ARCHITECTURE OF MULTIFUNCTIONAL RESIDENTIAL BUILDING IN NIGERIA

ARCHITECTURE OF MULTIFUNCTIONAL RESIDENTIAL BUILDING IN NIGERIA

Adejuyigbe Ifeoluwa Babatope

Ph.D Student, Department of Architecture, RUDN University,

Russia, Moscow

Chaiko Dmitry Sergeevich

Associate Professor, Department of Architecture, RUDN University,

Russia, Moscow

ABSTRACT

A residential building is a building with a postal number, all or at least half of the total area of which is intended for permanent residence, located on a plot of land within certain boundaries with all auxiliary buildings, structures, and landscaping elements located on it. Multifunctional building developments are also referred to as composite developments. The developments usually consist of large and deluxe commercial complex, shopping malls, car park, or resident clubhouses built underneath residential tower blocks. The arrangements have achieved two major objectives. Firstly, the composite developments are very welcomed, since it provides residents with necessary facilities and support for their daily life. Secondly, the rent generated from commercial facilities provides attractive returns on investments. The aim of this study is to evaluate the problems of Residential Environment and Multi-use or Multifunctional building in Nigeria with a view to proffer solution to this problem in Nigeria. The study adopted the survey method through internet surfing, observation and Questionnaires survey implemented by other researchers to buttress the findings of the literature review. The causal force is not far-fetched to include but not limited to Land Use Act and Documentation Process, Infrastructural Development, High Cost of Building Materials and Poor Quality of Buildings, among others were stated as the problem; and solution had been suggested architecturally to increase verticality to achieve more with less space especially in densely populated area of the country. This may outrightly not eradicate the problems of inadequate residential housing and multi-functional building but would be a start in the right direction in providing adequate housing for all and sundry.

Keywords: Architecture, Infrastructure, Investments, Migration, Multifunctional Complexes, Objects, Residential Development, Urbanization.

INTRODUCTION

A residential building is a building with a postal number, all or at least half of the total area of which is intended for permanent residence, located on a plot of land within certain boundaries with all auxiliary buildings, structure, and landscaping elements located on it. Residential buildings are distinguished according to several classification criteria: their purpose, volume-planning structure, number of storeys and design solution, and the material of enclosing structures. The main requirement for a residential building is technological or functional feasibility. This means that the building must fully meet the process for which it is intended, i.e. the convenience of living. Regardless of whether the function is assigned to general requirements apply to residential buildings:

• Technical specifications: provision security features premises protection from the external environment; sufficient strength, stability, durability and fire resistance of individual structural elements and the entire building.
• Aesthetic: shaping the external appearance of a building in a short period of time score a specific one selection process constructive information forms, building materials, colors, etc.
• Economic: ensuring the minimum present costs (reduction of labor and materials costs, construction time and operating costs). [12]

The world through knowledge is changing day by day and heading towards becoming a more stable and well-planned structural entity. Multi-function building developments are also referred to as composite developments. The developments usually consist of large and deluxe commercial complex, shopping malls, car park, or resident clubhouses built underneath residential tower blocks. The arrangements have achieved two major objectives. Firstly, the composite developments are very welcomed, since it provides residents with necessary facilities and support for their daily life. This is a special living style in this small but dynamic metropolis. Secondly, the rent generated from commercial facilities provides attractive returns on investments. Hence, the composite developments maintain the cutting edge in the competitive property market from the mindset of developers. Fig. 1 shows a typical arrangement for a composite development. The building structures can be divided into three major areas. They are podium floors, transfer plates and residential tower blocks. Generally, skeleton structures which can allow flexibility for space planning are used for podium structures. Shear walls and core walls structures which wind bracing, provide partitioning and fire protection requirements are used for residential tower blocks. Transfer plates are then constructed to separate and transfer the loadings of the residential tower blocks to the podium structures. In order to maximize rental returns, podium floors usually occupy nearly all the site area leaving limited space for contractors to set up site production facilities. Site production planning is becoming more complex. The characteristics of a building project may not be identified or defined easily with the multivariate project information. [1][7]

Design process of Multifunctional Residential buildings

At present, the multifunctional residential building design process is provided in a workflow based on individual architect practice. The project parameters are based on the minimal building codes, regulations and on the demands of the developer. To create an optimized multifunctional residential structure, it is necessary to enlarge the design parameters. Creating a systematic design process network may affect in positive value for the built environment and natural environment. Multifunctional residential building design is a process, where multiple stakeholders are involved. The following stakeholders participate in the design and assessment process, when the building's essential function and infrastructure are defined: building owner, tenants, facility staff, occupants, neighbors, municipality, regulators, designer, risk manager, insurer, fire brigade. [2]

The design process should include a complex analysis of the life cycle. Analyzing the multifunctional residential building life cycle on figure 1, where successive phases are listed, it is worth of pay attention to the exploitation phase. In the time of dynamic functional changes there is a need to provide technological and functional change possibility as shown below

Figure 1. Multifunctional residential building life cycle scheme

Source: Mateusz Gerigk, 2017

The life cycle of the multifunctional residential building is defined by phases: initial work phase, concept phase, project phase, construction phase, exploitation phase, waste phase. Despite the designer is the main architect of the project, it is important for the project final effect to include all stakeholders in the multifunctional residential building life cycle. Due to the life cycle phases each stakeholder brings to the project supplementary information. Integration of compiled information in the life cycle.

Multi-criteria approach in a complex system design process

There is an urgent demand to define the actual criteria and methods for the development of multifunctional residential building structures. The complexity of multifunctional residential building design process need to use a systematic structure within the multi-criteria approach. Defined criteria for the multifunctional residential building design process are: Aesthetics, Functionality, Natural Environment Protection, System Safety, System Effectiveness, Functional Flexibility. [3]

Problems of Multifunctional Residential Building Structure in Nigeria

Nigeria is located in the western part of Africa in the Gulf of Guinea and has a total area of 923,768 km2 (356,669 sq. Miles), making it the 32nd largest country in the world after Tanzania. It is comparable in size to the Venezuelan and about twice the size of the US state of California. Its borders cover 4,047 kilometers and border Benin (773 km), Niger (1,497 km), Chad (87 km), Cameroon (1,690 km) and have a coastline of at least 853 km. Nigeria lies between 40° and 14°, longitude from 20° to 15 °. Nigeria has a tropical climate with variable rainy and dry seasons, depending on the location. In the south-east it is hot and damp most of the year, and in the south-west and inland it is dry.

Ezeigwe Patrick C. (2015)[4][8] in his study of the causes of Housing problems in Nigeria created an evaluation that gave the problems faced by housing generally in Nigeria with specific chosen study area as a case study used a statistical tool, ANOVA to test the significant difference in the response of the respondents and Post-HOC in ranking of factors considered  and drew a conclusion arranging the factors in descending order as follows: Poverty, Population increase due to Urbanization, High cost of land, Non-implementation of the housing policies, Failure on the side of the government, High cost of building materials and Corruption; which implies the least of the problems is corruption. The work concluded that housing deficit is one of the major problems suffered by urban and rural areas in the country and the analysis of the data generated from the study area shows that the main causative factor is poverty.

Table 2.

Grouping of Responses of Respondents on Causes of Housing Problem

Source: Ezeigwe Patrick C. (2015)

To determine the significant causes of housing problems among causes listed, One-way Analysis of Variance was used. The result is as shown below;

Hypothesis: H0: there is no significant difference in the classification/grading of causes of housing problems by respondents. H1: there is significant difference in the classification/grading of causes of housing problems by respondents.

Table 3.

Descriptive Observation of Responses of Respondents on Causative Factors of Housing Problems

Source: Ezeigwe Patrick C. (2015)

Using the Post HOC test which is used in statistical hypothesis for classification, two treatments/items are said to have almost the same characteristic if the significance value is greater than 0.05 and the higher the value the closer the items in classification. Based on this fact, the causative factors listed in the research tool can be grouped as 1, 2, and 3 having almost the same number of respondents and 4, 5, 6, and 7 having almost the same number of respondents. The mean values can be used in ranking the problems as;

1. Poverty
2. Population increase due to Urbanization
3. High cost of land
4. Non implementation of the housing policies
5. Failure on the side of the government
6. High cost of building materials
7. Corruption

Some other problems identified that was not treated explanatorily by Ezeigwe Patrick C. (2015) in his submission were highlighted in 10 problems of housing in Nigeria and their possible solutions by Nwamanah Dinim (2018) and supported and even more buttressed by Sherif (2018) in his write up on Housing problems in Nigeria and solutions. These problems are explained below in relation to Multi-functional buildings:

1. Land Use Act and Documentation Process

The Land Use Act of 1978 put all land in the management of the government. The decree was to be advantageous for the country and its citizens with regulations to protect public interest as well as create efficiency of land use all over the country. Purchasing land in Nigeria today without acquiring Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) from the government puts the person at risk and disadvantage as the land is not officially his.[5][9] It takes a quite long and tiring process to get building such as a multi-functional building complex to be approved for construction, where a lot of tax and levies would have to be paid to so many quarters to get them approved by the Government. This does not stop a public harassment by the community locale popularly known as ‘Area Boys’ from disrupting construction so as to get their own settlement and pay for construction to be carried out.

2. Infrastructural Development

Road Network, Water Supply, Electricity, drainage systems, rail tracks and tunnels are still underdeveloped which are the first basic need of the environment on which the bedrock of any building construction is to be based. If these infrastructures are made better where they are in great lack this would ease the availability and construction of Multi-functional buildings in Nigeria

3. High Cost of Building Materials and Poor Quality of Buildings

The demise of local industries that produce local building materials and the crave and love for imported goods by the citizens has subsequently lead to a high cost of building materials consequentially lead to housing been less affordable for low income earners an substandard housing which pose a big threat to standard construction of multi-functional buildings in Nigeria. The outraging pressure of inflation on building materials and standard wage of the labor market are the causes of high construction cost. Increase in labor wages, cost of construction material and price of cement are all key factors in the choice of construction technique [6] which invariably leads to poor quality of buildings.

4. Shortcomings of Mortgage Institutions & Ineffective Housing Budget

Limited number of mortgage institutions exist in Nigeria. The ones that are in existence lack standard in comparison to their counterparts in other parts of the world. If one has failed to plan for a project he surely is planning a failure already and this in so many ways account for building failure and uncompleted buildings as the budget would have been ineffective and the institutions to support are scares and incapacitated to handle the populace.

5. Rural-Urban Migration/Urbanization

This is a common phenomenon where everyone in the rural settlement believes there is a greener pasture in the urban centres leading to a neglect of the rural settlement and overcrowding on the urban facility. Nigeria cannot be left out in this drift as it greatly affect multi-functional building and housing generally as their conditions become dilapidated and which could also be attributed to overcrowding, higher maintenance cost, which most times are not carried out and so on.

6. Inadequate Implementation of Planning Policies

Institutions charged with development plans in Nigeria are falling short in many ways. Even where these plans exist as regards housing and Multi-functional building, they are too focused on urban development while the rural areas are neglected and also overlook non-compliance to particular regulations of building in terms of its use as a multi-functional building. Generally, there is a lack in the rural and urban development plans as well as a great implementation deficiency which is a major cause of housing problem in Nigeria.

7. Lack of Enlightenment

Professional like architects, civil engineers, land surveyors, alongside organizations like Nigerian Institute of Architects (NIA), Nigerians Institute of Civil Engineers (NICE), Federal Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban development are supposed to engage in proper enlightenment of people on best developmental practice and policies which will give a proper channel of resources and focus to achieve the best as touching multi-functional buildings in Nigeria. Basic necessity of a Multi-functional building to make it effective are not known to a common man talking about the acoustics of the building, sustainability, the organization of activity and compatibility of activity in the multifunctional residential building are lacking invariably leading to

8. High Population Growth

Inadequate and deficiency of housing required is directly consequential to the day to day increase in Nigeria’s population. The current provisions available cannot cater for a population of 191million people according to Wikipedia (2019) and still increasing at a rate of 2%

Factors Influencing Development in Nigeria

Factors influencing development of spatial structure of Residential Environment and Multifunctional building structure could be concluded and grouped as:

• Historical and Cultural Factors

1. technical shortcomings and labor shortages,
2. insufficient public participation and corruption
3. loopholes in the Land Use Ordinance that have yet to be reviewed
4. selective implementation of the Decree on urban and regional planning
5. lack of qualified local staff and the government's inability to adequately pay workers
6. community participation is also not fully implemented
7. planning is still (for people), and not (with therefore, planning ends up unstable, because people do not feel responsible for their environment

Figure 2: Population Density of Nigeria.

Source: Wikipedia, 2019

• Socio-Economic Factors

1. Prevalence of villains
2. juvenile delinquency and delinquency
3. ethnic clashes,
4. high population density
5. political violence,
6. public ignorance and apathy
7. land disputes and extortion, usually accompanied by widespread violence, etc.

• Climatic Factors

1. conflicting types of land use, such as infiltration of commercial land, residential use,
2. poor aesthetics and an unattractive urban landscape
3. high density of buildings and high rates of collapse of buildings,
4. giant and poorly constructed roads, mainly without provision for drainage
5. of traffic congestion and pollution (noise, atmospheric and water),
6. floods and ocean waves, etc

Methods of Housing problem Alleviation

Recent survey carried out by the researcher over a random selection of people within the work frame of housing investors, individuals, Architect and government parastatals all located within the study area agreed that properly planned high rise Multi-functional building situated a strategic location could be a start to the solution of housing in Nigeria at large which will cater for both residential and other basic necessity of everyone all at the same time.

Figure 3. Survey of the use of High rise building in solution to Housing problem

Source: Authors Research survey.

Figure 4. Survey of Usefulness of Multi-functional building in solving Housing problems

Source: Authors Research Survey

From figure 3, about 68.42% believe that the solution lies in verticality rather than horizontality especially in areas of dense population due to unavailability of land and for easy achievement of housing goals for all while 26.32% believe it is not, with reasons such as Nigeria is blessed with a land mass and it can and should be utilized forgetting the sustainability effect on the environment and 5.26% are indifferent about it. From figure 4, looking at the coefficients based on the usefulness, availability, affordability and it as a tool to solve housing problem 33.68% of the respondents find it a very useful tool, 32.63% find it somewhat useful while 24.21% of respondent find it extremely useful, with just about 7.37% find it not so useful and 2.11% not useful at all.

Apart from the above solution, Sherif [6][9] established that creating a Reliable Mortgage system, Total implementation and Review of National Housing Policy, Easy Land and House Regulations, Implementation of Public Housing Projects, Provision of Adequate Infrastructures, Genuine Research Policy, Private Sector Full Participation, Locally Manufacturing building materials and Provision of Rental houses are the main solution to housing and Multi-functional building in Nigeria. While Ezeigwe, Patrick C. [4] further recommended that poverty eradication programmes should be implemented, monitored and periodically evaluated for success, Government should ensure housing policies are met, issues with getting lands and certificate of occupancy should be made easier while opportunities should be provided for speeding up construction and reducing cost of building and that private sector collaboration is of utmost importance. Nwamanah Dinim [5][9] suggested that research institutes should be encouraged to exploit local raw materials and produce alternative building materials, critical review of rural and urban housing policies, National development plan should take housing problems into consideration, Rural are development to reduce rural-urban drift, Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria, Federal Housing Authority, Federal Mortgage Finance Limited, Urban Development Bank and other parastatals should perform more effectively.

CONCLUSION

Housing is one of life’s basic necessity not withstanding what the condition of the economy may be stating and this pose a challenge mostly in the urban centers where homelessness, overcrowding, slum, poor quality housing units and inadequate infrastructure are the order of the day. The causal force are not far fetched to include but not limited to Land Use Act and Documentation Process, Infrastructural Development, High Cost of Building Materials and Poor Quality of Buildings, Shortcomings of Mortgage Institutions & Ineffective Housing Budget, Rural-Urban Migration/Urbanization, Inadequate Implementation of Planning Policies, Lack of Enlightenment, High Population Growth; and solution had been suggested architecturally to increase verticality i.e high rise buildings and discourage horizontality in building construction so as to achieve more with less space especially in densely populated are of the country, other suggestions were to establish a reliable mortgage system, implement all Housing policy without prejudice, Ease land and house regulation, encourage private sector participation, improve and encourage locally made building materials not forgetting provision of adequate infrastructures. This may outrightly not eradicate the problems of housing and multi-functional building but would be a start in the right direction in providing adequate housing for all and sundry.

References:

1. A. Leung and C.M. Tam (2010). Modern Multi-Function Building Developments. Published in Int. Journal for Housing Science, Vol.34, No.3 pp. 151-162, 2010 Published in the United States. Retrieved at http://www.housingscience.org/html/publications/pdf/34-3-1.pdf
2. M. Nilsson, P. Van Hees, “Analysis of fire scenarios in order to ascertain an acceptable safety level in multi-functional buildings,” 9th Int'l Conf 2012 Proceedings & Case Studies, 2012
3. Mateusz Gerigk, 2017. Multi-Criteria Approach in Multifunctional Building Design Process. Gdańsk University of Technology, 11/12 Narutowicza, 80-233 Gdańsk Poland in  IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 245 (2017) 052085 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/245/5/052085
4. EZEIGWE, PATRICK C. (2015). Evaluation of the Causes of Housing Problems in Nigeria: A Case Study of Awka the Capital City of Anambra State. Journal of Economics and Sustainable Development www.iiste.org ISSN 2222-1700 (Paper) ISSN 2222-2855 (Online) Vol.6, No.20, 2015
5. Nwamanah Dinim (2018). 10 Problems of Housing in Nigeria and possible Solution. Extract from the internet at https://infoguidenigeria.com/problems-housing-nigeria/ written on July 13, 2018
6. Sherif (2018). Housing problems in Nigeria and solutions. Extract from the internet at https://naijaquest.com/housing-problems-in-nigeria/ published on August 30, 2018
7. Larissa Acharya (2013). Flexible Architecture for the Dynamic Societies. Reflection on a Journey from the 20th Century into the Future. Master’s thesis in Art History, Faculty of Humanities, Social Sciences and Education University of Tromso
8. Igwe P.U., Okeke C.A., Onwurah K.O., Nwafor D.C., Umeh C.N.(2017) A Review of Housing Problems. International Journal of Environment, Agriculture and Biotechnology Vol-2, Issue-6, November - December 2017.
9. Temi Oni-Jimoh and Champika Liyanage (November 28th 2018). Urbanization and Meeting the Need for Affordable Housing in Nigeria, Housing, Amjad Almusaed and Asaad Almssad, IntechOpen, DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.78576. Available from: https://www.intechopen.com/books/housing/urbanization-and-meeting-the-need-for-affordable-housing-in-nigeria
10. Nubi G, Afe Y. Redefining Affordable Housing through Sustainable Practices. Nigeria: Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Department of Estate Management, University of Lagos
11. Fasakin JO, Ogunsemi DR. Modelling the selling prices of residential buildings in Nigeria. Journal of Financial Management of Property and Construction. 2003;8(2):111-114