ABSTRACT
Culture is one of the most important aspects of human existence which comprises of all areas of human life, past and present. Culture describes the many ways in which human beings express themselves for the purposes of uniting with others, forming a group, defining an identity, and even for distinguishing themselves as unique. Cultural identity is the process by which social actors build their own meaning according to cultural attributes. The Igbo race from the pre?colonial to the post?colonial period, and from the traditional to contemporary life practices have demonstrated the ability to express cultural identity in the physical as well as spiritual world of the Igbo cultural society. Presently in south eastern Nigeria which is dominated by Igbos, there are certain buildings that house cultural artifacts and historic books but none of them adequately meets the requirement for the expression of Igbo cultural identity. This is as a result of the coming of westernization which to a large extent has altered the character of cultural buildings, hence the character of many cultural buildings appear not to reflect the identity of those whose cultural activities they host. This has led to the loss of sense of value for the endangered cultural heritage and architectural monuments of the Igbo community. This research identified the various key elements of Igbo cultural identity through guided review of the concepts of culture and identity. The research methodology used includes the case study approach and data was collected through visual survey, a checklist and well-structured interview with key custodians of important information regarding this research was carried out. The case study was analysed under the following headings; site planning and landscape, spatial organization, structure and material, expression of Igbo cultural Identity. The research findings were analysed based on the variable highlighted from the literature which were elements of Igbo cultural identity. The results from the viii analysis showed that the four cases studied did not entirely express Igbo cultural identity. Case study one displayed the rich Igbo architectonic, motifs, paintings on the wall and relief sculptors (symbolic images). Case study two and three displayed to some extent the spatial organization of a typical Igbo compound, while case study four had little elements of Igbo arts and craft and planning of the spatial organization were not considered although it had rich arts and crafts relics. In conclusion a design proposal was produced for a contemporary cultural center infusing the various key elements of Igbo cultural identity such as the spatial organization, Igbo arts and crafts, building materials, relief art works.