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US-BASED FIRM TO STAKE N22.62 IN NIGERIA'S REAL ESTATE MARKET

Pleased to learn about this. Was actually planning a satellite township for Abuja, and was contemplating going high rise, and the effects it will have on the local skyline and vernacular Architecture, I was beginning to settle for a predominantly Low-rise dwelling, But after learning about this proposal, am happy some other people are finally thinking in same line with me. Now I have an accomplice (so to say) I just might go ahead and pierce the relatively virgin sky-anyway!!!

Read more:
US-based firm to stake N22.62bn in Nigeria’s real estate market

MAKING OF A MODEL SATELLITE TOWN FOR ABUJA( a peek at the drawing board)


Yes..I know,
What is he thinking posting such a tiny image, are we supposed to use some binoculars for viewing this?
But you neednt worry, this is just a peek, like we called it, right?
I would be providing you the full resolution images once am done planning. meanwhile et this suffice as a 'PEEK' into my drawing board.( or more of Planning Board).

So Far..
  • Introduction to the concept of Satellite Towns
  • Historical development of Towns and Urban design
  • The city of Abuja, Historical Background
  • The need for a satellite town in Abuja
  • Population, Density and Land use Projections
  • Case-studies (5)
  • Site Selection and Analysis 

UP NEXT..
Planning /conceptual drawings for the new town model...so help me God!!!
(Yes I believe in God.How else could I finish all these and remain sane?)

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY

..to all those truly loving hearts,to all those commited and faithful hommies,
to all those lovely ladies who truly deserve our care..and to all the beautiful and handsome young fellows who are better off alone..
and to all d cheating partners,its never too late to treat him/her better.
 
Also wishing all the team at Cadrightgroup India and Nigeria as well,
the entire staff at Geometrix Consultants and Builders ltd. Abuja,
The homely people at Great marks Nigeria ltd.,Awka,
and all the students and Staff of SRM University, School Of Architecture and Interior Design, Chennai, 

........ I WISH U ALL A HAPPY VALENTINES DAY...........

MAKING OF A MODEL SATELLITE TOWN FOR ABUJA (first review)


SRM UNIVERSITY,SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE

I just came back from a rather long walk. It hadn't been long I woke up from a nearly 8 hours day-sleep. Pretty un-like me, but the reason is simple, I was tired from the more than two- hours- per- student design review today.


It was the first, for this Dissertation, and it was in many ways like the very first Review I had in India. I had taken  gray-scale, A-1 printouts and I had under-estimated the requirements.

Detailing; in the sense of data, facts and figures. I had a pretty superficial database, which told nothing in depth other than the obvious and very basic observations.

for example when I said that the Chengdu-Tianfu District Great city, had a total acreage of 800Acr but had only used 320 for urbanized development, that was an observation, but I could have gone the next step to draw an inference which would arrive at the fact that the 320 Acres represented about 40% of the total land size.
the visiting guide, a young man, just newly  married, and a former student of the school, was more concerned with the why behind every stroke of the pencil.Other than this, my process had been logically developed, I was on the right track,.
I have to do some more in-depth study on existing conditions in order to justify the study as well as enrich it.

MAKING OF A MODEL SATELLITE TOWN FOR ABUJA, (FIRST DESIGN REVIEW)

SRM UNIVERSITY,SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE

I just came back from a rather long walk. It hadn't been long I woke up from a nearly 8 hours day-sleep. Pretty un-like me, but the reason is simple, I was tired from the more than two- hours- per- student design review today.


It was the first, for this Dissertation, and it was in many ways like the very first Review I had in India. I had taken  gray-scale, A-1 printouts and I had under-estimated the requirements.

Detailing; in the sense of data, facts and figures. I had a pretty superficial database, which told nothing in depth other than the obvious and very basic observations.

for example when i said that the Chengdu Tianfu District Great city, had a total acreage of 800Acr but had only used 320 for urbanized development, that was an observation, but I could have gone the next step to draw an inference which would arrive at the fact that the 320 Acres represented about 40% of the total land size.
Other than this, my process had been logically developed and I was

SRM UNIVERSITY,SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE


MAKING OF A MODEL SATELLITE TOWN FOR ABUJA(STAGE 1)

So having said that, lets take a look at the progress so far. Just as i recommended in my book(LEARNING TO BE AN ARCHITECT) I've been reading and searching deep to get a firm gasp of what is required in a satellite town as well as to justify the need for it in Abuja.
A lot of documents on the internet have given various enlightening meanings for the term as an English phrase as well as an element of urban design.

But here's my own simple definition;

a satellite town is a smaller community mostly consequential but sometimes planned, mostly residential but sometimes lightly commercial too, located close to a larger metropolis connected via available transport channel and which may or may not contribute to the economic viability of the bigger city but largely solves the problem of its urbanization.

I have also aswered a number of important questions such as, what are the xtics of a satellite town, what is the origin of satellite towns, why do we need a satellite town in abuja, what has the government to say about this need, what sustainable approaches could be implemented, and of course what are the town planning standards for allocation of amenities in an urban area?
In this light, I have studied three satellite towns ; satellite town Lagos, Nigeria, Gurgaon, India and Chengdu Tianfu, China. Of the three the most remarkable one has been that of china's Chengdu and that is the one I have shared here.





image: The satellite city chengdu tianfu, Chian. excerpts from my Research work.(go here to read more about the design.)



The concept is absolutely sustainable and is hopefully going to inspire my own design to a great extent. Some of the salient features of this modern self-sustaining town include;

· It has a well designed cultural and performance center
· pedestrian-ism is greatly encouraged: one can walk from any part of the city edge to the centre in less  than 15minutes
· 48% less energy and 58% less water. 
· 89% less landfill waste
· Generate 60% less carbon dioxide.
· commercial,Residential,Office,Light manufacturing & a medical campus are included in the town making it easier to live and work there,
· ECO-PARKS


Next I have to carry out a site suitability analysis. This would involve identifying potential sites for the proposed town, and will culminate in selection of the most viable one.

THE MAKING OF A MODEL SATELLITE TOWN FOR ABUJA NIGERIA (intro)

OK..so am just a semester away from a masters degree, with my Thesis being the only separation. The journey which started some 18 months back somewhere in the south of Conservative India, was about to end. my academic performance so far has been wonderful; with a cgpa of 8.5/10, it has really been a swell outing.
but you know what they say, that the end is always the hardest part of any task, seems to be quite true in this case with the planning of a satellite town for Africa's fastest growing city, Abuja.


For a start, I think its important to mention that I didn't choose anything on this level,myself, in fact  the first synopsis i submitted was a proposal for an intercontinental restaurant, a hotel or a ...i cant remember the third,but you get the level.I just wanted something i could finish off easily because i was  writing my first book  and was also working at the time.
It certainly didn't get approved, when dean Thirumeni asked me to consider transit-oriented developments, I was excited though but never imagined it on a Town scale, which brings us back to HOW I MADE IT?

SRM UNIVERSITY CHENNAI, INDIA

         ...an African's narration.

Now with just few months left before completion of  my M.Arch program, one cant resist the nostalgic feeling of the year 2011. A blessed year as it was, hopes were high, ambitions were soaring in the heights, we had just arrived  "Incredible-India".

Chennai was at its best, that Thursday morning, as we made it through the arrival gates just into Indian soil, what the locals must have thought to be a bunch of African  teenage tourists were just about to experience a whole new adventure. The early morning sunrise, described the horizon, clear and hot, it  dictated where we could stand and where we couldn't- the hot summer sun, was at its job already. we soon learnt the sweaters we came with weren't going to be used much-at least not till December or so.

Some had five,four or three years course duration  mine was only two. it was a postgraduate program in Architecture,PG as its commonly known here. after we were escorted to abode valley, it took a week or two for some before we settled in properly. all expenses were of course taken care by the  generous watchman catholic charismatic renewal movement,. we lacked nothing. everything was provided, and in exquisite style.

...the environment
it took another month before we resumed classes in earnest which meant we had ample time to tour the school and familiarize with the "environment". the environment yes, that's true, the air smelled 'foul' ..it must have been the food. or was it the dung from the hefty cows freely roaming the streets with no owners?
I found the vicinity of Potheri awfully disgusting, I could hardly imagine I was abroad.

...and the food?
well after that ugly incident on the plane, I was naturally reluctant to taste anything else. for the first few weeks we were consistently hosted by the other Nigerians, who came the previous year. they gave us what tasted like Nigerian food but smelled like Indian food, paradox?...yea it still is.

then there was the jet lag...
for months and months, we found that the change in time zone was not well received by our bodies. we could hardly get up in the morning, neither could we sleep at night. our body system was obviously still operating with the Nigerian time zone.
though eventually as nature and biology would provide, the body, adjusted, the olfactory nerves accustomed, the taste buds, had no choice.we got to living!

...then college resumed
my first official day at the school of architecture and interior design, was a good one. a small class of 8 seemed boring, at first, but then the relaxed PG curriculum made up for it. we eagerly attended all lectures, we met the staff and students, it was great. the syllabus allowed for half day lectures, staff - student time fixing, we had nothing to complain for, except to do the work.
with the airport project, the skyscraper project and the group work urban design projects, my first second and third semesters were officially concluded. It was then time for the finishing- the M.Arch Dissertation...a satellite town project.

the language..
oh yes, that.
well it was an experience. the first few weeks for us were, horrible really. we had to figure out what each and every gesture implied. sometimes we guessed correctly,most times we didn't.  The medium of instruction was English, but every now and then, a native would ask a question in class and the teacher would casually veer off explaining in local language. when she finally came back to English, the intonation was quite a chase.
but didn't that add to the excitement, new languages, new people, new environment, new air new food, everything was just new, you had a chance to discover who you really are.


and the girls?...what about the girls?
uuhhhhhnn..well not far from the movies. there were the beautiful, the fat, the spoilt, ice cream type, the smart and intelligent and  finally the local house-wives. I didn't have much to do with them except for a few friends of friends who I met at parties or in town somewhere. most of my time was otherwise spent with fellow Africans.

Social Life?
well i would say immediately that the definition of that phrase, differed sharply between the two continents. I got to learn that words which were passively thrown around in Nigeria, drew a lot of fuss when used here. Men swam separately from women and children, adults males and females sat separately in the bus, and even a wink of the eye or a handshake meant a lot. welcome to conservative Asia!!!


But the economy, the living?

well yes..life was a bit easier for me, because i didn't have to work and school,or rather I couldn't  at least not in the first year, so to say, all support came from Home. But the living was quite affordable to speak the truth. You could make through the week with just Rs. 500 (N 1,500)  bucks. try that in Nigeria.
the tuition fees were affordable too, relatively cheaper compared to the western world but academic methods just slightly better than Africa.-(my opinion)

3D-tutorial HUNT

bumped into a great software today(BLENDER)...wonderful ambient occlusion and rendering time,..and its open source!!!


Green Building-Issue of Energy Rating



Today around the world architects and developers have become more discrete with energy issues.  the reason for this is simple, we are using more energy than we are able to regenerate and this is known through actual life cycle analysis of buildings which is where energy rating systems come in.

you can find my short presentation on Energy rating systems for green buildings at the link below:

Again please always remember to give credits for any referenced work, in order to encourage authors and researchers who actually take the pains to bring us knowledge. I hope this would be of help to you!

Geographic Information system..a term paper


If you are Interested in the field of geographic information system (GIS) , then you would  like my paper on Applications of GIS in Infrastructural Development, with spot light on Transportation sector. It discusses the relevance of GIS in today's metropolitan traffic management.
its available for download at scribd.com. it is totally free but it would be wise to give credits where necessary.
 I hope it would be of help to you!

find it here:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/67774780/Applications-of-GIS-in-Infrastructure-Assesment-and-Development-TRANSPORTATION

Get inspired by what other people are doing>>

This animated walkthrough was started in Revit Architecture and completed with Lumion 3D which is a wonderful tool for rendering realistic and time efficient 3D views. The video editing was done in windows movie maker.
I would be explaining in detail in subsequent blogs, the steps taken to achieve this. it is only a quick one day work and not at all a finished presentation.I hope it inspires you to do better!

learn 3d visualisation with ease.

invest personal resources to become cadd proficient