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Alan Vaughan-Richards

british-Nigerian architect

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 12, 2026
Entity authorityQ61594858 ↗
Source-derived summary

Alan Vaughan-Richards (1925–1989) was a British-Nigerian architect who was active in the post-colonial architecture industry of Nigeria. He engaged architects on the potential influence of African forms in architectural design through publication of the journal West Africa Builder and Architect.

Vaughan-Richards incorporated the works of Nigerian artists in many of his projects. Trained in modern architecture in England, he then studied cultural uses of architecture in Nigeria, and many of his commissions were hybrids of both influences.

Education

Vaughan-Richards was educated at London Polytechnic (now University of Westminster) where he obtained a diploma in architecture in 1950. He also enrolled for a newly created course on Tropical Architecture at Architectural Association, London in 1956.

Career

Vaughan-Richards began his career in the 1950s working with the Architect Development Board in Iraq and subsequently Architect Co-Partnership in London. The firm was engaged in the design of a newly reconstructed Bristol Hotel and housing for oil and gas companies in Lagos. In the course of the project, Vaughan-Richards was involved in preliminary design and as a site supervisor visited Nigeria during tours of the projects. When Architect Co-Partnership pulled out of Nigeria, Vaughan-Richards stayed in the country and became a Nigerian citizen.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Alan Vaughan-Richards” as british-Nigerian architect. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1925, 1989, 1950, 1956—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1925. The account is most persuasive where Alan, Vaughan-Richards and british-Nigerian can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as british-Nigerian architect. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q61594858. VIAF identifies the subject as 56436046. The Library of Congress control number is no2008153408. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1925, 1989, 1950 and 1956.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Alan Vaughan-Richards”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Alan Vaughan-Richards primary sources, Alan Vaughan-Richards archive and Alan research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Alan Vaughan-Richards”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Alan Vaughan-Richards” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.