Tosin Oshinowo is an architect, creative entrepreneur, author, and public speaker from Nigeria. She received her undergraduate degree in architecture from Kingston College London and her master’s degree in urban design from University College London‘s Bartlett School of Architecture. In 2012, she established her own architectural design consultancy firm, CmDesign Atelier, after working on multiple projects in numerous architectural firms in Europe and Africa, and is also the creator and CEO of Ile ila (House of Lines), a lifestyle furniture brand that was established in 2017.To spread her beliefs and ideologies reagarding architecture and deisgn, Tosin annually convenes at Sho-o-tell, a platform which conducts series of session for undergrad and grad students in University of lagos where practicing architects intercat with professionsals to enhnace their learning. This series was held form 2009 to 2014. She is a registered architect with the Architects Registration Council of Nigeria and a Nigerian Institute of Architects (NIA) (ARCON) member ofof the Nigerian Institute of Architects (NIA) (ARCON). Her most recent success in the field of architecture was being named curator for the Sharjah Architecture Triennale in 2023.
African design must be localized— architecture that is being designed for Africa by Africans who understand Africa. That is where we need to get— and we should be able to fuse those two different worlds (design and context). This is where the tension exists.
—Tosin Oshinowo
Architecture | Tosin Oshinowo
Tosin architectural designs often fall in the realm of subdued elegance, dawning crisp white pallets and muted tones with the wooden feature. As the founder of an architectural consulting company, Oshinowo and her team have curated impeccable designs from corporate to creative projects personalized to their client’s tastes. The Maryland Mall in Lagos, Nigeria remains one of her most popular architectural projects. She describes her design style to be inspired by modernism and minimalism and considers it an “Afro-minimalist” to which she later ties her Yoruba Identity to make it more contextual and identity-driven.
In one of her interviews, Tosin stated that her ultimate goal is to create architecture that leaves people with a strong memory, “before it becomes a floorplan, I walk through the space… I curate the experience of going through space and use that to determine the architecture”. Her motto to practice architecture in Nigeria is to solve problems. She believes that architecture is to understand the problem and create solutions through spatial design. “when you understand the space, you can create space”. Her focus on detail to create child-friendly architecture is being more conscious about safety. For example, “if the railing height is too low or the gap between railings is wide enough to fit a child’s head through I automatically think this design is not good enough. So I always put myself in the space, the building, the street or the zone.”
As an architect who believes that architecture can solve problems and define identity, her project to rebuild the Nigerian village for the community displaced in collaboration with the United Nations development programme and the Nigerian government sets a true precedent for her work ideologies. Tosin consulted with the community to create a settlement that reflects and speaks to their culture to build for this particular. The first phase of this project includes housing and essential services like education and healthcare facilities, sis et to be completed in the summer of 2022. When completed, this project will include approximately 500 housing units, a marketplace, a health clinic, a community centre, a primary school and teacher’s quarters, a police outpost and residence, and water facilities, all of which will be solar-powered and fully equipped.
Oshinowo’s strategy provides a more just outlook for the field’s future because it is conscious of the societal and environmental effects of design. Oshinowo’s vision for the future of architecture is thus centred on equity as a result of his rigorous examination of the socioeconomic and environmental ramifications of design. Oshinowo co-curated the second Lagos Biennial in 2019. In addition, she has written extensively about identity, afro modernism, and urbanism.
Interior Design:
Her Yoruba culture and her passion of functionality are intertwined in her Nigerian furniture basis business. Tosin Oshinowo creates period statement pieces with a contemporary African flair using her unique design talent and strong ties to the Lagos arts and cultural scene. She finds this opposing duality between the two feilds continually fascinating because while her architectural aesthetic employs a minimalistic approach, her furniture design pulls on the brightness spectrum and is renowned to be bold colourful statements. Her products are all handcrafted by hand in Lagos using teak wood from Nigeria and traditional West African fabrics. Her philosophy of expressing one’s individuality via art can also be apparent in her furniture designs, as she gives each piece a Yoruba name based on a topic that served as inspiration, such as “old tree” or “the beautiful peacock.”
Bibliography:
- https://54kibo.com/blogs/the-summit/designer-tosin-oshinowo
- https://aspiremetro.com/voices-of-africa-ile-ila/
- https://www.archdaily.com/985139/undp-and-tosin-oshinowo-reveal-rebuilt-nigerian-village-for-a-community-displaced-by-boko-haram
- https://www.livinspaces.net/ls-tv/tosin-oshinowo-speaks-on-her-approach-to-design-and-defeating-social-creative-biases/
- http://ourfuturecities.co/2015/07/future-lagos-interview-with-young-architect-tosin-oshinowo/
- https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2016/05/29/at-whitespace-art-meets-design/
- https://www.myafricanaesthetic.com/podcast/tosin