With affordable housing still elusive in the country, some experts are advocating brick building as a viable solution to the current housing crisis, DAMILOLA AINA writes
In 2021, while visiting Lomodo, a suburb of Mutum Biyu in Gassol Local Government Area of Taraba State, it was apparent that the area reflected a typical rural setting in Nigeria. Observing the mud houses from a distance provided a captivating view of the scenery. Just as Thomas Hobbes imagined a world that was nasty, brutish, and short, nature in Lomodo presented itself as an ecosystem largely untamed
That was some years ago. Lomodo today is fast grappling with the forces of civilisation. Mud houses are giving way to relatively modern buildings with thatched roofs no longer in vogue. The houses in Lomodo are no more different from those in city centres, although a semblance of the old order is still visible.
Mud houses are building structures constructed from soils with binding properties like laterites or clay. The building materials are usually presented as rammed earth or earth bricks.
Although it is fast becoming obsolete, mud homes still provide shelter to many Nigerians, who are either subsistent farmers or pastoralists.
Experts have argued that the use of soil materials for sustainable construction in developing countries is a viable alternative to concrete-based materials considering the high cost of building materials due to the weak economy. Mud homes are pocket-friendly, which is another reason some advocating their adoption in the country.
With mud homes, the costs of laying, plastering, and painting are saved. There is also no need for future aesthetic maintenance, reducing environmental degradation and material cost.
Other benefits of clay bricks include being a natural fire retardant/fire resistant (ability to withstand fires longer than any standard building material), a fantastic sound insulator (reduces the impact of internal and external noises around homes), very durable, weatherproof (they can absorb water and rapidly release back to into the air than conventional blocks). They also have high compressive strength and impressive load-bearing capacities for structures.
Those pushing for mud homes also claimed they are eco-friendly with a natural cooling effect. They believe fewer chemicals are used in the construction of mud buildings.
Why bricks
Earlier this year, the Executive Director of the Housing Development Advocacy Network, Barrister Festus Adebayo, advocated the use of red bricks and made-in-Nigeria construction materials to reduce the cost of providing affordable housing for Nigerians.
Describing it as an out of box solution, the housing expert stated that locally sourced building materials will defeat the challenge of high inflation and interest rates currently faced in the country.
“The stakeholders and practitioners in the housing industry must think out of the box on how we can have alternatives to cement.
“There is no better opportunity than now for the Nigerian Building and Road Research Institute to proffer other alternatives we can use for cement,” he stated.
Also, the President and Chairman of the Council of Real Estate Developer Association of Nigeria, Aliyu Wamakko, in an interview gave a graphic description of how the construction of a made-in-Nigeria home could be achieved.
“We produce cement, woods and mould blocks in Nigeria. We also have companies that produce table wares, toilet wares and Zinc. Then tell me if we can produce all of these things without foreign input. Why cannot we build a made in Nigeria house?
“All we need to do is encourage those who produce all these materials. If we put our minds together on this, we will solve a lot of issues.”
In the same vein, the President of the Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors, Mr Olayemi Shonubi, urged the Federal Government to encourage research into the refurbishment of mud houses in the country.
Shonubi told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the mud could be moulded into bricks for the building of modern houses, suggesting that brick blocks could be designed into interlocking shape so that there would be no need for cement to bind the bricks.
Associated challenges
An Abuja-based estate developer, who specialises in building mud homes, Akinola Ajibola, stated that contrary to shared opinion, clay bricks for the construction of affordable homes are not necessarily cheaper in the short term due to the unavailability of clay bricks.
According to him, the capacity of two functional clay industries in the country cannot cater for the housing demand of over 200 million citizens.
Ajibola, who is the Head of Project Development, Rural Homes Limited, in an interview with PUNCH, said, “Clay bricks for the construction of affordable homes are not necessarily cheaper in the short term in Nigeria. This is largely down to the availability of the raw material needed.
“There are currently two widely known and relatively functioning clay brick manufacturing factories servicing the entire country, the Ire Clay located in Ire-Ekiti and the Shelter Clay in Minna, Niger State.
“You will agree this is nowhere enough to cater for the brick housing demands of a country of a population of over 200 million citizens and with a housing deficit of over 25 million homes.”
A study in 2020 revealed that about 76 per cent of mud houses fail in the form of wall collapses during rainy season making many homeless.
In spite of the numerous benefits associated with mud homes, Ajibola explains that for clay bricks to be adopted as an alternative way of construction in Nigeria, more investors are required in the manufacturing process with cheaper and more readily available fuel to power the production process.
The Chairman of the Council of Registered Builders of Nigeria, Samson Opaluwah, blamed poor government policies as the reason for the slow inflow of investment into the sector as well as their impactive implementation.
He said, “Investment in housing is still very. Many of the policies have not been driven by professionals in the industry and that has hindered the inflow of investment into the sector as well as their impactive implementation. Access to land is also a huge demotivation for investors.”
Explaining other challenges with mud buildings, the CORBON chairman said the traditional method was no longer popular due to contemporary building innovations as buyers prefer to invest in mansions built with imported materials.
According to him, mud by nature is not a stable material and can change periodically due to the moisture content, incapable of handling tensile stresses and has a lot of shortcomings.
“This traditional technology is no longer popular because modern construction materials have superior characteristics that dwarf the local materials in terms of quality, sustainability and capacity to withstand wear and tear and still remain durable.
“It is now time for us to use that knowledge and expertise to address our own challenges by providing homegrown solutions. It may not be immediately comparable but when we start it will be improved upon until we attain perfection.”
He further stated that traditional housing production technologies could be used to address critical housing shortages in rural communities and urban slums.
“There is an urgent need to refocus attention on our traditional housing production technology as a vehicle for addressing critical housing shortages in the rural communities and urban slums.
“However, it is possible for our country to promote the usage of this readily available material. I am aware that some of our universities have carried out studies in this area successfully. The outcomes will, however, remain on the shelves in the libraries until investors encouraged by government policies utilise them to solve our national housing challenge,” he asserted.
On his part, the immediate past President of the Nigerian Institute of Builders, Kunle Awobodu, argued that mud homes are primitive in nature and cannot meet the ego of the average 21st-century purchaser, hence the low investment.
He said, “Mud homes are considered primitive and the ego of many potential homeowners has not encouraged the use of clay to build homes. There is also a scarcity of lateral products and clay soil that could be used for mud houses.
“Sourcing for these materials causes a lot of damage to the environment and that is why some of these locations to source for raw materials has been closed down.”
The former president further charged the Nigerian Building and Road Research Institute to come up with implementable policies, stressing that the dearth of skilled artisans has affected the industry as masons do not have the skills to build with mud.
He said, “The modern building artisans and bricklayers lack that training. You would not get workers who will be able to handle the process. They do not have the dexterity or the skills to build mud or mud homes. Those who had the skill are either in the remote villages or are late.
“NBBRI embarked on research with respect to the use of technology to improve the process of getting stabilised blocks for affordable housing units. It was a laudable initiative to use laterite with a certain percentage of cement and they have been able to construct samples. In the north especially, they offer such technology for mass housing units. But somehow, we do not know what happened as it became unpopular again. Maybe it was due to scarcity of lateritic materials.”
To him, there must be a way to reintegrate local products into the country’s construction market.
