Tosin Oshinowo is a Lagos-based Nigerian architect, designer and curator whose work explores the relationship between architecture, cultural identity and contemporary African modernism. As the founder of Oshinowo Studio, established in 2013, she has developed an architectural practice that draws on local histories, social conditions and environmental realities while challenging conventional ideas of what African design should look like.
At the centre of Oshinowo’s practice is the belief that architecture cannot be separated from the people, cultures and environments it serves. Drawing inspiration from Yoruba traditions and the urban character of Lagos, she approaches design as a response to how communities live, interact and adapt. Her work questions the assumption that modern architecture must follow Western models, instead exploring how contemporary African design can develop its own architectural language.
Her projects range from residential and commercial developments to socially responsive initiatives, including Maryland Mall in Lagos and a community reconstruction project in northern Nigeria supported by the United Nations Development Programme. Beyond architectural practice, she co-curated the 2019 Lagos Biennial and curated the 2023 Sharjah Architecture Triennial, The Beauty of Impermanence: An Architecture of Adaptability, which examined how communities across the Global South respond creatively to conditions of scarcity.
Oshinowo’s wider research explores African urbanism, sustainability and the relationship between cultural heritage and modernity. Her work challenges the tendency to treat Africa as a single cultural identity, emphasising the continent’s extraordinary diversity of languages, histories, climates and architectural traditions.
On the Pearl Lam Podcast, Tosin Oshinowo joins Pearl Lam to explore African architecture, identity and the growing cultural confidence of the continent’s creative industries. From Lagos’ ability to transform constraints into innovation to the influence of African architects, artists and designers, their conversation questions inherited definitions of modernity and the assumptions associated with African design. Together, they consider what happens when a new generation begins defining its own architectural and cultural future rather than looking to the West for validation.
