Historic Places and Buildings in Yoruba land

Abstract

This paper is a synopsis of historic places and building in Yoruba southwest of Nigeria, the communication of historic places andtraditional Yoruba architectural character in selected buildings within the Yoruba environment. With view to encourage andpromote the indigenous identity/image through architectural character and features in the historic places. Information wasassembled through literature, field observations from case studies of traditional Yoruba buildings, (through random selection)from major Yoruba towns, in Nigeria. The historic places and buildings were reviewed and descriptively obtained. Findingsamong others revealed that historic places and buildings speak volume about the traditional custom of the people and that thetraditional Yoruba Architectural character is been derelict because of the influence of foreign character through materials‟choice and technology, and has become a threat to the conservation of cultural identity/beliefs and custom. This paper thereforeidentifies the historic places characters and traditional Yoruba architecture and recommends how to celebrate the imperativelegacy in Yoruba and develop strategies for branding Cultural/National identity.