Mass Housing in Nigeria, Customize the Brief: Provide a Desired House

The nature of the housing designs in mass housing schemes in Nigeria is a function of how architects were trained to handle mass housing designs. It is common practice to find that the houses in majority of the mass housing schemes in Nigeria are never owner specific. It is often assumed by architects working on mass housing schemes that the process of making the houses specific is cumbersome. The nature of the construction method of these mass housing schemes allows for the design briefs of the individual house to be different. This paper examines how design brief in mass housing in Nigeria can be customized. This is done through the development of a customization brief model with aid of a network of computers. It is expected that if the model is applied into mass housing in Nigeria, desired house by house owners in mass housing schemes would be met. Keywords: architects, customization, house owner, mass housing, mode

Sustainability in the New Congo’s Tropical Architecture: A Case Study of The Sabena Towers by Claude Laurens

Tropicalizing a building might seem like the best option for a young architect who lands in the tropics, but this is an approach contrary to sustainability. Claude Laurens, through one of his first projects in Congo, understood that it was better to deal with the place from the start. His project became one of the best examples of tropical modernism. The article attempts to contrast an import approach with a more sustainable one, to deal with the present and future context. The research method adopted for this study was a mixed method approach where data was sourced from literature as secondary source and compared with direct observation of the selected case study (The Sabena Towers). The results are presented as figures which were used to further illustrate findings. The result showed that the architect, with little information, did his utmost to offer Congo a new architecture that fitted with the objectives of sustainable development. The study concluded that the architect chose not to adopt the foreign architecture as a solution for the sustainability issues he encountered in the design, rather he evolved solutions that were Congolese based and therefore responded adequately to the challenges of sustainability in Congo and created an architecture for Congo

The Influence of Some Demographic Factors on Job Satisfaction on Academic Staff in Tertiary Institutions in Ogun State, Nigeria

This study investigated the demographic factors on job satisfaction among academic staff in tertiary institutions in two universities in Ogun State, testing five hypotheses.  A total of one hundred and twenty respondents were randomly selected.  Male and female academic staff in three of the departments were used for this study.  A set of structured questionnaire were administered after the reliability and the validity of it had been tested.  The five null hypotheses were analyzed using chi-square statistics at 0.05 point significant level.  The findings of the study revealed that most of the academic staff in the universities were dissatisfied with their jobs because of inadequate salaries, allowances, high volume of work and inadequate facilities.  It is therefore recommended that greater efforts should be made to provide facilities and infrastructures that will encourage academic staff.  Moreover, a more responsive incentive package will relatively motivate and satisfy academic staff on the job.  The implications of this will allow effective administration of the system and therefore, avoidance of industrial strike of Unions in our tertiary institutions

A Lesson of Sustainability Given by The Tropical Modernism in Kinshasa: The BCB Headquarters by Maurice Houyoux

The tropical region is often considered as a region where the sun shines intensely and the temperature varies at certain times of the year. In the case of Congo, the average weather condition is considered cool, however, there have been cases where the temperature reached up to 43° C. It is therefore imperative for buildings in this region to take into account the temperature variation while considering the comfort of the users. During the design and construction of the Bank of Belgian Congo, the availability of data to assist the architect Maurice Houyoux in meeting the challenge of the region was unavailable. The architect had to be creative in planning and overcoming the challenges posed by the environment. This paper seeks to examine the issues confronted by Maurice Houyoux and the design solutions he provided to ensure that the building was functional and responded to the tropical challenges. In undertaking this study, a historical approach was adopted through the review of relevant literature on the building and designs within the period of the development of the bank. An observation method was also deployed to verify some of the information found in the literature. The findings are presented using pictures and sketches to explain some of the key issues relevant to the design of the bank. The findings showed that despite the reduced number of published data for designing in such a region, the architect was able to examine the existing buildings and discuss with users of other constructions to obtain relevant data. The findings also showed that the building was able to respond to peculiar requirements to be functional. The paper concludes that the local building materials and traditional builders can be used to achieve a contemporary building that fits into the context towards sustainable architecture

African Housing Renaissance: The Case of Gacuriro Valley Satellite Settlements, Kigali, Rwanda

This article traces an African Housing Renaissance through the Trabantenstadt (Satellite City) vision for Kigali embedded in the Gacuriro Valley Satellite, which is composed of two settlements (or umudugudu, in Kinyarwanda): Kigali 2020 (2001–2005) and Kigali Vision (2013–2016). While the Kigali 2020 is an integrated Trabant (Satellite) which is able to interact with the existing context and trace the future built and unbuilt developments, the Kigali Vision adopts the idea of a protected compound, morphologically connected with the older settlements, but unable to tackle and solve spatial and social issues due to its ‘defensive’ character. The particular topography of the hillside receives an ambivalent interpretation: in the first umudugudu, the slope inspires the whole project, an organic raumplan, and in the second it has been denied, having been leveled for flat houses’ foundations and consequently a flat spatial indoor distribution. Nevertheless, this article argues that despite the evident architectural differences between the two settlements, they remain in the tradition of the Neues Bauen, in which mass housing represents the physical way of accommodating different social classes, granting equal and favorable living conditions. The typological variety demonstrates the aim to inclusively target distinct segments of the population. Apartment buildings (condominiums), row houses, twin houses and single houses mixed with public facilities, schools, a church, and sports structures, make up the settlements as unique pieces of a system and, at the same time, a singular whole

Perception of Undergraduates on Use of Turnitin Plagiarism Checker in Federal University of Technology, Minna, Nigeria

Projects, theses and dissertations submitted to the library form the highest number of collections in most academic library holdings in Nigeria. Ensuring that such works are free from plagiarism becomes imperative for future use and reuse. In an attempt to help stem this ugly trend of plagiarism, the Nigerian Universities Commission directed that all Universities in Nigeria should adopt the use of Turnitin plagiarism checker. This study seeks to determine the perception, challenges, and support systems available for students regarding the use of Turnitin in Federal University of Technology, Minna (FUTMin). There are 3,033 final year undergraduate students in the 2017/2018 academic session. Using Krejcie & Morgan sample size table, 341 undergraduates and eleven (11) Turnitin Officers were randomly sampled across Departments and Schools (Faculties) in FUTMin. Structured questionnaire was used as instrument for data collection. A total of 338 (99%) copies of questionnaire from undergraduates and 11 (100%) from Turnitin Officers were filled, returned and found valid for this study. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze the data from which the results were presented in tables. Findings revealed that students were relatively unaware of what constitutes plagiarism. Recommendations included the need for awareness and orientation on what constitutes plagiarism, citation and referencing education

Bioclimatic Design Principle a Solution to Thermal Discomfort in Minna Residences, Niger State Nigeria

Residential buildings are places where people find themselves to be for a better part of their day. For a lot of individuals, this should serve as a comfort zone but is being defeated by a number of factors that range from construction materials choices, inappropriate design concept to suite building location, lack of consideration of existing site features, micro climate of the building location and improper orientation of building. From the simple random sampling in Niger State Nigeria drawn from Dutsen Kura, Tunga and Chanchaga in Minna, it was deduced from the study by administering 25 questionnaires in Dutsen Kura, 14 in Chanchaga and 15 in Tunga that 49% of residents are uncomfortable in their homes during the day, while the rest 26% find it to be fair while 24% say it is good. The aim of this paper is to determine ways in which thermal comfort can be achieved in houses within Minna. The methodology adopted was both structured survey and observation. It was deduced that bioclimatic design through the use of readily available materials can reduce the effect of heat gain into the building, incorporation of natural landscape, and micro climate of the environment will be considered. It is recommended that individuals in their various capacities adopt such design principles in order to have a serene, energy efficient and less polluted environment. Keywords: Bioclimatic Design, Local Materials, Thermal Comfort

The Implications of Credit Creation by Banks on Economic Growth of Nigeria

This study investigates the implications of credit creation by banks on the economic growth of Nigeria. Data for the study spanning 1985 to 2015 were collected from the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Statistical Bulletin and analysed using Ordinary Least Square(OLS), Augmented Dickey-Fuller Unit Root Test and Co-integration. The result of the OLS shows a positive and significant effect of credit creation of bank on economic growth of Nigeria. The unit root test results reveals that variables are stationary and does not have a unit root problem at 5%, first differencing and at lag 2 within the period considered. Based on the hypothesized number of co-integrated equation(s), it is revealed that both the Trace and Max-Eigen statistical test has four and two co-integrating equation because their p-value is lesser than the test of significance at 5%; we therefore reject the null hypothesis and conclude that there is four and two co-integrating equation between the variables. The paper notes that credit creation is germane to economic growth of Nigeria and therefore recommends that the banking sector should be strengthen to mobilize stable  funds in other to facilitate the necessary funding of the real sector. Also, the regulatory authorities to monitor and execute designed policies adequately to achieve the set goals and objectives. Government should be able to keep inflation and interest rate particularly on lending at a pace that will stimulate economic growth in Nigeria Keywords: Economic Growth, Credit creation, Banks

Students’ perception of informal interaction spaces of Faculty Buildings in Federal University of Technology, Minna, Nigeria

Faculty buildings have often been considered as a place for formal activities in terms of learning and teaching by both lecturers and students. Emphasis has always been placed on the formal learning environment by the management of such institutions and also the accrediting bodies of such institutions. The designs of such faculties have also reflected the same emphasis with attention being placed on the formal learning spaces and offices for staff. The informal spaces often found in faculty buildings are treated as secondary with such spaces often evolving as the uses of the building continues. They are usually unplanned places which are created by the students as their needs arise. The aim of this study is to examine how effective these informal interaction spaces have served the students. Four out of Eight faculties were purposively selected from the study area based on the student population, while the students were randomly selected. The data obtained were analysed using descriptive statistics and the results were presented in tables, charts and plates. It was observed that the students were dissatisfied with the designated informal interaction spaces provided by the designs of the buildings, it also showed that informal interaction spaces evolved as solution for waiting periods outside lecture rooms. The study concludes that there was need to design faculty buildings that had lecture rooms linked to open spaces and overflow areas aside from corridors that were predominant in the study area

Approximation techniques for maximizing likelihood functions of generalized linear mixed models for binary response data

Evaluating Maximum likelihood estimates in Generalized Linear Mixed Models (GLMMs) has been a serious challenge due to some integral complexities encountered in maximizing its likelihood functions. It is computationally difficult to establish analytical solutions for the integrals. In view of this, approximation techniques would be needed. In this paper, various approximation techniques were exam-ined including Laplace approximation (LA), Penalized Quasi likelihood (PQL) and Adaptive Gauss-Hermite Quadrature (AGQ) tech-niques. The performances of these methods were evaluated through both simulated and real-life data in medicine. The simulation results showed that the Adaptive Gauss-Hermit Quadrature approach produced better estimates when compared with PQL and LA estimation techniques based on some model selection criteria