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This paper seeks to identify several factors that contributed to the creation of a multi-state school of architecture and urban studies in Lomé (Togo) and to consider the questions this structure raises today. The models that inspired the proposed content and pedagogy of the school derive from the French colonial past as French influence continues to be transmitted by various organisms, particularly within the field of education. A comparison between the Lomé school and French schools of architecture provides an initial basis for analysis of conditions pertaining to the construction of the city. As the training provided to future professionals by this school was set in urban contexts in permanent mutation, this placed inevitable limitations on the roles and actions expected of these professionals. Institutional arrangements became rapidly obsolete or went untried. The value attributed to sociology, which was introduced into French schools in the 1970s, thus remains weak in the Lomé school and the discipline is still not seen as offering tools of practical and cognitive relevance with regard to urban contexts in Africa.