Ayoola Onajide: An Architect's view on Building Collapse and Flooding in Nigeria.

Preamble: On 1st November 2021, Nigeria witnessed the collapse of a 21-storey luxury development by Fourscore Development in Ikoyi, Lagos. This lecture, originally titled: Building Collapse and Flood Control: Role of the Professionals and the public which was delivered by our Founder, Ayoola Tokunbo Onajide in 2017 at the Nigerian Institute of Architects (NIA) Kaduna State Chapter still holds true.

Building Collapse and Flood Control: Role of the Professionals and the Public

The Chairman Nigerian Institute of Architects Kaduna State Chapter, Fellow Architects, I am most honoured to be asked to speak as a keynote speaker at this event and shall be presenting my paper Building Collapse and Flood Control: The role of the Professionals and the Public.

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As a brief introduction I am the Founding Partner of ATO Architects Limited, a wholly indigenous Architectural practice that was created in December 1987. We have clients that span Government, public quoted companies, multilateral, multinational, diplomatic and private institutions, from parastatals to banks, the Oil industry and individuals. Therefore, our design and management portfolio include multi-storey buildings, airport terminals, housing estates, academic and institutional buildings, schools and universities, masterplans and development plan a company registered in the UK, Nigeria and South Africa and worked on projects all over Nigeria plus the West and southern African coasts.

The topic of the paper is a serious one and must be reviewed in light of current issues in our environment even though, it reminds me of an examination question asked at the NIA examination some thirty-three years ago, and I remember thinking that the role of the Architect was always going to be an honourable one and that we were the most important professional and point of reference in the built environment.

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When I studied Architecture in the UK we all thought that the Architect was the leader of the design profession and the most influential person in determining the future of the world. I am afraid that the world is so rapidly changing that we as Architects must review the way we consider and influence the environment we live in.

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The truth of the matter is that many collapsed buildings of flooded environments are not caused by the Architect in himself or the public in itself.

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I shall be providing teasers to the question and possibly conclude with an answers/ suggestions to enable us all deepen the influence we have on our surroundings.

The topic is quite a wide and diverse one and possibly related within reason, collapsed buildings and Flood how do they relate? Should they relate?

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As you may know I practise in Lagos and there are several buildings that have collapsed in Lagos. I have had near misses or worked with contractors who have worked on these types of incidences of collapse.

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Why do buildings collapse?

1.?????Poor Construction methods

2.?????Poor materials and equipment use and application

3.?????Poor design judgement and application of design parameters

4.?????Poor workmanship and methodology

5.?????Cost Saving methods that negate minimum quality standards

6.?????Change in specification of building use and requirements

7.?????Improper testing and review of structural systems

8.?????Change of design and or contradictions or procedural problems of construction

9.?????Flooding and imminent uncontrollable environmental conditions

10.?Natural disasters, earthquakes, tremors, landslides or mudslides

11.?Acts of terrorism

12.?Poor decision making of Professionals and Government Control officers

There are several building collapses in Nigeria and Lagos have recorded a substantial number of these disasters in the last 10 years.

Significantly 114 distressed buildings in Lagos state were set for demolition

Of which 57 were done in the first phase a large proportion of these buildings range from two storey to four storey buildings. The Lagos state building control agency have taken it upon themselves to review buildings with structural defects in Lagos and forced the owners and tenants to vacate for future demolition.

The need to do this is to ensure that these buildings do not collapse and take unnecessarily the lives of its occupants.

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Many people attribute collapsed buildings to professional negligence or management deficiencies of the professionals working on such projects.

There are several reasons why buildings collapse and I have identified why in many instances buildings do collapse.

There are instances in developing countries where buildings are designed for one purpose and they are used for another purpose and the additional loads cause the building to collapse. Simple additions like chillers for air conditioning systems have caused this to happen before.

We had this happen in Nigeria where the client added a couple more floors and the building collapsed during construction.

How do Architects help in a situation like this?

Many times, the client is insisting on improving on his profit margins and would ignore professional advice!

The Government is empowered to control development in most towns and cities, but do they?

Lagos is arguably one of the fastest growing metropolis in the world, but he government are unable to provide adequate services to control the rate of development.

Therefore, bureaucracy creates further inability to control and check development and thereafter impose control the quality of development.

Many developers get Architects and Engineers to design and seek planning approval of their projects but are unable to get the same professionals to inspect or supervise the construction process. In face several collapsed buildings go through this process where they were designed by professionals, but the developers seek to provide a builder who is subsequently unsupervised!

What is the role of the architect in this situation?

Very difficult????

We have had experience of this happen, where the developer refuses to pay for fees to cover your costs to inspect the works and see that they follow proper procedure and designed information…

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What role does the Architect play in these situations??

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Once you take on the role and you sign the drawings from that point on it’s a difficult one???

In our case we were forced to continue the work and write reports to the client as to the progress of the work even though we were not supervising the work.

In another instance we wrote to the local government and the building control department and mentioned that we had signed planning application and received approval but we were not supervising the construction process.

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My view is that for whatever fee you are being paid once you agree to provide professional services you may have a professional obligation to carry out some minimal role by notifying the developer of his responsibilities or informing the building control unit of your inability to provide your service.

The services provided by Architects are clearly stated in the NIA conditions of engagement within the original federal Fee scale for which the subsequent modifications have reduced or edited the scope of work of the Architects in the various stages.

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We know that this whole professional service rendered by Architects need to be reviewed indifferently.

We are one of 12 firms that started the Association of Consulting architects ACAN an association of firms not individuals to pursue the practise of Architectural firms.

The reason for this association is to focus the needs of practicing Architects to present day professional needs. But the paramount professional institution is the Nigerian Institute of Architects that encompasses public and private sector practitioners.

Many professionals in the public service need to bridge the gap between our political leadership and the public the users the developer the practising architect and the man on the street.

Public policy need committed professionals who are able to instill their professional discipline in ensuring that buildings built are done according to set standards and the accepted building codes.

Why are the Nigerian building codes still not adopted? The excuse is that there is no political will, but professionals Architects especially must drive these basic control requirements and insist on using these standards to monitor building regulation on one hand and on the other set standards for external professionals in the building industry.

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Our roles in the next few years as Architects and leaders of the building and design professionals needs total review.

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We can see how building design can affect planning and building control regulations and have an impact on urban and regional development.

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The environment is changing more rapidly than we can get our minds around the ideas and, so we need to review our understanding of the environment as a static context /place for which our designs remain embedded in.

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With the ever-uncontrolled effect of global warming the architects role as a designer and protagonist of the built environment must change considerably. The monumental effects of global warming mean that temperature levels are increasing as the total amount of storm and wind pressures around the world.

We are now designing buildings in flood plains and emerging water tables, from Benue to the Niger, the Atlantic and the Lagos lagoon, every water system is affected as the total rainfall in the world has increase extraordinary in line with prevailing global conditions.

We can all see how the Caribbean islands are now affected by the problems of high wind pressures and water flooding from the seas. The terrible irony of the constant hurricanes and tropical storms emerge from the western coasts of Africa where the new inhabitants of the Caribbean islands emanate from. The Caribbean hurricanes build there momentum from west Africa and emerge in the coast of those tiny Caribbean islands speeding away buildings flooding the environment and destroying all economic purpose and uses on their idyllic environments.

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Again, what is the role of the Architect in leading new thinking in dealing with these types of situation.

Many religious or spiritual persons will put their hands up to the high heavens and say rightly that this is an act of `god a force majeure for which we have not control over the timing yet reasoning or the effect of such an occurrence.

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But architecture is a living profession in which we need to put our training and discipline to improve the environment we live in. We may be able to control everything, but we are able to use our imaginations and intellectual capacity to reduce the effect of natural occurrences.

There are parts of the world where there are earth quakes, but the Japanese have now insisted that their buildings are designed to ensure the effect of earth quakes are minimised in their multi-storey buildings. So, buildings are now flexible and move to negate the effect of earthquakes. The Japanese also found that the original Japanese buildings made with no concrete, but wood were designed to allow for movements of the soil and earth.

In years gone by people died in natural disasters but then people began to understand the frequencies and the effect of these disasters.

In Lagos we are beginning to understand the seasonal requirements of floods and the effect on the environment.

It is true that people are building on flood plain and filling gutters and drains with debris and throwing waste in public drains but in all honesty, this may not be the real and only reason why Lagos is flooded during the raining reason.

What can we do?

Architects especially those in public sector in government need to influence government policy linked to the design and master planning of cities and the control of development of new buildings within difficult environments. we need to start to recognize the effective use of land and the best ways of minimizing the effect of natural disasters on our environment.

The Lekki Peninsula was sand filled in the last 25 years and before this the Victoria Island was sand filled by the state government to allow for more housing for the increasing population of the then capital. Recently the Lagos state government has embarked on the Eko Atlantic project which is the one of the most exciting and advanced flood disaster interventions in recent modern history of an African state.

Eko Atlantic project is actually the means and way of reverting the coastal line of the Victoria island as it was in 1914. When the colonial masters built the Lagos port they dredged a large amount of sand which effectively reduced the ability of the coast to deal with the effect of the continental shelf from oceanic wave action. The net effect of this was the removal of vast amounts of sand and the reduction of the Lagos coast line from Victoria island onwards.

Eko Atlantic have created a huge rock barrier into the Atlantic sea back to the original line of 1914 and then landfilled behind this to create acres of mixed development land.

This process of approval of this vast technical undertaking went through the Lagos state Government and the various agencies. A series of technical, environmental and impact analysis were carried on and reviewed and commented on by several professionals within the public agencies of government.

What can Architects do?

Our role is clearly there to influence and direct as much as possible. I have been asked to review these plans after the fact but many in government were involved in the decision-making process within the governmental agencies.

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But as Architects we have a very important role to play in reviewing and reworking our understanding of design from the global planning level to the masterplaning level.

More architects should get involved with masterplanning as a discipline and as a practise.

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There are several projects for which we are able to compete for as Architects with Urban planners. There are also several architects who have specialised in Urban planning. Our great Abuja was masterplanned in part by one of the greatest Architects the Japanese Kenzo Tange.

In our practice we have participated in several Masterplanning competitions and influenced several others. Some of the ones we have achieved success are:

1.?????The Kano economic City, 121 Hectares

2.?????The LADOL Tax free zone in Lagos 120 Hectares

3.?????Shell Trustees phase 1 Abuja Masterplanning and building design

4.?????Shell Estate (Bristow) Elelenwo, Port Harcourt River state.

5.?????Shell Infrastructure and Development Lagos Business Park

6.?????Delta Leisure resort, Warri,140 hectares

7.?????Adeniji Adele Renewal for LASURA Lagos state Government, 15 hectares

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This is to name a few but there are also several other highly experienced Architects who have contributed immensely to the development of global settlements which bear great importance on the fabric of human existence as Architects this is our main role .Our role is to is design buildings and enclosures specifically protect and encase human existence in comfort in peace and security within and without all eventualities of human and environmental conditions.

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To bring the point home Architects have started to respond to rising water levels in the design of buildings. Several architects are designing buoyant structures that respond to the water table changes within reason.

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In Lagos we respond by understanding that we are in a flood plain and on the island our buildings are actually built on raft foundations which carry the loads of the structure evenly.?The water table changes and the elasticity of the lands on the islands of Lagos means that any other type of foundation except for piles means that the buildings will move differentially and cause cracks from the movement.

This is the reason for several collapsed buildings in Lagos Island and also places like Bariga, and Yaba Oworonshoki close to the lagoon. The buildings are not adequately founded their foundation means that the buildings cannot respond to differential movements caused by different ground conditions. This causes the structures to crack inappropriately and collapse eventually occur.

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All Professionals all need to see how we can get involved in using our skills and talents to improve on the lives of everyone by adding these skills in training, building knowledge proffering solutions advising advocating designing?and influencing people clients individuals?and institutions, not necessarily for fees or income but as part of the need to provide intervention as professional and leaders of the build environment.

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Thank you.

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Ayoola Tokunbo Onajide RIBA, FNIA

9th of November 2017 in

Kaduna, Kaduna State, Nigeria

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