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Real Estate Today
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net
Adopting alternative building technology to reduce housing deficit A
nywhere in the world where housing needs of the populace have been largely met, it has been through the use of alternative building technologies in large housing projects. In Sub-Saharan Africa, South Africa has been in the forefront of employing new technologies in the development of low income housing. With Nigeria’s housing deficit of over 16 million according to United Nation’s statistics, population growth rate of 2.5 per cent, urbanisation at 3.8 per cent coupled with high rate of environmental degradation and escalating cost of conventional materials for construction, many experts have suggested the use of alternative building materials such as modular system building and Moladi form wall to enhance mass housing. Private organisations such as Royal Sanderton Limited and Moladi Nigeria Limited recently introduced these new technologies, enjoining government to adopt them for mass housing production. To demonstrate its usability, Royal Sanderton have constructed two housing estates in Lagos namely: Royal Garden at Surulere and Royal Estate at Alausa, Ikeja with the building system. Also, Moladi Limited came for a demonstration in Abuja and Lagos two years ago, begging government to adopt the new technology. Although, the two firms emphasised that unless government embarks on large-scale housing production, the units may not be affordable. Also, Bolyn Nigeria Limited, a manufacturer of machine for the moulding of clay bricks for housing production, says the only way to reduce the nation’s housing deficit is by embrace the use of locally made material like clay bricks. Despite these opportunities, nothing much has been achieved by government as the nation’s housing gap continue to increase. A visit to the Nigeria Building and Road Research Institute (NBRRI ), by National Mirror in the quest to know the agency’s readiness in the area of research to help in the crusade for mass and affordable houses showed that the organisation has come up with some locally made machines for mass production of clay brick and interlocking bricks for housing production. Further investigation and interviews with stakeholders showed that the cost of the machines were on the high side at N4million per one. However, a modular home is a house built in one or more sections in a factory, then transported and installed on a permanent foundation at the home site. Modular homes are designed and constructed to meet all state or national building codes of home’s final location Once the main modules of the new home are constructed in the factory, complete with attached walls, floor, ceiling, wiring, plumbing and interior fixtures, they are transported to home site and placed on a permanent foundation by a crane. Modular construction allows for a quick turnaround between groundbreaking and occupancy, and most work is done in the factory, so weather delays, missing materials, and subcontractor no-shows are all but eliminated, saving time and money. It also has the benefits of design flexibility, quality control, energy efficiency and green building On the other hand, Moladi technology is primarily a reuseable machine made formwork system that allows walls to be cast stronger and faster. Its proponent says the principal focus is on the delivery of the “whole house”, saying a house consists of many components and the” assembly process” needs to be project managed in its entirety. That means windows, doors, roof, bath, toilet, paint, ceiling, glass and electrical hardware need to be planned ordered and supplied in order to avoid a “bottle neck” that would delay production leading to high cost. Emerging economies such as China, Brazil, South Africa and Singapore have adopted these technologies to pro-
For Nigeria to bridge the 16 million housing gap, there is need to change from conventional building methods to modern ones that encourage mass housing on a large scale and at cheaper rates. DAYO AYEYEMI, looks at some of these modern building systems and talk to experts on the possibility of adopting them for mass housing delivery.
Royal Sanderton Estate, Alausa
IF GOVERNMENT HAS PATRONISED LOCAL BUILDING MATERIALS BY CONSTRUCTING ITS
ESTATE WITH THEM, MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC WILL BE EN-
COURAGED TO BUILD THEIR
HOUSES WITH THEM, BUT IT IS NOT SO duce high rise buildings on a large scale for their citizens. Popular technologies include:Structural Insulated Panels, Insulated ConcreteForms, Radiant Wall System, TimberFrame, Cob, Stabilised Mud Blocks, Straw-bale,Log, Adobe, Rammed Earth, Plastic Forms and Earth Ships. Speaking with the National Mirror on how best to solve the nation’s housing problem by adopting alternative building system, Managing Director of Wisdom Consult, Mr. Godwin Emeko, described building as an integral system, saying materials are added to complement the its strength when the frame is in place. He said adoption of modern building technologies and materials are not the problems but that there is need to encourage modern research to adopt them locally. He said there is need to prioritise materials that encourage light weight. Chairman of Lagos chapter of the Nigerian Institute of Architects (NIA), Mr. Ladipo Lewis, explained that the use of alternative building materials are widely accepted abroad especially by the private sector. For Nigeria to accept some of these materials, he said the local climatic condition and socio-cultural issues have to be considered. He noted that modular system of building thrived when constructing houses in large scale, where economies of scale will set in. He said, “I think there are opportunities for innovation in building but in practical terms, it has to be addressed in relation to our needs. When you build on a large scale, modular system thrives but if you cannot, it becomes a problem.”
He explained that government alone cannot solve the housing problem, saying there has never been anywhere in the world where government solves citizens’ housing problem. According to him, the only thing government can do is to create an enabling environment and allows the private sector to take the lead in housing provision. “Real estate is driven by developers. Hotels and commercial projects are built by developers; they only need conducive environment and housing units will be cheaper. We don’t have developers thriving in our environment unlike other countries where they thrive because of an enabling environment,” he said. He also bemoaned the operation of the mortgage system in the country, stressing that accessibility to housing in the developed countries has been through a virile mortgage system. Lack of virile mortgage system, he said has been responsible for high cost of houses in the country He said, “Poor mortgage system in the country has been a major reason why new houses are not affordable as people’s purchasing power is low. Low income has limited many people from achieving their dream housing.” In his contribution, Chairman of the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV), Lagos branch, Mr Sola Fatoki, stated that as far as government refuses to lead by example, it would be very difficult to embrace alternative building materials or technologies. “If government has patronised local building materials by constructing its estate with them, members of the public will be encouraged to build their houses with them, but it is not so,” he said. He blamed people’s apathy towards the use of mud for housing construction, saying research had proved that houses built with clay or mud are cheaper, soundproof, durable and have capacity to withstand harsh weather. “But if you build with mud now , people will look at you as a mad man. If you go to Federal Institute of Industrial Research Oshodi (FIIRO),there are some locally made materials and machines that the agency has used to produce prototype buildings for people to see, but government is CONTINUED ON PAGE 24