Investigating potential green materials to improve cost effectiveness for low-cost building construction in Nigeria

Abstract

Developing countries are facing greater and pressing challenges to provide adequate shelters. Nigeria is presently facing a shortage of about 17 to 20 million housing deficit. The aspiration of owning a house by the low income and middle-income families is becoming a difficult reality and need an innovative solution. Thus, it has become necessary to adopt cost-effective, innovative and environment-friendly housing technologies for the construction of houses and buildings for enabling the common people to construct houses at affordable cost. Therefore the study reviews and analyze potentials green materials such as earth bricks, bamboo, timber, stone walls, and thatches suitable for low-cost building constructions. This result reveals that about 16.67% to 67.99% of the construction materials can be saved by using innovative green materials such as adobe bricks and bamboo respectively. It can be concluded that green materials are cost-effective and sustainable for low-cost building construction.