A Review of Essential Sustainable Development Principles in Housing: The Case of Nigeria

International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation (IJRSI) | Volume VII, Issue I, January 2020 | ISSN 2321–2705

A Review of Essential Sustainable Development Principles in Housing: The Case of Nigeria

 Olusola Oladapo Makinde PhD
 Department of Architecture, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomosho, Oyo State, Nigeria

Abstract: – The paper examined why the idea of sustainability had been brought into housing discourses and how sustainable development principles benefits housing. This was carried out by examining how has sustainability been interpreted in the context of housing. The research adopted exploration of secondary data by a concise review of literature. The paper highlights how the sustainability principles has become imperative as a basis in housing and the built environment and shows housing, as a key component of the built environment, which plays an important role in all aspects of sustainable development. The study concludes that a sustainable housing development should not only have environment friendly and energy efficient buildings, it should be affordable, accessible to facilities and public transportation and be manageable. It must facilitate social inclusion and not a mechanism of social exclusion. Such development must enhance resident quality of life from generation to generation.

Keywords: Sustainability, Housing, Built Environment, Nigeria

I. INTRODUCTION

The interaction between sustainability and urban housing has often been discussed in the last decade. There has been and still is being presented considerable literature on what might constitute sustainable urbanisation such as the provision of basic needs, appropriate technology, urban management and job creation, but seldom has these components been pulled together into an overall framework for sustainable urban housing (Ebsen & Ramboll,2000). The general concept of sustainable urban housing is to integrate energy and environmental issues in urban housing programmes and projects. It is important to underline that this integration take place in all aspects of the housing process. By addressing sustainable housing we state that the following issues have to be taken into account: these are light, air, space; health, building functionality, architectural design, accessibility, quality of materials and constructive features, all these contribute decisively to the sensitive comfort of people, influencing the population’s quality of life, and the socio-cultural value of the interventions (Maes, et al., 2011).

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