Architecture as Visual Art: The Aesthetics of Contemporary Nigerian Public Buildings

Contemporary Nigerian public architecture occupies a contested aesthetic space, shaped by the competing influences of modernist internationalism, postcolonial nationalism, Islamic and Christian architectural symbolism, and the pragmatic constraints of construction economics in a developing economy. This study develops an original aesthetic analysis of contemporary Nigerian public buildings, examining the visual and spatial aesthetics of significant public structures commissioned between 2010 and 2024. The theoretical contribution is a framework for reading public architecture as visual art, articulating the aesthetic dimensions of public buildings including formal composition, material expression, symbolic content, relationship to context, and the public experience of inhabiting aesthetically intentional spaces. The empirical component combines detailed aesthetic analysis of 30 significant public buildings distributed across all six geopolitical zones with ethnographic observation of public experience in and around these buildings and in-depth interviews with 20 architects, 10 commissioning officials, and 80 building users. The study examines whether contemporary Nigerian public architecture is developing a coherent national aesthetic identity or remains aesthetically fragmented between imported styles, regional vernacular influences, and budget-driven design compromises. The geographic diversity of the case buildings allows analysis of whether regional cultural contexts produce distinct aesthetic tendencies in public architecture across zones. The theoretical framework draws on architectural aesthetics, the philosophy of built space, postcolonial architecture theory, and the environmental aesthetics literature. Findings contribute to architectural aesthetics, Nigerian architectural history, and the visual culture of the built environment. Keywords: architectural aesthetics, Nigerian public buildings, visual art, postcolonial architecture, built environment