Academic Life

Young Isaac Fola Alade attended the St. Philips Elementary School in Aramoko-Ekiti up till Standard IV between 1940 and 1945, and then proceeded to Christ's School, Ado Ekiti between1946 and 1951 for his Secondary School education (his unique school number at Christ's School was 46/O16).

He had lost his dad at the tender age of nine, and so he had to take up a paid job as a “house boy” to his beloved teacher, Canon Lesley Donald Mason while he was a student in order to earn a living just to enable him pay for his secondary school education, despite Which he turned out to be the first citizen of Aramoko Ekiti, and the second Ekiti man to become a Chartered Architect, the first being Arc. Adedokun Adeyemi from Iyin Ekiti.

Isaac Fola Alade was one of the four (4) pioneer Architecture graduates produced in West Africa at the then Nigerian College of Arts Science & Technology (now Ahmadu Bello University) Zaria where he studied between 1957 and 1961, following which he obtained his Inter. RIBA, D. Arch and then the RIBA Part II. He won the “ATLAS AWARD” for the best academic performance at the Nigerian College of Arts Science and Technology, Zaria in 1958.

Among his peers at Zaria then were Chief S. B. Fasan, Arc. Ayo Afe, the late Engr. Niyi Okin, and the late Engr. Tunde Oyefodunrin. Prior to proceeding to Zaria, he had commenced his pre-professional career also as one of the pioneer GCE A 'Level students of the then Nigerian College of Arts, Science & Technology, Ibadan branch between 1955 - 1957, and among his peers at Ibadan were Prof Ayo Banjo, CON, NNOM, FNAL, Emeritus Professor of English Language and Mrs. Adebisi Adedoyin Kafaru, the former Principal, Federal Government College Ijanikin, Lagos.

He completed his Architectural education at the Architectural Association School of Architecture (the world's oldest School of Architecture) between 1964-65 at Bedford Square in London, at the Post Graduate School of Tropical Architecture (under the famous Emeritus Prof Otto Koenigsberger who was then the world leading authority on Tropical Architecture) on a Commonwealth Scholarship. One of his classmates was the late Prof Friedrich W Schwerdtfeger who eventually lived and taught at Ahmadu Bello University. He also met Dr. (Arc.) Lanre Towry-Coker, FRIBA, FNIA, MA Law (UL), PHD at the AA School.

He became a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) after his pupilage and taking the professional practice exams to become a U.K. Chartered Architect in 1963. He became a member of the Nigerian Institute of Architects (NIA) in 1964, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Health (FRSH) of the UK in 1965 and a member of the Architects Registration Council of Nigeria (ARCON) in 1970.

He was one of the first twelve Architects registered to practice in the Federal Republic of Nigeria with the registration number F/12, and was appointed the first Registrar of ARCON.

He was a member of the Commonwealth Association of Architects (MCAA). He attended several conferences and also took several short courses. He attended the Defence Policy & Strategic Course in Paris in 1977 as a Federal Permanent Secretary and the Chief Executive course at the Brookins Institute, Washington DC in 1978. He studied French at Alliance Francais in Lagos and also took a French language course in Grenoble in France in 1977. He became a Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Architects (FNIA) in 1993.