Pre-colonial or traditional architecture stemmed from culture, local material, and climate conditions. The settlement patterns across all regions in pre-colonised Nigeria were fundamentally community-driven. Residential areas were organised into clusters that reflected social structures with compounds housing family members typically spread around a focal point.
Their structures were distinctively built in response to their varied climate. For instance, in the Coastal areas like the Ijaw and Itsekiri, houses were built over water connected by wooden walkways to navigate the swampy terrain and avoid flooding. The Middle-Belt and South were known for their thatched roofs to enhance ventilation and encourage roof drainage while the North built flat rooms to mitigate their hot climate and allow for sleeping during hot nights.
An amalgamation of styles occurred in the early 19th century particularly when the freed African slaves returned and settled in places like Lagos and Badagry which was later addressed as Afro-Brazillian architecture. Later in the century and the early 20th, the British known for recreating their villages abroad formally captured Nigeria and brought about the prevalent architectural style in present Nigeria.
A palace symbolised the central authority for the regions in pre-colonial Nigeria. The materials used in construction were usually indigenous to the area; courtyards were used to hold functions and encourage ample ventilation. In places like Southeastern Nigeria, the obis served at meeting points for the community, here, the elders and community leaders gathered to make decisions; they were usually made up of central open spaces with sitting arrangements. Commercial buildings like markets compromised open spaces with semi-permanent stalls the same as the workshops but without the stalls. They were designed to accommodate light and enhance air circulation.
Colonisation
As a result of colonisation, a shift in power occurred from the monarchy to the government, ergo, which gave birth to the construction of formal government buildings across the nation. The choice of materials for the construction was mostly brick, concrete, and stone with classical elements such as columns and pediments. Educational institutions were constructed with brick, concrete, and steel with architectural features like large windows and verandahs for ventilation. Modern palaces in some regions of the country were rebuilt using foreign materials, markets saw the use of more permanent stalls and corrugated roofing sheets.
Office buildings usually mult-storeyed were introduced. They were built with reinforced concrete, steel, and glass; influenced by modernism with features like glass facades and lack of ornamentation.
Post-Colonisation
In present-day Nigeria—at least in the urban areas—traditional compounds formally organised around communal points have now been eradicated by single-family homes and apartment buildings. The advent of globalisation and accessibility to foreign materials coupled with the desire to adopt the West’s architectural style, which seemed synonymous with modernity and progress, contributed significantly to the erasure of using local materials in construction. The Nigerian architectural scene chased the prestige associated with foreign materials and construction methods as they were considered superior to ours.
The economic policies did not favour indigenous materials either. The policies put in place by the post-colonial government favoured industrialisation and urbanisation which according to them, large-scale construction projects could only be supported by foreign materials. The Nigerian economy soon came to be reliant on the construction industry which then drove the demand for the importation of foreign materials.
Planning authorities and building regulations insisted on the use of these foreign materials and technology as conditions for granting approvals. More so, the use of local building materials has now been likened to lack, inferiority, or outright impoverishment.
The elimination of the use of local materials has constituted the erosion of cultural identity and heritage. The planning policies and the high cost of imported materials have made housing less affordable for low-income earners, a fact bolstered by Udoudoh (2021), who stated that the policies which do not consider affordability criteria and an option of using local building materials have tactically schemed out the low income and poor from housing ownership in Nigeria.
Ugochukwu and Chioma (2015) stated that Africa’s traditional architecture made certain that its use of the resources neither diminished their availability nor adversely affected the ecological balance upon which it relied as an agrarian society, while in contrast, the reliance on the imported materials poses environmental consequences as these materials usually require a copious amount of energy for production and transportation.
Summary of the Socio-Cultural Shift
Despite these challenges, scholars and experts have proposed numerous ways to mitigate the negative effects of the socio-cultural shift in the Nigerian architectural scene. Udoudoh (2021) stated that the re-invention should not be on mass production of local building materials alone, but also on construction technique and development of a sustainable maintenance culture.
The socio-cultural shift in Nigeria can be marked by the transition from indigenous architecture to the hybridisation of styles, rapid obliteration of the use of local materials and its trickled effects in the economic and societal fabric.
Works Cited:
Iwuagwu, U.B. and Iwuagwu, C.B., 2015. Local building materials: Affordable strategy for housing the urban poor in Nigeria. International Conference on Sustainable Design, Engineering and Construction, 118(Procedia Engineering), pp.42-49. Accessed 29 June 2024.
Udoudoh, F. and Bassey, L.E., 2021. Traditional building materials in housing construction: Usage and maintenance strategy. Traditional Building Materials in Housing Construction, X(IV), pp.1-20. Available at: https://pmworldlibrary.net/. Accessed 29 June 2024.
