The Nigerian Building and Roads Research Institute (NBRRI) has conducted research into ways of building decent affordable housing in the midst of the country’s slums.
Nigeria’s Guardian newspaper reports that studies in the states of Abuja, Nasarawa, Niger and Plateau have been completed.
Local materials such as "glue laminated bamboo panels processed from waste scaffolds" were tested, according to Danladi Matawal, the NBRRI’s director-general.
Matawal said: "The built environment could catalyse opportunities for a wide range of global and local challenges such as climate change, land-use, demographic shift, water and other resource scarcities."
Elsewhere in the country, the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing has created a national building code designed to improve safety on sites.
According to the African Review of Business and Technology, the building code will increase the standard of education and regulate activity for the Architect Registration Council of Nigeria.
The revised code has been introduced in response to fatalities caused by faulty construction planning.
Image: The Makoko slum in Lagos (Wikimedia Commons/Kaizenify)
