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An Investigation Into The Properties Of Stabilized Laterite Blocks
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CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
The
importance of housing in human history cannot be overemphasized.
Housing is seen as one of the best indicators of a person’s standard of
living and of his or her place in society (UNCHS, 1993). Furthermore,
Venkatarama (2004) is of the view that housing and building conditions
also reflect the living standards of a society. Thus, the importance of
access to adequate and affordable housing took the front burner in the
mid 20th century. The low-income group whose population is on the
increase due to rapid urbanization and population growth evidently
became the most vulnerable in terms of lack of access to decent and
affordable housing in developing countries. This has led to various
researches into development of locally available building materials and
construction techniques to enhance access to housing for all.
In
1976, the Human Settlements conference in Vancouver gave new impetus to
this approach, condemning the transposition of Western building
techniques for low-cost housing and recommending the design of
technologies suited to climatic, social and cultural contexts (Rigassi,
1985 cited in Alagbe, 2008). The conference also recommended the gradual
reduction of imports of products and services linked to construction,
and the drawing up of norms and regulations which covered the basic
needs of end-users whilst taking account of their economic
possibilities.
The acquisition of local building materials and
techniques to guarantee access to decent and durable housing for all by
the year 2000 was adopted in December 1988 by the General Assembly of
the United Nations with the slogan “Global Strategy for Housing to the
year 2000â€. The Assembly proposed relying on a vast formal and informal
private sector participation in housing provision. This strategy was
aimed at removing the dependence on the public sector for housing
provision by exploring the erstwhile ignored wealth of existing human
resources and their building cultures and social dynamics (UNCHS, 1993).
The
building culture of pre-independence Nigeria was an absolute dependence
on earth building techniques such as use of adobe bricks (sun-dried
bricks) and wattle and daub (mud wall construction). These techniques
were predominant in major rural and semi-urbanized towns and cities in
Nigeria. These techniques were durable, adequate and accessible enough
for them to meet their housing needs. The techniques were also
sustainable since they do not deplete the natural resources of the
environment neither do their production processes lead to the emission
of gases that causes global climate change.
However,
post-independence rural centres in Nigeria acquired new status as a
result of independence on October 1, 1960. This period was immediately
followed by the “oil boom†of the 1970 and 1980 which brought about an
unprecedented prosperity and development of the nation. There were
massive improvements on infrastructural development particularly in
state capitals and major cities and towns. Thus, the towns became
increasingly urbanized and became an urban-oriented society. The crave
for Western building techniques led to the gradual extinction of the
erstwhile earth building techniques. Thus, while other countries were
developing various earth building techniques to meet the housing needs
of their populace, the technique became associated with the poor in
Nigeria and not fashionable for housing purposes.
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ABSRACT - [ Total Page(s): 1 ]Sustaining housing development especially to the medium/low-income group of the society has become a huge challenge particularly because of the huge capital outlay required to do so. Thus, acquisition of indigenous building materials by way of Compressed Stabilized Laterite Blocks (CSLBs) has been suggested as a way out. The aim of this research is to investigate the properties of stabilized laterite blocks at 5%, 15%, and 25% stabilization.The specific objectives are; to determine the compressi ... Continue reading---
