Appropriate green materials for affordable building construction in Nigeria

Abstract

There are severe issues for the deficiency of affordable house for low-income earners in developing countries such as Nigeria. The high cost of conventional materials has been established to be one the major factors that heightened the cost of building in recent times. However the integration of green building materials that are relevant and sustainable for building construction in the present dispensation will provide excellent solutions to overcome high price of construction. The study was carried out on all the available green materials in north-central Nigeria. Surveyed instrument was prepared and distributed to building professional experts that are registered member of various professional bodies in the building sector. Four hundred questionnaires were distributed in the north-central zone. Three hundred five questionnaires that were filled correctly was used for the data analyses. Analysis of moments (AMOS) software through the structural equation model (SEM) was used to analysis and generated a model for the study. The result discloses that earth bricks, stone/rocks, timber, Bamboo, thatches, straw fibre, and rice husk are very relevant green materials that can be used to achieve affordable building construction. Therefore, the use and integration of green materials in building construction will produce low cost housing units.