A FUSION OF NIGERIA’S REGIONAL ARCHITECTURAL STYLES IN THE DESIGN OF PROPOSED NATIONAL ARTS AND HISTORY MUSEUM

(A CASE STUDY OF ABUJA)

By

Author

Presented To

Department of Environmental Design

ABSTRACT
Several researches have been done to ascertain the impact or influence of Euro-American architectural style to third world countries, especially within Africa. This thesis argues that the architecture of Nigeria as obviously distinct between her 3 major geo-political zones; Hausa land, Igbo land and Yoruba land, also referred to as Regionalism existent within each zone, bear common features in terms of both sense of space as well as sense of place as obvious in their planning concept and or building form, which provides a centre for fusion to obtain a unique style that cuts across all three regions with intrinsic identity. Given the odds of such a fusion it is suggested under the aegis of Deconstructivism, an architectural philosophy concerned with abstraction and fragmentation of constructs towards the evolution of new forms of existence of same. The data for this research was gathered both from literature on the architectural history of Nigeria from the Traditional to post-modern era and from field data obtained Museum buildings from each of the three regions studied. Its tool for assessment included a walk-through survey and check list analysis of variables learned from literature, both of which are essential for an Exploratory Qualitative research as this. The research employs the use of both graphs and charts to interpret field data. The result was validated by a focus group analysis involving both student and staff architects of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria to ensure viability. Relevant findings from the study showed that the trio-regions were best fused by Trace philosophy of Deconstructivism in search of a national identity with 30%, 30%, 28.33% attributes for Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba regions respectively and 11.67% undecidables. Its implication to design includes that the new Nigerian archetype among other parameters should centre on local climate sensitivity, use of indigenous building materials and functional consideration in circulation spaces.