Architect Canvasses Housing Sector Reforms

An architect in Port
Harcourt, Leonard Ibe has urged professionals in the housing sector, particularly architects, to evolve designs that will bring about revolution in the sector such that will give every household the desired comfort.
He said that time has come when an average Nigerian household should have the basic and necessary comfort and facilities required in a home, whether on a rented  apartment or owner-occupier.
Ibe who was speaking in a chat with The Tide in Port Harcourt while reacting to the level of housing development in Port Harcourt, and in Nigeria at large, explained that the present designs being used for low-cost housing does not provide the ideal comfort of the new millennium.
He said that the present system of housing design has created room for the over crowding of the environment, especially in the development of low-cost houses.
According to him, new designs should come on board where a family of four will occupy a plot of land so that basic provisions like play ground and packing lots among others, can be provided in addition to the bedrooms.
Ibe said “time has come when building professionals will begin to think deep on how to improve on their duties in order to give maximum satisfaction to the people, through strategic designs, even with the mixed land space, like what obtains in developed nations.”
He said that efforts and energies should also be directed on the use of local materials in housing constructions, pointing out that the use of local materials will reduce the cost of the development.
The architect also urged governments at all levels to accept and adopt this use of local materials and new designs that will maximise satisfaction with reduced cost.

Corlins Walter