EVALUATION OF RESIDENTIAL-BASED ARCHITECTURAL FIRM FACILITIES TOWARDS REDESIGNING: A CASE STUDY OF SOUTH WEST NIGERIA

Abstract

The issue of home-based offices in architectural practices has become a new trend in Nigeria. Unfortunately, most of the residences available for such practices are not purpose-built. This development opened up new challenges to the personal and professional lives of Architects. The study thus assessed the facilities currently available for use to serve both the home and office with a view to evolving a purpose-built building facility for the home-office architectural practice. Cross-sectional survey design was adopted. Purposive sampling method was used to select the 6 capital cities in South-West Nigeria due to concentration of architectural firms there. Additionally, snow-ball approach was employed to identify 72 Architects and 78 intending Architects in the 65 practicing firms. Results revealed that 62% operated out of private homes built exclusively for dwelling with 40% being detached bungalow house types with the highest room numbers, 47% being within 5 to 6 rooms while 40% served primarily as architectural firms. 57% of members of staff would prefer to stay for work overnight, while 43% currently do not. There are different forms of offices based on preference and include; the home offices, the virtual offices, co-working spaces, rental offices and leased offices. The study also gathered that though the residential facilities available for use were good enough, they were not adequate for professional practice. The study concluded that there is need for proper functional space planning to facilitate bonds and enhance effectiveness in the practice.