The Yoruba were building single-storey courtyard houses in adobe with impluvia until the Brazilian returnees began arriving in the mid-1800s, bringing back the Portuguese architectural style of Bahia in Brazil. Master builders returned with skills in this new building type, which was introduced in Lagos and readily spread throughout southern Nigeria into the hinterlands.

Not every client favours platonic volumes and white surfaces, and the preferred architectural style of one’s residence is often deeply buried in their subconscious. AD’s Principal’s ideology – Neo Heritage architecture is to guide clients to the best of what they favor . Leveraging the principles derived from Afro-Brazilian and colonial forms of their childhood, mere formalism is shunned to create architecture that resonates with their highest aspirations as in the Villa on Temple Road, Ikoyi.