Assessment of the Sustainability of Public Housing Projects in Ogun State, Nigeria: A Post Occupancy Evaluation Approach

As the emphasis on sustainability increases among architects and construction professionals, the various ways for achieving sustainability in physical development projects have continued to engage the attention of scholars and researchers across the globe. However, in the context of housing in a developing country like Nigeria, there is a paucity of empirical studies on the sustainability of public housing projects. Therefore, this study aimed at identifying and analyzing the sustainability features of public housing projects in urban areas of Ogun State, Nigeria. A survey of 517 residents in nine public housing estates was conducted between December 2009 and February 2010 in the study area. With the aid of structured questionnaire, interview guide and observation schedule; data were collected and analyzed using descriptive statistics and content analyses. Findings show that public housing projects in the study area were evaluated to be sustainable in terms of affordability and building forms responding to site and climatic conditions. The projects were however found to be unsustainable in the use of asbestos-based materials, inadequate provision of domestic spaces and lack of basic social infrastructural facilities. The paper concludes that to achieve sustainability in public housing in Nigeria, there is a need for public housing developers to pay adequate attention to users’ domestic space and basic social infrastructural facilities need in the design, construction and management of housing project