Architecture and culture: The dynamics of the informal sector in the changing house-form among the Yoruba in Nigeria

Atolagbe, A.M.O

Department of Architecture, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, Nigeria.

E-mail: aatolagbe7@gmail.com

Accepted 21 June, 2012

Abstract

The study surveys the incidence and changes in the informal sector (commercial activity spaces, which were a popular feature of the Yoruba indigenous houses), in modern houses, now popular in the developing, lower residential density areas of Ogbomoso. It examines and compares the relative recurrence of this cultural housing requirement, through the high, medium and low density, residential zones of the city; which correspond to precolonial, colonial and post independent settlements and their housing styles in the Nigerian urban city. The data for the study was collected through multistage sampling. Fifty percent of the streets from each zone of Ogbomoso was sampled randomly; and houses were sampled from each sampled street using randomly systematic method. This resulted in 1247 sampled houses, at 507, 377 and 363 houses from the high, medium and low density residential zones of the city, respectively. Descriptive and Chi-Square analyses were carried out on the result. The result shows that the informal sector, which was popular in the precolonial Yoruba houseforms, is still a popular feature of housing forms in both the colonial and post-independent, residential zones of the city.

Keywords: Architecture, culture and Yoruba