Cordelia O. Osasona

Cordelia Olatokunbo Osasona is a Professor of Architecture, the first female architect to be trained by the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University, OAU), and the first female Professor of Architecture in Southwestern Nigeria. Similarly, she is the first female Professor in the Faculty of Environmental Design and Management (EDM) of the University. She also holds a Master degree in Fine Arts. At OAU, she was Head of Department between 1997 and 1999, and again from 2006 to 2009. She was also Vice-Dean of the Faculty of EDM from 2008 to 2010. She was Visiting Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering, University of Ibadan, from 2016 to 2017, from where she helped the University establish a Department of Architecture, which she headed till her departure in 2020.

Professor Osasona’s area of research is History of Architecture, with a special passion for African traditional/ vernacular architectural forms, materials and techniques, highlighting their art content. Most of her recent publishing output has been based on her fieldwork in Heritage Architecture conservation and renewal, in the traditional core area of Ile-Ife. She has published three University-accredited books (one of which is widely locally acclaimed in Schools of Architecture as a manual for Architectural Graphics, and with two of them on the Amazon platform for more than five years; also, numerous journal and conference articles, of local and international acceptability. She is a frequent presenter at Wessex Institute of Technology (WIT), UK, conferences, and has been a member of the International Scientific Advisory Committee of WIT’s STREMAH Conferences, since 2013. She has also served, at different times, on Editorial Boards of some international and local journals.

Cordelia Osasona is a Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Architects (NIA) – the first female Professor to combine both distinctions. She has served both the Institute and the Architects’ Registration Council of Nigeria (ARCON) as a member of the Board of Architectural Education (NIA-BAE, ARCON-BAE, respectively and actively), since 2008 and until 2019. On the platform of BAE activities, she has been involved in several professional accreditation exercises within Nigeria (frequently serving as Secretary or Chairman of such Panels). Similarly, she has represented both local Professional Bodies at five (5) Commonwealth Association of Architects (CAA) accreditation exercises within the African continent.

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