Awareness level and adoption of modular construction for affordable housing in nigeria: Architects’ perspective

Abstract

Modular construction is a construction method where pre-designed building units are constructed off-site, conveyed to site as components and assembled to form a building or structure. The construction method is adjudged to significantly reduce building time and offers good economic value which are some of its key benefits over traditional construction methods. This study evaluated architects’ awareness level and adoption of modular construction method in Nigeria, in order to ascertain its application level towards providing prompt affordable housing projects delivery in the country. The study is a survey research that engaged a pragmatic research approach. Both qualitative and quantitative inquiry methods were employed to carry out the research. Qualitative inquiry method was employed to gather relevant data used to develop a structured questionnaire that was used to collect quantitative data. The questionnaire was distributed to a hundred architects who were randomly selected from a hundred architectural firms registered to practice in Lagos State, the most populous state in Nigeria. A total of seventy-one participants provided data for the study. The data were analysed with statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) software, version 21. The result depicts that majority (87%) of the respondents are aware of modular construction as an approach used in building construction, but just few (32%) of the respondents have adopted modular construction in the delivery of affordable housing scheme in the study area. In addition, it was found that modular construction for affordable housing projects is mostly adopted for its waste reduction, construction time reduction and cost saving benefits. The study concludes that though architects’ awareness level of modular construction method and its benefits is high in Nigeria, its adoption by the architects for prompt delivery of affordable housing projects in the study area is low. Hence, appropriate measures were recommended to enhance the adoption of modular construction method by architects to combat housing challenges experienced in Nigeria.