Eighth International Conference on The Constructed Environment

Abstract

Colonialism left South-Eastern Nigeria in the 1960s with traces of colonial building style in Government Reserved Areas located in different urban centers such as Enugu, Onitsha, Owerri, and Aba. These buildings were characterized by an extremely high roof pitch style comparable with the Igbo traditional architecture and they were environmentally sensitive to the prevailing tropical climate. With the wave of oil boom in the 1970s, Nigerian Veteran Architects brought into the area an imported modern parapet style of architecture which was enforced under a building act of 1707 in London. The style gained public acceptance in both the public and private sectors and became so popular. The rate of deterioration and disappearance of this style of architecture in South-East Nigeria is alarming with attendant post-occupancy modifications. The research investigates the performance of this parapet style of architecture in Owerri, South-Eastern Nigeria as most of the building products of the style could no longer serve the functional, structural, and aesthetic purposes for which they were built. The aim is with the view to evolving an environmentally sensitive design. The objectives were to determine the architectural characters of this style of architecture, to determine the nature of deterioration, and to determine the nature and extent of post-occupancy modifications that have taken place. The methodological approach was field investigations involving use of observations, questionnaire, and oral interviews. The study population was 1032 buildings/consumers with the sample size of 688 buildings/consumers. The result revealed that the style of architecture is characterized by a flat roof with extremely low pitch less than 100C which has no respect to the prevailing climatology of the area. The result further revealed that ninety-two percent of the buildings had been deteriorated beyond regular maintenance and subsequently seventy–eight percent had undergone post-occupancy modifications. The result further detailed areas of deterioration to include leakages, decay of roof structures, wetness of interior, deterioration of external and internal finishes. The research recommends for architects to avoid parapet walls embark on using extremely high pitch roof which can withstand the climatic condition of the zone, for Schools of Architecture to integrate climatology as a cognate course in their curriculum and for public enlightenment and Continuous Professional Development on sustainable and environmentally sensitive design.