Late in February, on my visit to Lagos, I stumbled on a building off Ozumba Mbadiwe street on Victoria Island, Lagos. It was the Civic centre and tower.
King of Ozumba.
I was coming down Ademola Adetokunbo street towards Ozumba. Then I encountered this seemingly masculine, stout-looking, box-like multistory building.
It had a delicately detailed crown. I couldn’t but ask myself if this was the architectural king of Ozumba.
I am very familiar with the Ozumba Mbadiwe corridor. During previous visits to this road, the civic Tower was still under construction.
Then, it appeared that when finished it would be a simple box. Therefore, you can understand my shock when I noticed the look transforming crown on it.
Queen of Ozumba.
The Crown noticed above was very similar in concept to the look transforming crown of its queen, the civic center.
Who appeared more regal, intricately detailed and considerably smaller.
Why will I say that the Civic centre and tower are royalties? is Civic tower – King … and Civic center – Queen.
Firstly according to Wikipedia, crowns are mostly worn by monarchs (royalty)
A crown is a traditional symbolic form of headgear worn by a monarch or by a deity. For whom the crown traditionally represents power, legitimacy, victory, triumph, honour, and glory.
Secondly, according to quora, on average physiologically, adult males are bigger than females.
This is because when puberty hits and testosterone levels skyrocket in boys, we see some key physiological differences emerging.
Even when a pair of identical twins (one male, one female) reaches adulthood there will be a 5-inch height and 30lb weight difference. The male twin will have 40% more muscle mass in his upper body and 30% more in his lower body. This makes the average male bigger than the average female.
In addition, box-like forms in architecture are perceived as masculine just like the civic tower, while intricately and delicately detailed forms, are feminine.
Lastly and generally speaking, the crown of a king is more elaborate and bigger than the crown of a queen.
Also, this size ratio extends to the crowns of the prince and princess respectively.
With this, it was easy for me to assume that in designing the Civic Tower and civic center the architect had in mind, Royalty! Where the Civic tower will be the King and the Civic centre the Queen.
Therefore, giving them their respective defining features and crowns.
Are we to expect another king?
But a major observation that unsettled me was that, unlike the civic center whose crown is proportional to its size, the crown of the mighty king (tower) isn’t.
In fact, it looks too small for its size, making it appear as though he is a junior king or a prince.
I found this confusing because I really don’t know if we are to expect another King of Ozumba Mbadiwe street in the future.
Thanks for reading and cheers.
Please share if you liked it. You can also read the first Versus series; Ikeja mall Vs Maryland mall.
FYI i just designed the a third buildingf or the same client next to these 2 which would ideally be the king but looking more loike a rook, got inspired by your article and it will be much taller and elegant than both buildings look out for the upcoming construction in the next few months.
Your elegant detailing and metaphor above infuse life to these great, captivating architectural pieces on Ozumba Mbadiwe Road, Victoria Island, Lagos. Additionally for me, they present great inspiration in enterprise, particularly, when placed alongside the story of the iconic success that is central to their ownership. Awesome photography too.
Very interesting observations! I've never seen these buildings in this light. Thank you!