in the Nigerian economy. In 1988 Godwin and Hopwood merged with Tunde Kuye and Associates to become Godwin Hopwood Kuye, the name by which their practice (which since 1998 has operated from Somolu in Lagos) has been known till date. Through those years of active practice, the couple have to their credit an impressive oeuvre that includes: The Northern Police College, Kaduna, New Nigerian Newspapers Head Office, Kaduna, Bookshop House, Lagos, Phillips Radio Factory, Guiness Breweries Factory and Office, Ogba, Metalbox Factory, WAEC building, Yaba, Metalbox Flats, Faculty of Science Complex, University of Lagos amongst many others.
In appreciating the unique abilities of his old friends in John and Jill…along the line, Frank Mbanefo who worked with the Godwins in the early days and had the rare privilege of having JG and GH as Associates of Frank Mbanefo and Associates in 1964 admits: I am still amazed by John’s depth of attention to architectural details, both in design and building execution, and Jill’s power and capacity in architectural administration. What a combination! Knowing them has been the best thing that has happened to me as an architect; they exhibit a great deal of discipline in their life and work… It is only natural therefore, that we all, the first architects of Godwin and Hopwood, modeled our offices on G and H ….I don’t know of any other architects in and outside Nigeria who have done as much for Nigeria as John and Jill Godwin…they have done more buildings in Education, housing, Industry, Religion and Commerce in Nigeria than anybody else in the architectural profession. They have certainly earned a place of importance and honour when the history of architecture in Nigeria comes to be written.
Henrikas Teris, another of the early ensigns to the G&H boot camp who now practices in Sydney shared his own reminiscences: I soon discovered that to do the job well (Quality Assurance) John and Jill had, over time, perfected systems and procedures of running an office and a job, that were better than I had experienced in any other office. Starting off with the Job Diary, where all on going facts, dates, fee agreement, consultants appointments are recorded, the multi-coloured files, A, B, C and D for the four principal parties on a project, instant copies of Site Minutes, standard details which had been perfected over time, all combined, if you followed them to the letter, in doing the thing that mattered as much as good design, and that is doing the job well! Needless to say, when I returned to Sydney after nearly five years with John, I had the system off pat and still use it now, computer or no computer.
Femi Majekodunmi, another old time associate of the Godwins remembers the couple for giving his own practice (which now has an outreach in Botswana) a much needed boost after he left G&H and he remembers JG for his invaluable contribution to the education of other architects in Nigeria through his involvement in the activities of the Nigerian Institute of Architects. Of that body, the couple became members in 1969 and became fellows in 1980 and 1985 consecutively. Prior to that, they had been admitted to the body of fellows of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1963. They both registered with the Architects Registration Council of the UK (ARCUK) in 1950 while they registered with the Architects Registration Council of Nigeria (ARCON) in 1970.
But for this couple, architecture was just not enough for their boundless energies. They were keenly interested in the human and indeed the Nigerian enterprise. JG was at different times a trustee of the Lagos Yacht Club (his love for sailing is legendary) and Vice Patron of the Nigeria Britain Association. His interests in nature and conservation found expression in his tenure as council member of the Nigerian Conservation Foundation and through his pet project LEGACY, the Historical and Environmental Interest Group, he actively informs advocates and provides consultancy on sites, buildings and objects of historical and environmental value to the country. Not a man to shy away from the social circuit, John Godwin is a member of the Oriental Club in London, the Lagos Dining Club and is a Commander of the Order of the Peacock of the Island Club, Lagos. In 1978, he was appointed an Officer of the British Empire (OBE) John Godwin remains a firm believer in the interconnected destinies of Nigeria and Britain and the need to constantly seek ways of extending the mutually beneficial opportunities that first showed themselves during the early contacts in the late 20th Century. His wife Gillian on her part was President of Soroptomist International of Nigeria in 1990, Governor of the Lagos British School in 1995 and President of the Nigeria Britain Association in 2003. They were both given chieftaincy titles: Baakole of Owu and Erelu Baakole of Owu in 1999 to round up the honours.
Mr Akintola Williams (with whom JG has served on many committees) testifies to JG’s strength of character: I learnt from John the art of conducting committee meetings properly – compelling punctuality on the part of members and keeping strictly to the time allocated for the meeting and its agenda……..What John does not know about Nigeria does not exist. A much seasoned traveler, he found Nigeria too small a territory for him to ‘conquer’ as a result of which his adventurous spirit propelled him to traverse the Sahara Desert in a Landrover.
Mr. Steve Rhodes, music impresario and cultural icon (with whom JG serves as trustee of Glover Memorial Hall) also testifies to JGs tenacity: What pulled me to John, almost immediately, was his dogged tenacity once he got his teeth into a project. In the period since we met, we have worked together on a few projects where the conditions were less than the most conducive, and John’s tenacity really came to the fore. We have since then become quite firm allies in fighting the status quo.
Between GH and JG, there is such keen concentration on how building components come together and how spatial programming meets up with user demand and comfort. This primary focus is so strictly adhered to, almost to the exclusion of all extraneous ornamentations and other whimsical add-ons that give buildings character. GH and JG get away with this austere design approach by the sheer logic of their resolutions. Their buildings eventually come together to speak an incontrovertible truth that calls to mind Mies Van Der Rohe’s popular dictum that God is in the detail.
Interestingly, apart from his return to the University of Lagos to continue teaching MED (Masters in Environmental Design) courses on a part time basis, John Godwin’s recent preoccupation is with the documentation of the works of his old time friend and well admired ‘master builder’- Demas Nwoko. John Godwin is an unabashed fan of the former member of the Zaria Art Society (Zaria rebels) and the Ibadan based Mbari Writers and Artists Club. In fact, JG has been a long time champion for the promotion of Nwoko’s work, taking photographs of the artist’s buildings and getting them published on the internet. Despite his high taste for expressionism and preference for generating his buildings on site as opposed to JGs total devotion to the complete resolution / documentation of a building’s design through drawings, Godwin still considers Nwoko to be one of the finest architects ever to come out of Nigeria. Always one to act out his convictions, John Godwin has undertaken to write a book on Demas Nwoko’s architecture to coincide with his friend’s 70th birthday annivesary. Commissioned by Farafina and due to be published in 2006, the book will find pride of place in being about the most important book on design thinking to be published in Nigeria in this decade.
But then, who documents the outstanding works, thoughts and processes developed by John Godwin and Gillian Hopwood in their five decades of professional practice in Nigeria and the United Kingdom, as their 80th birthday anniversary approaches? The challenge is out to their close associates, colleagues, friends, students and admirers….not a half hearted souvenir this time….please lets have a solid, meaty book, for the Godwins and for posterity.
-Ayodele Arigbabu.
arigbs@gmail.com
published in The Guardian Life Magazine, Dec 11-17, '05.
0 comments:
Post a Comment