Achieving optimal levels of indoor thermal comfort in a warm, humid climate continues to pose a challenge to building occupants in such climatic regions. Buildings are either being retrofitted or designed differently to cater to thermal comfort. As a result, a variety of tactics have been deployed to guarantee optimal thermal comfort for occupants. Some scholars have highlighted the salient contributions of various types of construction materials toward the delivery of different housing types which perform differently under a diverse range of climatic conditions. A plethora of studies suggesting better indoor thermal comfort performance of traditional buildings as compared to contemporary dwellings due to various reasons have been observed. However, limited studies have sought to investigate this suggestion within warm, humid climatic regions. As such, this study engages in an evaluation of indoor thermal comfort qualities of traditional and modern buildings during the dry season with the goal of developing design guidelines for a thermally pleasant environment in a town, Okigwe, which is situated in a warm, humid climatic region in Southeastern Nigeria. Data were collected utilizing a field measurement technique. Throughout the survey period, variables of the indoor environment such as relative humidity and air temperature were recorded concurrently in nine selected buildings, two traditional and seven modern buildings. The fluctuations and differences in relative humidity and air temperature between the two building types were investigated using Z-test statistical techniques. The study’s results revealed that the contemporary structures’ indoor air temperature (29.4 °C) was 0.6 °C higher than traditional buildings’ indoor air temperature (28.8 °C). Therefore, the study recommends that architects and planners should make concerted efforts to integrate methods of passive design into the provision of a comfortable indoor thermal environment rather than relying solely on active design strategies, which whilst lacking in traditional buildings, nonetheless did not prevent such buildings from recording lower air temperature readings compared to modern buildings.
In most developed nations, a formal recycling industry oversees the management of solid waste. The opposite happens to be the case in underdeveloped nations wherein, the informal recycling sector has assumed such functions. The informal methods used in Nigeria for managing buildings' end‐of‐life situations has shown in many ways to be compliant with the sustainability goal since they provide an excellent example of how the waste hierarchy may evolve independently, with little or no assistance from policy and regulatory bodies. The purpose of this study is to conceptualise the processes through which salvaged materials from buildings in Kano State, Nigeria is processed in a step‐by‐step manner, ensuring that least amounts of materials end up in a landfill. Adopting a qualitative research design to achieve the study's aim, this study engaged 19 purposively selected experts through semi‐structured interviews in the city of Kano, Nigeria. The collected data was analysed using thematic analysis. Using the biomorphic adaptation of an African snail's shell, the study's findings led to the development of a conceptual model that depicts the actual scenario of handling demolition waste in Nigeria while highlighting the important elements and the inherent interactions among them. Based on these findings, the study recommends that the identified limitations in the Nigerian construction industry be addressed for the purposes of practice improvement and emergence of a comprehensive framework for the sustainable handling of building demolition waste (BDW).
One of the occupations in the construction sector is quantity surveying (QS). This duty is essential to the accomplishment of a construction project since it decides whether it will be finished on schedule, on budget, and to the requisite standard. The practice has received several criticisms for failing to correctly carry out her duties. Adoption of contemporary technology like Building Information Modeling (BIM) in its practice has become necessary to eliminate mistakes, inaccuracies, and omissions. However, South African QS practitioners face challenges in implementing BIM. Hence, this study seeks to examine these challenges. A survey approach was utilised. Ninety (90) of the one hundred and fifteen (115) questionnaires that were distributed to quantity surveyors in Guateng Province, SA were returned and considered appropriate for analysis Kruskal-Wallis, percentage, mean item score, and standard deviation were used to analyse the collected data. The results indicate that the main obstacles to the adoption of BIM in QS practice are a lack of BIM competence, a lack of government enforcement, opposition to change, and a lack of client demand for BIM. This study therefore suggests that BIM trainings be given top priority and that the government take the initiative in promoting BIM adoption throughout the nation, especially for public projects.
The paper assessed the exhibited drivers of mentoring practices in construction professional firms in Nigeria with a view to improving the manner at which mentoring schemes are implemented in respective construction firms. Survey design was utilized in assessing the level of knowledge, mentoring concept adoption, and the exhibited drivers of mentoring relationships in these firms. Quantity surveying firms in Abuja, Nigeria were sampled through the use of structured questionnaire. Percentage, mean, one-sample t-test, and factor analyses were undertaken for the analysis of the data. The study reveals there is a good level of knowledge of mentoring concept but not so much with the adoption in the individual firms. This connote that there is a problem with the adoption of mentoring concept in construction professional firms despite knowledge of the concept by the professionals. Also, the study revealed the exhibited drivers of mentoring practices in construction professional firms. The findings show the exhibited drivers of mentoring practices in construction professional firms and recommendations were
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