Residential housing redevelopment and its impact on Asokoro district of Abuja, Nigeria

Abstract

Recently, both Private and Government Developers embarked on drastic redevelopment of residential housing conversion into commercial and public buildings. However, the changes do not take into considerations social, physical and economic factors. The non-compliance with building regulations and enforcement of designated land use has considerably affected the quality of life for the residents. As an Architectural response, this study examines housing redevelopment and its impact on Asokoro District of Abuja, Nigeria. A quantitative method was adopted in this study, using structured close-ended questionnaires as a means of collecting data. A total of 190 questionnaires were distributed to residents. However, only 180 valid responses were ultimately retrieved. Among the variables examined in this study are (i) The main land uses (ii) the extent of conversion of residential housing into commercial buildings (iii) the reason for conversion and (iv) the socio-economic/environmental implication of the conversion in the study area. The findings indicated that people embarked on Housing redevelopment and conversion in order to provide basic commercial amenities that were not provided by Government. The studies concluded by identifying among others the non-approval of redeveloped buildings plan on already approved building plots as this is contravening in the image of the appropriate authorities.