Gillian Hopwood (1927–2025) and John Godwin (1928–2023) studied at the Architectural Association in London before moving to Lagos and establishing their office in 1954. Nigeria would achieve independence six years later, and Hopwood and Godwin would go on to practice for six decades. They were prolific: designing furniture to masterplans across Nigeria’s diverse climatic zones; producing civic works for the newly independent state as well as private commissions for diverse clientele in a transforming society; building in periods of abundance through economic crisis into the twenty-first century. While Hopwood and Godwin emerged from a school of Tropical Modernism, the breadth of their work extends beyond conventional periodization or style.

To initiate access to the recently donated archive, the latest iteration of the Out of the Box series is dedicated to AP218, the Gillian Hopwood and John Godwin fonds at the CCA. The three-part residency and exhibition program invites Olayinka Dosekun-Adeji (Lagos), Nana Biamah-Ofosu (London), and Farida Abu-Bakare (New York) to select from AP218 based on current questions of urban growth, heritage, and community in their design practices. By studying Hopwood and Godwin through today’s concerns, the archive is not treated as a record of the architects’ legacy but rather a repository to advance environmental, decolonial, and social approaches.