EVALUATION OF MANAGEMENT APPROACH TO CONSTRUCTION OF MASS HOUSING

EVALUATION OF MANAGEMENT APPROACH TO CONSTRUCTION OF MASS HOUSING

CHAPTER ONE

1.0   INTRODUCTION

Adequate provision of  housing is an important index for measuring housing standard  among nations. It is difficult to talk about the success of a nation, or a society within a nation without analyzing its housing situation.

Housing provides a link between the physical development of a city, and its social and economics outcomes. The availability of decent housing for each family defines the level of development which the country has reached. This is because the social and economic wealth of a country can only co-exist with good housing .

Housing is not concerned with the design of a specific housing unit, It is concerned with the design of a whole housing environment which includes accommodations, jobs ,educations ,health service, etc., in a context which is accessible , safe, hygienic, aesthetically pleasing and also sustainable.

Mass Housing is a term most people use to describe a cluster of high rise ,low cost residential buildings. This is usually not always the case . Mass housing is the construction of springing up of a relatively high number of residential buildings in an area in a relatively high number of residential buildings in an area in a relatively short period of time due to high demand.

One of the notable periods which brought about the idea of mass housing and also came along with numerous housing problems was the industrial revaluation.

It was called a revolution because it changed the society in a rapid and significant way. It brought about capitalism and also created a shift from the agricultural society to modern industrial societies. Due to this introduction of capitalism and the movement of goods productions from houses to factories, people migrated from these rural areas of agricultural to cities in search of new jobs, so as to earn a wage or salary . With time urbanization increased rapidly, and led to a significant rapid increase in population in the industrial cities. Because of this rapid increase in population, more and more housing had to be provided for the labor force. This scarcity of housing led to the construction of mass housing , which had poor living conditions and were characterized as unhygienic, overcrowded and also lacked infrastructure and social amenities.

The world War is another event in history  which affected the provision and construction of housing. After the war, there was a critical high demand of housing, because of the numbers of houses damaged or destroyed by enemy attacks, and also in cities which still stood but had a high number of immigrants in search of shelters. Large numbers of houses where to be built quickly and economically.

The ideas was to design houses that could be mass produced and prefabricated.

Another event that has brought about a change in the housing and is present to date is globalization ,post communism which increased  immigration to developed countries from other countries and privatization.

Mass housing would come to be an important and essential development in most developing countries because of the amount of people moving from rural parts of the country to the urbanized and developing part.

The lack and deterioration of housing environments pose some of the greatest practical and ethical problems which were faced by some developed countries and developing countries.

Another contemporary issue regarding housing is  sustainability and sustainable housing. This is because sustainability refers to the ability of the natural environment to accommodate human activities, most especially those involving long term economic development; and because housing provides a link between the physical development of a city, Which has to do with the environment ,and also its social and economics outcomes, it is in a position of showing the way a more sustainable development.

Nigeria as a developing country, with 36 states, is undergoing a fast process  of urbanization. it is a country blessed with agriculture and crude oil. its major source of income and revenue was from agriculture produce but after the oil boom in the 1970s, Nigeria started shifting its concentration from agriculture to crude oil and of  2007 was the 15th largest producer of petroleum in the world.

Also it has one of the fastest growing telecommunication markets in the world, and is also developing vastly in information technology. Due to these diversion from agriculture ,and a vast development in the urban areas, high populations of people migrate from rural to urban areas in search of jobs to earn a higher salary and a means of living. This migration means an increase in the demand of housing in these urban areas.

Mass Housing is a solution which Nigeria and most developing countries take up as a solution to their housing problems, but in most of these mass housing environments, neither the demand of the households and need of space, or the cultural factors are usually considered during the design process. This coupled with other factors which not only affect the mass housing environments, but also it affect the housing of the country in a whole, in one way or the other.

Some  thirty years ago, the government moved the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria from Lagos to the inner part of the country towards the center, and the city of Abuja was founded. As the new Federal capital Territory of Nigeria ,Abuja is a city where urbanization and development in terms of commercial, residential, industrial, social and political growth has been in progress and is still taking place.

Today it is a city of grand avenues and huge complex ,which house government offices.

The  population of Abuja has increased tremendously and still on the production of housing and its demand. It is a lovely city, but it is also a city which is too costly for most of the people  who work in the government  and service industries to afford, and as such like so many other cities in the developing world , it is surrounded by vast neighborhoods of poverty, satellite towns, slums, informal settlements and different mass housing schemes.

The provision of this mass housing in Abuja by the government is an answer to providing shelter for people, but in most cases, these developments comes with negative  physical socio-cultural and economical effects on the overall city.

Also, the part  of Nigeria which was selected and demarcated to be made the Federal Capital Territory of the country was already inhabited by the Gbagy people, who are the original settlers. Because of this, the settlers had to displaced from their place of origin. The Federal government after this, constructed different mass housing developments in various parts of Abuja for this original settlers to be relocated and re-settled.

This was another development , in which neither the socio-cultural factor nor the need of space were considered.

From the present situation of mass housing environments in Abuja ,it seems the mass housing development are showing unsustainable characteristics.

Thus this research is based on Evaluation of Management approach to construction of mass housing Nigeria, by revealing some selected management system to construction of mass housing and also review the concept behind Mass Housing Development.

1.1   AIM

The Aim of this Research is to assess the methods by which mass housing development  can be achieved.

1.2   OBJECTIVES

I.       To Review some selected management system for mass housing development.

II.     T o Review  some concept of mass housing development.

III.   To analyze some challenges, and possibly solutions to  mass housing delivery.

1.3   scope

This study is scoped by Mass housing delivery and the concept of housing development and their approach of management.

1.4    METHODOLOGY

Information and Data’s used for this work was obtain from various forms and source, were textbook ,sites visits, magazine, articles, and administration of questionnaires and interviews with practicing professionals in the Mass housing and Real estate development firms was observed.