Review of Maintenance Strategies For Achieving Sustainable Developments In Tropical Climates

Buildings, like almost all physical objects degrade over time due to a combination of factors. The deterioration affects all components and parts of the building in different ways, gradually reducing the quality of the structure and adversely impacting the building’s ability to effectively perform its basic functions in an environment. This paper relied on a systematic review of published literatures in reputable databases to examine how building developments and public environments can be designed in tropical climates to require minimal maintenance activities to enhance the ease of executing such activities. 39 open access published documents were reviewed. Data sieved from the publications were content analysed and descriptively presented in themes. The study identified principles and methods which can be implemented in the design of buildings with a focus on maintainability towards enhancing the development of sustainable public buildings and environments in tropical climates. The review promotes maintenance culture and emphasises increased consideration for maintenance in building design, which further helps to promote the eleventh target of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals that aims at the development of resilient, safe and sustainable communities, cities and human settlements. The paper is instructive to researchers, scholars, students of architecture and building design, as well as policy makers on issues surrounding the principles of designing for maintainability, particularly in tropical settings

SKILLS SET DETERMINANTS OF IND-CADETS WORKFORCE IN HIGHTECH CONSTRUCTION COMPANIES IN LAGOS NIGERIA

It is common practice in High Technology Construction Companies in Nigeria to seek out the best practice procedures for their organizational abilities and competencies. As a result, they hire fresh graduates on a yearly basis in order to fill the dynamic vacuum that technology opens from time to time. The Universities are the training fields for these young minds and on a regular basis update their curriculum towards competing in the ever changing global market of opportunities and competition. Work and employability are often mixed use concepts because training is different from being employable. This paper investigated the characteristics of the Ind-CADETS (Industry Cadets) workforce of students of construction related disciplines of Covenant University and some selected high technology construction companies in Lagos Nigeria. This was done to get feedback from these construction companies on the types of skill set they require from fresh graduates from the universities towards making the graduates better suited for their work experiences after graduation. This was done by administering a well-structured questionnaire and interviews for proper conclusion on the subject matter from a cross section of students from final year in Architecture, Building, and Estate Management of the 2016-2017 academic year and also from some selected high technology construction companies in Lagos. The data collected was statistically analysed with SPSS software and it showed that there was a gap in communication between the construction companies and the Universities on the types of skills set required for making the graduates fit effectively into the working environment. Software incompatibility and personality traits were seen as hindrances towards achieving this synergy. It was further discovered that University curriculum were missing the goal of achieving basic educational foundations for industry compatibility and employability

ADEQUACY OF OGUN STATE BUILDING DEVELOPMENT REGULATORY LEGISLATION IN PROMOTING UNIVERSAL DESIGN PRACTICE IN NIGERIA

Universal design (UD) is a design strategy that targets producing designs that are usable to everyone to the greatest possible extent, without having to result to adaptation or specialised design. The birth of UD in the field of architecture has brought about a paradigm shift from designing for a mystic average, to a more holistic design method that provides for the needs of everyone from the planning and design stage. Some studies have however found that in some societies, people with disabilities (PWDs) are generally marginalised in the development of the built environment as a result of accessibility and usability provisions not suitable for them. To this end, there is a need for building development legislation to have adequate provisions that can guarantee the promotion of UD practice. Consequently, this study investigated the UD related provisions in the building development regulatory legislation in Ogun State, Nigeria and examined their adequacy for promoting UD practice in Nigeria. This was done with a view to finding ways of improving social inclusion of PWDs in the main stream of the society in conformity with best global practice. The study is a document review that adopted qualitative research approaches to gather and analyse data. The result was presented using descriptive approach with the aid of a table for easy understanding. The result indicated that some UD related provisions exist in the development legislation in use in the study area. However, the said provisions were discovered not to be sufficient for the design and development of environments that are fully inclusive in nature as demanded by UD ideology, due to several inadequacies. The adequacy of the development legislation in promoting UD practice is adjudged to be substantially limited. Among the key recommendations of the study is a comprehensive review of the development Regulation to eliminate grey areas identified as possible hinderances that can prevent it from encouraging the promotion of UD practice in Nigeria

Evaluation of Universal Design Compliance at the Main Entrance of Selected Public Buildings in Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria

Provision of easy access to public facilities and environments for everyone is crucial in the development of a sustainable community. However, it is observed nationwide that public buildings and environments are not easily accessible to people with disabilities largely due to a combination of design inadequacies. It is against this backdrop that this study evaluated the compliance of the main entrance of selected public buildings in Covenant University in Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria to universal design, with a view to improve access for people with mobility impaired disabilities. The study adopted a mixed method research approach and collected data using observation guide. Data were analyzed by content analysis and presented by descriptive approachusing tables and percentages.Result showed that majority of the main entrances of the public buildings evaluated were not fully universal design compliant, thus making accessibility for people with disabilities difficult. The study recommends that the university should make appropriate efforts to ensure non-discrimination on the basis of disability in providing access to facilities, buildings and environment as the institution matches towards achieving her vision of becoming one of the top ten Universities by 2022. The outcome of the study will be useful toresearchers, policy makers and building industry professionals on issues relating to universal design concept in the built environment

UNIVERSAL DESIGN FOR LEARNING: ASSESSMENT OF TEACHING METHODS IN COVENANT UNIVERSITY, OTA, OGUN STATE, NIGERIA

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is another perspective about educational training. It is regarded as an essential implement in the pre-emptive planning of manageable and usable all inclusive learning and teaching methods, and environments. Classroom use of UDL includes the utilization of innovation and different methods of instruction among others as captured in its three core principles of representation, expression and engagement. The purpose of this investigation is to assess the compliance of the various teaching methods employed in Covenant University (CU) in Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria, with the UDL principles, with a view to identifying possible areas for improvements. CU is a private university whose goal is to be one of the best ten universities in the world by 2022. Thus the need to have its teaching methods conforms to international best practices. The study employed a qualitative research approach using structured interview specifically designed for the research to collect data. The analyzed data is presented using descriptive approach. The outcome of the study will be useful to guiding policies towards achieving inclusive education in higher institution of learning, particularly in Nigeria and other developing nations

Prospects and Challenges of Lean Construction Practice In The Building Industry In Nigeria: Architects’ Perspective

Lean construction is a new practice of designing and managing building projects to reduce project time and manage resources to eliminate waste, thereby giving the client maximum value for money spent. Globally, the implementation of lean construction has been on the rise as a result of waste and it is being strongly advocated for by building professionals. Some studies have identified some prospects and challenges of its adoption. However, the findings of such studies usually emanated from the researchers’ evaluation of the lean construction practice and not based on the perception of practicing professionals of the building industry, particularly in Nigeria. Consequently, this study examined the principles and techniques of lean practice in literature and investigated the perception of practicing registered architects in Nigeria on the possibilities and constraints of implementing lean construction techniques in the building industry in the country. This was done in order to identify the unquestioned challenges and harness the potentials of implementing its principles and strategies, towards making contributions on how to achieve better building project delivery in Nigeria. Both qualitative and quantitative methods of research were adopted for the study. Qualitative data were gathered from relevant literature by textual analysis and analysed using content analysis procedure. Quantitative data were obtained via questionnaire administered to a sample size of 270 registered practicing architects in the study area. The quantitative data were analysed with statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 21 and the result presented descriptively with the aid of charts and tables. The findings revealed that 89% of the respondents are well informed of the lean construction techniques. Last planner technique has the highest adoption rate with 33%. The challenges of its implementation revolve around corruption, funding, remuneration, poor leadership and fear of unfamiliar practices. However, its prospects are very high, based on the responses of the respondents. Among the recommendations of the study is that periodic training programmes should be organised by professional bodies to equip professionals on the technical skills and benefits lean construction practice offers towards achieving better building project delivery

UNIVERSAL DESIGN FRAMEWORK FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF ADAPTABLE ARCHITECTURAL STUDIOS FOR LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS

Issues arising from the general problem of the inaccessibility of the built environment to people with disabilities (PWDs), have led to a paradigm shift from design approaches aimed at narrow code compliance, to design ideologies aimed at producing usable facilities and environments to meet the needs of everyone, particularly PWDs. One of such approaches is Universal Design (UD), a framework for designing products, buildings, and environments to be accessible and usable by everyone. Consequently, guidelines have been developed for many products and environments, including learning environments, in line with the UD principles. However, these models are considered inadequate to fully address design requirements of architectural studios in learning environments. This study developed a design framework for developing adaptable architectural studios, in line with UD parameters and peculiar needs of students in a traditional and digital studio learning environment. The study adopted a qualitative research approach. Observation and systematic review of relevant literature were used to collect data, which were coded according to themes for easy analysis for the development of the framework. Illustrations were employed to present the findings for clarity and easy understanding. The study outcome is a useful design guide for architects, an education material for teachers and students, and a UD repository reference material for researchers to work with and build upon as we work towards making our world more accessible and usable to all