ABSTRACT
Historically, culture has been identified with the creation of „civilized state? and social cultivation that is the progressive refinement of social behaviour, life style and living spaces which in turn has an effect on the architecture of a place. Culture and recreation can be seen as a relationship which creates opportunities for people with different cultural background.However, Design increasingly struggles for a clear sense of definition which leaves one asking what culture really means today if it?s no longer tied to our lifestyle. Furthermore, in the loss of our identity we reveal our lack of well-being that we are in need of more informed cultural identity to counteract the confused nature urban context.In the expression of cultural characteristics in the design of recreation centres, case studies have shown that Ilorin has a diverse indigenous cultural groups that most researchers and designers have not been able to communicate well in design to boost communal interest. However, this thesis aims at exploring cultural characteristics of Ilorin for the design of an urban recreation centre. Furthermore, a well-planned recreation centre can provide enticements to support the local people?s traditional customs and values, protect and respect sacred sites, and also enhance legitimacy of traditional knowledge. The study employed a quantitative research method. Three cases were selected namely; Jhalobia Recreation Parks and Gardens, Lagos, Magicland Amusement Park, Abuja, and Yankari Game Reserve, Bauchi through purposive sampling based on the typology and the application of cultural characteristics of place. The case studies were analysed through visual data, observational data and interview data. However, from the three cases studied, it was observed that Yankari Games Reserve has the largest number of recreational facilities and has applied a great deal of cultural characteristics in its design, followed by Jhalobia Recreation Parks and Gardens which considered more of cultural vi characteristics of place than recreational facilities. Magicland applied the least cultural characteristics of place but had more recreation facilities. Furthermore, other elements like landscaping,local architecture, monuments, special places and art display, site planning and organisation were observed to be of significance to a culturally-oriented Urban Recreation Centre design. This implies that the recreation centres need to incorporate more facilities that would make the centre more diverse and enjoyable to the users and alsohave a positive impacton tourism development.However, architects, also have to continually work towards providing a hospitable cultural environment for the guests of these parks and recreation centres of this kind. This might enable architects find sustainable solutions to problems of mass tourism.