Development of Traditional Archirecture in Nigeria: A case study of Hausa Form

Abstract

Traditional buildings across Nigeria’s geographical zones are known to have demonstrated a thorough response to the climate, local technology and socio-economic milieu in which they evolved. The origin of these different traditional building body associates with the natural materials availability to the local builders as well as religious belief, cultural and taboos. The advent of colonialism in Nigeria changed the traditional life and culture of Nigerian which creates a weak connection between traditional architecture and contemporary architecture in Nigeria. Most recent buildings designs across Hausa regions in Nigeria have been built with imported materials and the construction techniques tailored to satisfy the modernity self-ego and aspirations. Thus, traditional architecture ought not to be abandoned and forgotten, hence; experts’ awareness should be tailored to the understanding of its original essence. This paper through intensive literature review of documents, journals, books, periodical, seminar papers amongst others critically explore the key importance relating to the development of Hausa traditional architecture. In addition, paper identifies the “determinant” and “moderating” factors as main issues that contributed to the development of Hausa traditional architecture, in cognizance of local materials, method of construction, methods layout, social, cultural factors, and environmental factors amongst others. The enumerated factors dominate the colonial periods and the subsequent traditional forms development. Thus, the paper concludes that despite the impact of modernization in terms of styles, materials, and method of construction in recent times, the professionals, designers and the researchers should be cognizance of the social- cultural and religious beliefs of clients/users. It is recommended that, for functional architectural forms, efforts should be geared towards harmonizing the traditional and modern contemporary designs concepts. KEYWORDS: Hausa, Traditional Architecture, Determinant Factors, Moderating Factors,