Located in the heart of the Southwestern region of Nigeria, Obafemi Awolowo University, formerly known as the University of Ife, remains one of the most prestigious universities in the South of Sahara, West of Africa. The institution stands out among its peers not just in terms of academic excellence, but equally in terms of architectural edifices. The serene and green landscape of the institution's environment is punctured by beautiful architectural structures, of which none of the African universities comes close. I think the early students and founders of the school know this before coming up with the institution's anthem which goes thus:
Great Ife! (2x)
African most beautiful campus
Conscious, vigilant, progressive
Aluta against all oppressors
Forward ever, backward never
For learning and culture. sports and struggles
Great Ife!
I love you!
There is only one great Ife in the universe
Another great Ife is a counterfeit.
One of the edifices that stands out in the entire university regarding the complexity of structure is nicknamed 'the spider house'. The building is nomenclatured not because spiders use it as their abode, but because it is structured like a giant spider with its typical multiple legs.
Spiders belong to the Arachnida class in the phylum Arthropoda. They are known to have 8 walking legs with 4 on each side of their body. While the spider house does not exactly take the structure of a typical spider, it can be viewed as a mutated form of the organisms with copious legs and a bigger body.
The spider house was designed and built in the 70s by an Israeli Architect known as Arieh Sharon in collaboration with his son, Eldar Sharon, and an indigenous Architect, A. A Egbor, in Lagos, Nigeria. Even though the current state of the building can be tagged 'dilapidated', the beauty of the design shows through just by looking at it either physically on in pictures.
The building serves as the abode for the activities of 3 departments under the Faculty of Technology at the University. These include the Mechanical Engineering Department, Civil Engineering and Material Science and Engineering Departments. Within it lies classrooms, offices, laboratories, and workshops.
Unfortunately, I was unable to get access to the building itself because I went during closing hours and students are not on the ground to ease my access during off-work hours. By the way, the academic staff union of Nigerian universities has been on strike for more than 3 months now - still counting. Hence, When I said work hours, it has to do with those staff that are non-academic or the academic staff that come to the office for research purposes.
So, what I just did was to take as many pictures as possible from different angles using my Samsung Galaxy Table A(2016). Since I could not get a view of the entire building at a go, I tried searching the web for a drone-captured image of the building that will cover the entire view in a single image but could not find any.
Up next, I hope to move around the university premises, taking pictures and do short posts with images of some of the best architectural edifices in the school.
Until then, have an amazing time for the remaining part of the week.