CLIMATE, WEATHER AND BUILDING COLLAPSE

ABSTRACT

Climate change has become a reality and so has building collapse. Global Reports have already shown serious changes in rainfall volume and timing resulting in heavier floods or in other situations more intense temperature waves.  The science that deals with understanding and employing ethical processes in our daily activities in order to mitigate the negative effects of climate change caused by man's activities is referred to as Green Building or sustainable development. It is sometimes also called sustainable building/design. The idea of sustainable comes in three forms; Environmental sustainability, Economic/ Financial/cost sustainability and Social sustainability i.e. User friendliness/comfort/ health. The challenge of building collapse in  Nigeria is clearly an issue that traverses these three aspects.  This paper examines the occurrence of building collapse in Nigeria from the consultant's view point with a view to highlight the importance of adopting green building practices by Architectural Consultants as the leaders of the building team. Documented cases of building collapse in Nigeria within the past decade are reviewed, the stated causes are highlighted. Furthermore, industry bespoke practises on building collapse mitigation across the globe are studied. These include specifically America, Europe and Asia. A comparative analysis of the sustainable approaches adopted in these climes is drawn. In conclusion, it is recommended that the Nigerian Architect must imbibe these methods to see a future with less or absolutely no cases of building collapse. Keywords: climate change, building collapse, sustainable design, professional ethics, consultants' responsibilities.

KEEP WORKING EVEN WHEN YOU HAVE EMPLOYEES

LAW: Excerpt from the book
48 Laws Of Architectural Consulting

KEEP WORKING EVEN WHEN YOU HAVE EMPLOYEES

Don’t hire staff to replace you, hire people to help you keep being great at what YOU do.

As is very common with every business owner or professional practitioner, the moment they find someone who can stand in for them at work, they become lazy and start skipping their own CEO duties. The tendency to become slack with tasks that they ordinarily would have attended to keenly sets in and this is a natural human feeling often fueled by the belief that they (employees) are being paid to do ‘the work’ therefore we don’t have to do anything, any more.

DIGITAL SCHOOL MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS - For Emerging Africa

Use of digital tools such as websites, portals, apps, etc to facilitate school management and administration is increasingly being embraced in Africa. What is already common place in Europe and America seems to just be picking momentum in these parts due to obvious social and economic reasons. The advancements in information technology affecting several walks of life has always been pioneered by the western civilizations leaving us in Africa playing catch-up; a game which we seem to be very good at. As heavy consumers of information technology products, consistently developed by others, the gap in technology naturally positions Africa as a huge market for such technological products.

JUST3DIT - NIGERIA'S #1 SPEEDO 3D ENGINE - A Review

Just3dit.com.ng is an innovative platform where Architects and Builders are allowed to order a very speedy rendering of their on-going projects after signing up with their basic information. The idea of such a platform is to challenge the time factor attributed with production of Architectural three dimensional views to its barest possible - 24 hours. 

One can initiate such order from a personalized dashboard by uploading floorplans of the work in any format available. The accepted file types include .dwg, (preferred) .rvt, .skp, .jpg .png .pln After uploading the floorplan the customer is prompted to make an advance payment after receiving a quote. On receipt of the payment, the model is generated within 12 hours and submitted to the customer for his review and approval before rendering which is the final step. The excellent shot 3D views are generally ready in less than 24 hours of receipt of payment.

AN EVALUATION OF BUILDING HEIGHT EFFECTS ON THERMAL COMFORT IN HIGH-RISE OFFICE BUILDINGS IN THE TROPICAL ENVIRONMENT

PROPOSED TITLE OF THESIS                                          An Evaluation Of Building Height Effects On Thermal Comfort in High-rise Office Buildings in the Tropical Environment

SYNOPSIS

INTRODUCTION

Nigeria as a developing economy situated in the tropical climate zone is faced with a number of economic and environmental challenges when it comes to the development of her housing sector. High-rise buildings provide a borrowed but welcome solution to some of these challenges but however must be adapted to suit our own climate and weather conditions. The problem this study is concerned with solving is that of thermal discomfort experienced in high-rise office buildings in the hot humid tropical environment mostly due to arbitrary transfer of western Architectural styles. This study aims to evaluate the possible influence of increase in building height on indoor thermal comfort in high-rise office buildings in the study area with a view to understand the behaviour of high-rise buildings in our climate and thus provide guidelines for the future design of such buildings in the tropical area. The research gap this study intends to fill is easily observed in the plethora of literature from research works addressing related issues like thermal comfort in low-rise office and residential buildings, building height effects on outdoor thermal comfort of a city, but none has actually addressed the possible effects of increase in building height on indoor thermal comfort in high-rise office buildings within the tropical environment. The objectives to aid the achievement of the aim above include: Survey of existing high-rise office buildings in the study area and their constructed heights, empirical assessment of indoor thermal comfort in the sample high-rise buildings at different floor levels during working hours, qualitative assessment of indoor thermal comfort in the sample high rise buildings at different floor levels during working hours, use of statistical analysis tools to compare results from the empirical and qualitative assessments and statistical analysis of experimental results to establish significant relationship(s) between building height and indoor thermal comfort (if any).