Mgbakoigba, Journal of African Studies. Vol.6 No.2.

February 2017

ABUJA SUSTAINABLE SPATIAL HOUSING DESIGN: A SPATIAL DIALECTICS

(VOLUMETRIC AND UNVOLUMETRIC SETTLEMENTS)

Obiadi B. N, Agbonome P. C. and Ezezue A. M.

Department of Architecture
Faculty of Environmental Sciences
Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State

Abstract
Successive metropolitan governments in Abuja have failed in several ways to implement the
provisions of the Abuja Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Master Plan. This has resulted in
pervasive distortions in the city development programme. At its inception, Abuja came under
serious pressure from the premature relocation of federal workers from the old capital city,
Lagos. This phenomenon coupled with the influx of new migrants and indigenous settlers have
resulted in housing shortage, infrastructure overload, and the proliferation of defective housing
and informal settlements in the city and surrounding territories. In Nigeria, government
intervention in housing the urban poor is plagued by three key factors, namely: the inherent
tendency to confuse squatter settlements with the urban poor; sectional housing delivery system
that favours the middle class and high income earners; and inability to reach the target groups
and that resulted in volumetric and unvolumetric housing settlements in Abuja (Abuja
Dialectics). Based on the visual assessment schedules, the housing and infrastructure profiles of
the selected informal settlements were found to be grossly inadequate. The major compositions
were “Quick-Fix-Homes”, built with recycled and decaying planks, zinc, cardboards and
abandoned aluminium products mostly sourced from nearby construction sites. The areas also
lacked basic city infrastructure such as roads, electricity, city water, toilet facilities, and gutters.
One innovative architectural scheme models of high-rise buildings with economic options is
recommended in solving Abuja Dialectic housing issues. The idea was to retain the urban poor
settlements in their current locations with infrastructure and spatial to the Abuja central city.

Background
In May 1967, Lagos emerged as both the Federal Capital of Nigeria as well as the capital
of Lagos State with the creation of states and the continued retention of Lagos as the Federal
Capital was seriously questioned. The dual role became a source of embarrassing political and
administrative complications with the result of that, Lagos became not only unlivable and
unserviceable, but also ungovernmeble (Nwafor, 1980, Okonkwo, 2006).
Nwafor (1980) stated that, as a result of the peripheral location of Lagos, the city has
tended to acquire a „regional‟ rather than a truly national capital where provincialism is stronger
than the feeling of the nation‟s unity. In Nigeria where there is an urgent need to create a national
identity and preserve the country as a political unit, the „created capital‟ should be so located as
to convey „a feeling of locational and functional neutrality‟ (Nwafor (1980), citing Stephenson,
1970, Okonkwo, 2006).
The need to transfer the capital of Nigeria from Lagos to Abuja, came as a result of the
former nation's capital, Lagos, being over crowded, congested and had no lands for expansion.
Olaitan (2004) indicated that, the concept of Abuja as a befitting Federal Capital Territory,

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centrally located and without the defects of Lagos was spawned in 1975. According to Olaitan
(2004), the Federal Capital City is located on the Gwagwa Plains in the northeastern quadrant of
the Federal Capital Territory. The site for the Federal Capital City was chosen for its location at
the center of the nation, its moderate climate, small population and also for political reasons. To
accomplish the goal of relocating the Federal Capital to an area, geographically central to
Nigeria and with relative equal accessibility to all parts of the nation, about 845 villages were
displaced to make way for the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, (Olaitan, 2004). The government
wanted an area, free of all encumbrances, a principle of “equal citizenship” within the territory
where no one can “claim any special privilege of "indigeneity” as was the case with Lagos
(Jibril, 2006, Okonkwo, 2006).
In the process of establishing a befitting new nation's capital, a Master Plan of the Abuja
Federal Capital Territory was design. The resultant Master Plan was prepared such that land use,
infrastructure, housing, transportation, recreation, economic and social services are coordinated
and inter-related, Olaitan (2004), citing Abba (2003). Successive governments in Abuja have
neglected these principles. As such, series of distortions to the concept, direction and
implementation of the master plan are prevalent today (Olaitan, 2004).
According to Jibril (2006), the first major policy statement made by Government in 1976,
when it decided to move the Federal Capital of Nigeria from Lagos (in the coastal area) to Abuja
(in the central part of the country) was for complete relocation of the entire inhabitants outside
the new Federal Capital Territory, of about 8000 square kilometers. This was aimed at freeing
the territory from any primordial claims, and to enable Government take direct control, plan and
develop the new city without any encumbrance, but that was not the case within the governments
of Abuja. In making reference to the Abuja Master plan (FCDA, 1979), Olaitan (2004) indicated
that, reference to the Abuja Master Plan reveals that in scope, besides including the major
elements of the regional development plan for the Territory, the plan intended to regulate land
use, transportation systems, infrastructure, housing and other services in a manner that
recognized their inter-relationships and spatial requirements which are paramount in any
physical planning exercise of its magnitude.
According to the Abuja Master plan (1979), the development of the city was designed to
be in four phases with a clearly defined target population of three million inhabitants. The city
was designed as an efficient and attractive environment at each stage of its growth – from Phase
1, which was designed to accommodate 230,000 residents through Phases II and III, which were
to accommodate 585,000 and 640,000 respectively, to Phase IV aimed at accommodating 1. 7
Million. Its ultimate population is estimated at 3.1 million (Olaitan, 2004). As it is the case with
development implementation in most developing nations, Abuja Master plan was distorted,
following different policy changes that affected Abuja. According to Jibril (2006), between 1976
and 2003, (a period of 27 years) there has been about four major policy changes affecting
resettlement within the FCT.
It was the original intent of the Abuja Master Plan to relocate the inhabitants, occupying
the Federal Capital Territory area, but according to Jibril (2006), careful enumeration later
revealed that the figure was not „few‟ – about 150,000 – 300,000 people. Uprooting such a huge
population was thought to be unwise and could have delayed the take off of the project. It was
then decided to allow the inhabitants to remain, but could be resettled within the territory, should
their places of abode be affected by city development project. In some cases, at the time of
relocation, plans were canceled for political reasons. While the people affected were fully
prepared for movement to the new location, another policy change happened. This major shift in

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policy direction can be said to be the root cause of problems of squatters and Land
Administration within the FCT (Jibril, 2006).
Bello (2009) stated that, generally, as the population and affluence grow, there is an
increase in the demand for land by government, private individuals and corporate bodies.
Unfortunately, since the physical overall supply of land within a geographical area is fixed,
demand always outstrips supply by a very wide margin, especially in the urban centres. This
inevitably brings about the survival of the fittest syndrome. In this struggle, government has the
upper hand through the exercise of their power of eminent domain, while individuals and
corporate bodies meet their land requirements in the open markets. Within the open market, the
corporate bodies and the rich individuals usually with higher bargaining power, dominate the
transaction; while the urban poor are left with little or no choice but to make do with the crumbs.
Consequently, this group of individuals, in most cases, occupies the less desirable areas such as
marshy sites, neighborhood adjacent to refuse dumps and where they can find one, they encroach
on government lands. The emergent settlement usually evolved as a spatial concentration of poor
people in the poor areas of the cities. As expected, this settlement is usually characterized by
infrastructure deficiencies, shanty structures, poor sanitation, urban violence and crime. These
composition and characteristics have always made squatter settlement a source of worry and
concern to their adjacent neighbours and governments (plate 1).

Plate 1. Typical Abuja Slum Architecture

Source: Abuja Metro (2014).

The unplanned territorial growth and developments occurring in the territory could also
be traced back to the governments rush to relocate the government workers from Lagos to Abuja
as Olaitan (2004) agreed. These problems are as a result of the rushed movement of workers
from Lagos to Abuja without adequate provision for accommodation. The result was the
emergence of a number of shantytowns and squatter settlements occupied by workers and the
growing service population in such places as Karu / Nyanya, Karmo and Gwagwalada (Olaitan,
2004).

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Adeponle (2013) observed that Abuja city is growing faster (13%) than the provisions of
its Master Plan. It is fast turning into an environmental embarrassment, with developments
springing up in gross isolation of zoning and other planning codes. Abuja, which was supposed
to be an epitome of beauty and an enlightened vision of city development, has suffered over the
years from unnecessary distortions in the implementation of its Master Plan. Adeponle (2013)
further indicated that, rapid urban expansion without effective environmental consciousness
means that in virtually every urban center – from large cities and metropolitan areas to regional
centers and small market towns – a substantial proportion of the population is at risk from natural
and human induced environmental hazards. The shantytowns, slums, settlements and influx of
people into the territory and without appropriate sustainable economic base, led to Abuja‟s
urbanization.
Urbanization has its consequences. Adeyemi (2013), observed that Abuja was the fastest
growing city in the country, with attendant population growth which had in turn, resulted in over
stretching of available infrastructure. Urbanization which occurs without adequate
industrialization, sufficient formal employment or secure wages, has condemned burgeoning
urban populations in the Third World to poor-quality housing. The problem has been
compounded by lack of government funds for housing subsidies, by inflated land prices boosted
by housing needs and speculation, and by real-estate profiteering on the part of the upper and
middle classes. The operation of the class structure of Third World cities nowhere more
geographical explicit than in the composition and working of the housing market. Only the small
upper and middle classes in Third World cities have income, job security and credit worthiness
to purchase or rent houses in properly surveyed, serviced and legally conveyed developments
(Dickenson, 1983).
The same small upper and middle classes in Third World cities have benefited from
government sponsored housing programmes in the past. In his Housing and Environmental
Planning, Olu-Sule (1988) indicated that, prior to 1973 government activities in public housing
had been quite sectional and favored only the working class elites in the society. The poor and
low-income were relegated to the background. For example, during the first Development Plan
period, 1962 – 68, no attention was accorded housing generally. It was under the town and
country planning. Government‟s policy to house the low-income and the underprivileged did not
crystallize even during the Second National Development Plan of 1970 – 74. In spite of the N49
million allocated Town and Country Planning, housing was overshadowed by other priorities of
the planning department.
Housing as major government social service venture did not receive any priority attention
it deserved until the Third National Development Plan of 1975 – 80 when the Federal
Government of Nigeria allocated the sum of N2.5 billion to housing for the creation of 202, 000
units mostly for low-income families. The defective and ineffective methods of allocating these
houses to the low-income, the medium-income and under which the underprivileged masses
received their shares is the bone of contention in the Nigeria public housing policy (Olu-Sule,
1988).
The 1980 – 85 Development Plan when N1.6 million was allocated to housing sector did
not achieve any better success than its predecessor. The plan included the construction of 200,
000 housing units; provision of staff quarters and staff housing loans; site and services
programme and urban development in collaboration with the World Bank. In addition to Federal
Government budgeting efforts, the state governments committed the sum of N1.1 million to the
housing sector during 1980 – 85 Development Plan. The core of the problem in all these

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Development Plans -1962 – 68 to 1980 – 85 was not the financial allocation or the units
completed, but who got the houses. Hard evidence exists that those who benefited from the
general government financial capital investment in housing sector has been the upper-income
families (Olu-Sule, 1988).
For the urban poor, in the process of finding a place to live, Aduge-Ani (2013) indicated
that, a family of seven persons, which comprises the father, mother and about five children live
in one room apartment. These people do not even have spaces for bathroom as they take their
bath in open spaces.
Lack of accommodation has become the bane of most Abuja residents. During the
Mallam Nasir el-Rufai administration of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), many residents of
Abuja lost their houses to the demolition exercise. That incident, however, contributed to the
high cost of securing accommodation in the city centre and even in the satellite towns. The influx
of people into Abuja to look for greener pastures has helped to worsen the situation. To the
average civil servant, securing a befitting accommodation in the FCT, irrespective of its location,
is not only a challenge, but also an uphill task. Decent accommodation has continued to
constitute a big problem to Abuja residents. Houses located at Garki, Maitama, Asokoro, Wuse,
Jabi and Utako districts are practically beyond what the middle and low income earners can
afford (Web Team, 2011). That resulted to concentration of squatter settlements in the Federal
Capital Territory (plates 1, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 17 and 18).
The questions are, who are the people mostly affected by the poor implementation of the
Abuja master plan, Abuja demolitions and, the high cost of securing housing accommodation in
Abuja and its territory? According to Bamidele (2010), most of the workers who cannot afford to
live within the city, find their way to the squatter settlements and uncompleted or abandoned
buildings within the city which punctuated all high-brow areas of the city and many (plates 1, 8,
9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 17 and 18). The people, according to Uji and Okonkwo (2007), frustrated by
the inadequacies and failure of the conventional approaches to provide urban shelter and services
to a significantly large enough proportion of the poor in the urban areas of the developing
nations, these ever-increasing class of urban populations have to resort to squatting on public or
private land, either by invading and forcefully occupying or leasing such land (illegally sub-
divided) on which they hurriedly construct (through self-help) their shelter from any available
materials using any readily affordable and available technology.
Notwithstanding the urbanization phenomenon, be it political, social and economy, the
important focus of this report is the spatial housing design (spatial integration) of the urban poor
in Abuja. In the past, various FCT governments have tried, accommodating the interests of the
Abuja urban poor settlements and without success. The government‟s approaches have not
necessarily, extensively reviewed and investigated the ancestral concerns of most of the residents
of the Abuja urban poor communities. A lot of government‟s solutions are centered around
quick-fix urban renewal programmes that have not in anyway, helped the course of the urban
poor communities and settlements in Abuja metropolis. The demolition exercises (several),
resettlements and land swaps programmes adopted by the government have added more
frustrations to the Abuja urban poor problems instead of solving them.
Nigeria is transitioning into a reformed economy, transitioning from public sector
dominated economic activities to private sector, commonly known as “Public-Private
Partnership” (PPP).
The Federal Capital Development Authority‟s (FCDA) swamp programme is in line with the
nation‟s Public-Private Partnership programme. It is a housing and urban renewal programme,

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transferring densities to accommodate the interest of the inner city dwellers (the urban poor), but
was not the case according to Aduge-Ani (2013), Federal Capital Territory Administration
(FCTA) has been allocating their present communities to developers without telling them what
they have in mind concerning their relocation or resettlement.
Almost all the government housing programmes have failed to address the housing needs
of the urban poor, especially, the Abuja urban poor housing demands. In a reformed economy,
not much has been done, to make sustainable, the urban poor housing and accommodation
problems in the nation‟s big cities and urban areas. To achieve that, the government must look
into sustainable spatial integration and retention of the urban poor settlements in line with
regional/territorial spatial developments that would accommodate the interest of that segment of
the communities, rendering essential services to the rich (high brow areas of the communities),
plates 2 to 7.

The Segment of the Communities Providing Essential Services, yet living in make-shift
homes

Plate 2. Abuja soft drinks and Gala seller

Source: Author‟s field work Plate 3. Abuja vegetable seller
Source: Author‟s field work

Plate 4. Abuja meat seller Plate 5. Abuja plantain seller

Source: Author‟s field work Source: Author‟s field work

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Plate7. Abuja barrow yam seller and other

Plate 6. Abuja plantain roasters merchants at the background
Source: Author‟s field work Source: Author‟s field work

Keeping and maintaining the government‟s failed, orthodox housing delivering schemes to the
expanding poor Nigerian populations, how can the government, sustainably, provide where the
urban poor can live without disturbing the urban equilibrium, knowing that they (the urban poor)
have no lands, that they squat anywhere they see and provide services needed to maintain the
rich communities?

Conceptual Theory to Spatial Dialectics

Some scholars have suggested that the basis of urban life in Africa is so very recent in an
historical sense, that we are still able to detect some of the early characteristics in many of the
towns of contemporary Africa (Okonkwo, 1998 citing Gutkind, 1974). Both subsistence
economy and nomadism still prevail over most of the continent today. Whether or not the
prevalence of these early characteristics is widespread is a matter of less important in this work.
Rather, of interest, is the presentation of an insight into the socioeconomic and sometimes
political phenomena of urban development.
As man‟s attitude, towards the group, the community and society of which he is a
member, has been changing throughout known history, so his reaction to his environment has
passed through successive stages of transformation. Cities have played an important role in this
process, which consists of a never-ending dialogue between challenge and response and which
derives to strength and continuity from elementary thoughts of mankind-religion, exchange of
ideas and goods and need for protection and gregarious living. For millennia human efforts have
been directed, as far as cities are concerned, toward the same goal. Always and everywhere the
basic elements of cities have been the same-dwelling houses, public buildings, and spaces
between them. But the form and its meaning have changed, for both express the spiritual and
intellectual conception of the universe that men have made for themselves (Okonkwo, 1998
citing Gutkind, 1974, p11 - 12).
Today, the major threat to human environment is more complex, more closely connected
with the very way in which cities are built. For example, the largest cities have grown nearly
tenfold in a century. Yet, there consumption of land is greater still. An immense transport system
is required. In the wealthier countries this bears strongly on the fact that masses of automobiles
raise the level of air pollution and noise, and create serious problems of congestions and

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accidents. In poor countries where poor housing structures dominate the urban landscape, spaces
are littered with settlements lacking the most basic urban infrastructures (plates 8 to 11). All this
tend to reduce the quality of the human environment especially in the urban areas (Okonkwo,
1998, p32).

Plate 8. Alum, Mpape ,Abuja Plate 9. Berger Quarry Abuja

source: Babajide Orevba Source: Babajide Orevba

Plate 10. An Abuja Slum Plate 11. Abuja neighborhood

Source: Babajide Orevba Source: Babajide Orevba

It is important to realize how these pressures resulting from development, on the urban
geography mutually reinforce rather than correct one another. Although cities transform
resources in ways that contribute strongly to economic development and social welfare, they also
generate waste that pollute the urban-human environment and degrade renewable natural
resources. A simple fact in this respect is that, though man‟s interaction with nature has brought
about the formation of urban spaces and centres and their extension, the same process of
interaction has also led to the degeneration of the spaces it created (plates 8, 9, 10 and 11). This
is an important issue in housing and residential quantity and quality (Okonkwo, 1998, p33-34).
In time and space, it was the first Industrial Revolution that brought to the limelight, for
the first time, the failure of urban development and the problems of the urban poor. On historical
focus of sociology and society, the process of industrialization and population growth
compounded urban development failures (Okonkwo, 1998).
The problems and challenges posed by the rapid urban growth in Nigeria are immense.
More easily observable and perhaps very frightening are the general human and environmental

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poverty, the declining quality of life and the underutilized as well as the untapped wealth of
human resources. Housing and associated facilities (such as water, electricity, waste disposal) are
grossly inadequate. Millions live in substandard environments called slums, plagued by squalor
and grossly inadequate social amenities, such as, a shortage of schools, poor health facilities and
lack of opportunities for recreation among others (plates 12 and 13). Juvenile delinquency and
crime have become endemic in urban areas as a result of the gradual decline of traditional social
values and the breakdown of family cohesiveness and community (Adepoju Adetoye, 1995). All
these are urbanization problems.

Plate 12. Tale of urban slums in Abuja mega city Plate 13. An Abuja slum.
Source: Fred Itua, Nguamo Aka, Ruth Agada and Amaka Agu Source: Babajide Orevba

Urbanization is not a recent phenomenon in the history of Nigeria. Also, city growths
date back into the country‟s pre-colonial era. Both urbanization and city growth have in the
course of time been in relation to the level of the country‟s socio-economic development. Pre-
colonial Nigerian cities recorded gradual growths in general terms. Where and whenever they
existed their growths were associated with one basic feature: they controlled the spatial
economic order; and provided spaces for cultural interaction. At colonization, the British
introduced another socio-economic pattern of development characterized principally by a new
hierarchy of administrative centers and a colonial export-oriented cash-crop economy. This
resulted in the dislocation of the pre-colonial traditional urban economies and their system in
Nigeria, thus affecting city development patterns. Cities then grew quite in relation to the impact
of colonialism on the socio-economic life of the country. And most of Nigeria‟s major cities
today emerged out of this colonial impact (Okonkwo, 2013).
However, in whichever form the making process of an urban center, town or city is
examined one must contend with the complex nature of the subject because its political, social
and economic implications are characterized by „urban development‟ and „urbanization,‟ which
underscore, in a permanent way, the making of urban centers at any time, in any place and at any
scale.

If urbanization could be summed up as the process of concentration of people and their

socioeconomic activities within a place over a period of time, urban development does not
depend on steady concentration and coalescence of urban facilities and services about a given

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center; it is fundamentally guided by man‟s reaction to his environment which passes through
successive stages of transformation. However, while concentration process of people in a place
(urban center) could be continuous and seemingly unstoppable, as is the case in Nigeria, the
environmental transformation that accompanies it has important implications for proper
understanding of the political, social and economic structure of the built environment of the
place. As the form and meaning of the built environment are transformed and changed overtime,
they both express the spiritual and intellectual conception of the universe which men have made
for themselves, in response to human, organizational and institutional need (Okonkwo, 1998).
The emergence of Urban Design as both intellectual, professional and administrative
instrument to address urban development failures can never be over emphasized. Architecture,
urban planning and settlements cannot be reasonably discussed without fundamentally
understanding the history of urban design, which ties them together. According Dalley (1989,
p.120), the history of urban planning focuses on the people, places, concepts, and practices of
planning of urban development over time.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and
International Union of Architects (UIA) Charter (2001), in its preamble stated that: We, the
architects, concerned for the future qualitative development of the built environment in a fast
changing world, believe that architecture involves everything that influences the way in which
the built environment is planned, designed, made, used, furnished, landscaped and maintained.
According to Catanese and Snyder, 1979), physical planning must now be defined to
include all these diverse examples without excluding the more traditional focus upon the design
of the “built environment.” One such definition is that physical planning is the determination of
the spatial distribution of human actions and conditions to achieve predetermined goals. This
concept is the key to understanding the expanded role of physical planning.
All human actions and conditions are distributed in space: groups, cultural beliefs,
buildings, vehicles, environmental pollutants, political power, energy consumption, skills, and
technology. Any of these variables can be defined, observed, located, and translated into a map
to show how they are distributed in space. Almost all urban planning activities sooner or later
refer to a map showing the spatial distribution of critical variables that typically include
population figures, economic and social conditions, and characteristics of the physical
environment. Interest in the spatial distribution of activities and condition is not limited to urban
planning. Many disciplines, including geography, architecture, engineering, economics,
agriculture, sociology, anthropology, business, and public health use the concept of spatial
distribution for solving problems.
Simply including spatial distributions in the analysis of an urban problem does not imply
that physical planning is taking place. Only when a spatial distribution is part of an action
recommended to achieve some purpose can we say that a physical plan is being proposed. For
example, if a planner analyzes the socioeconomic conditions in areas of the city and recommends
a social program which does not differentiate between areas, then there is no physical plan, only
a social plan. However, if social programs vary among areas, there is a physical plan. What kinds
of actions and conditions do planners spatially distribute, and for what purpose? There are
essentially four types of variables whose spatial distribution is manipulated in physical plans:
objects, functions, activities, and goals.
Within the context of physical planning, the spatial distribution of objects refers to items
such as buildings, parks, trees, roads, highways, sewer lines, and utility plants. Spatially
distributed objects may be as small as traffic signs and as large as airports. This aspect of

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physical plans comes closest to the traditional image of the urban planner. For example, the
layout of pathways, residences, and marketplaces was a function of the planners in ancient
Greece. Today planners are still actively engaged in planning the layout of suburban
subdivisions, the design of new towns, and the location and distribution of parks, recreational
facilities, hospital, schools, museums, libraries, and art centers.
There are other less obvious situations in which planners are concerned with the spatial
distribution of objects. The location of a series of firehouses or ambulance stations is a form of
physical planning in which objects are placed to achieve an effective distribution of critical
public services. Large objects, such as industrial parks, highways, and shopping centers, also
must be planned and located in space. Although the explicit functions of these objects are of
paramount importance to the physical planner, they have many other attributes with which the
planner must be concerned. For example, while an urban highway fulfills the function of
transportation, because of its properties as a physical object it has a significant impact upon the
quality of life within the neighborhoods through which it passes. Determining what impacts will
occur and who will be affected is critical in the spatial distribution of such objects. Similarly, in
the design of a downtown center the aesthetic qualities of the objects are as significant as the
functions of the building. Thus the spatial distribution of objects is often an extremely complex
problem that relates not only to the proper location of an object from the standpoint of its explicit
purpose, but also to its form and visual quality, symbolic importance, and its interaction with
other objects and human activities (Catanese and Snyder, 1979 p176-178).
The complexity of this problem is made manifest in various noticeable attempts (formal
and informal) by urban dwellers (both poor and rich) to provide housing for themselves in the
city. Housing, according to Uji and Okonkwo, 2007, p17), Turner (1974), sees „housing‟ as
human dwelling, a roof over one‟s head meant to serve as shelter for human living, interaction
and carrying out of activities away from in clemencies of weather. Uji and Okonkwo (2007)
further indicated that, Turner (1974) associates housing with the process of responding to the
needs for shelter and the associated demands of social services, health and public facilities which
go with the physical shelter in order to ensure congruent living with the environment. Housing
generally refers to the social problem of insuring that members of society have a home to live in,
whether this is a house, or some other kind of dwelling, lodging, or shelter (Housing, 2013).
The process of urbanization of Abuja has been seen to rather produce what the present
work could term “spatial dialectics” especially in spatial distribution of objects. The city is
characterized by dual urban spaces: the formal (where all is organized) and informal
(undeveloped squatter settlement). Overtime, both the formal and informal spaces have also
developed an interdependence relationship. While the formal spaces are inhabited by the rich or
those who could afford them, the urban poor are crowded in the informal urban spaces which dot
mostly the central city areas of Abuja (see plates 12 and 13). Thus the public spaces in these
informal settlements have become or have assumed the function of “housing/shelter” for the
Abuja urban poor (plates 14 to 16).

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Plate 14. Plate 15. Plate 16

Plates 14, 15 and 16, Abuja‟s public space (housing/shelter)
Source: the author

A typical space becomes the shelter/house and the house becomes the space (for most of
these people who are security guards, their relations and friends):- the case of urban poor and
urban poor housing in Abuja. In most cases, these spaces are without spatially distributed objects
yet, they are side by side with formal settlements without proper links and visually acceptable
urban objects, elements and qualities. The nature, socioeconomic complexity of these informal
spaces, which analysis is shown on plates 14, 15 and 16 of this work, constitute a strongly
identifiable character which is in this work christened Spatial Housing. It is so termed because of
the assumption of the public/open space into the provision of the basic (spatial) socioeconomic,
psychological, shelter, etc needs of the urban poor. This phenomenon is different from those of
the destitutes/homeless people in the city. The informal inhabitants are more or less fixed in
location (even though improper location) and actively dependent on the socioeconomic activities
of the urban economy. However, economic growth in urban areas has not kept pace with the
increase in the urban population (BBC, 2013). To that effect, Abuja urbanization is growing
more than the area‟s urban development vis-à-vis housing and economic resources. In the formal
sense, spaces can be defined and differentiated, however same cannot be said in the informal,
hence 'spatial dialectics'.
As indicated earlier, urban objects includes buildings, parks, trees, roads, highways,
sewer lines, and utility plants used by urban planners and architects in defining spaces. Space: is
the boundless three-dimensional extent in which objects and events have relative position and
direction (Space, 2013). Within the space is the spatial housing characterized by informal
volumetric and unvolumetric combination now called the 'spatial house', 'open house' or 'house
without limit.
In a larger scale, the spatial housing would serve the interest of the Abuja urban poor,
caught up in both Abuja‟s spatial dialectics and dualistic economy. The urban poor are equally
known to live in the open, in shanty structures, marshy sites, and poor sanitary environments in
want of where to live to stay close to work, both formal and informal. The urban poor inhabitants
of “spatial housing” live within the formal areas while caving out their informal spaces within
the same. According to Okonkwo and Agbonome (2012) citing Llyod (1979), the urban poor are
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considered to be inhabitants of shantytowns, slums and squatter settlements, who ordinarily,

cannot afford, or have no access to means of meaningful existence. In order words, they
generally are supposed to have no (or limited) access resources, employment and opportunities
for self-improvement, education and advancement in the sense of modern technological
developments. Whether we call them unauthorized housing, informal housing, spontaneous or
shelter settlements, they are settlements (usually in urban areas) also referred to as „shantytowns‟
by Llyod (1979) who considered them as settlements found on land that may, usually, be
illegally subdivided, with perpetual disregard for any form of urban settlement laws (Okonkwo
and Agbonome (2012) citing Llyod (1979). In urban poor settlement locations, Okonkwo and
Agbonome (2012) citing Osetereichh (1981), indicated that, because of uncontrolled nature and
planleness of the development, buildings may either come too close to one another or obstruct
and conflict with one another constituting serious potential fire hazard and making accesses to
them also difficult, and provision of basic facilities almost impossibly expensive. Their own
alternative facilities like deep wells and latrines also come into conflict with each other, posing
serious fire hazards. They are usually characterized by physical forms that have acquired or
become grime-and rat-infested, peeling paints and with surroundings littered garbage cans and
refuse dumps, a generally depleted and unsanitary environment usually attributed to poverty of
the occupant (plates 17 and 18).

Plate 17. Utako, Abuja Settlement area Plate 18. Utako Village, Okonjo Iwulal Way
Source: the author Source: the author

Whether or not it is clear, urban design can ameliorate the deeper problems of cities. But
short of liquidation, what then is the future for urban design? It is arguable that it is ultimately
the tasks of managing and improving the spatial dialectics. Expanding the concept of an
inclusive, democratic, and civil domain will remain the critical challenge for urban design; the
process may begin with solutions that are incremental and marginal in scope, but it must progress
with larger vision of what needs to be accomplished (Loukaitou – Sideris and Banerjee, 1998,
308), Sustainable Spatial Housing Design for the Urban Poor in Abuja, Nigeria is thus a
documentation/identification of a prevailing urban phenomenon with interest to make
remediation recommendations.

Conclusion

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The government‟s approaches to solving the problems of the urban poor housing issues in
Abuja Federal Capital Territory have not worked and to start solving them, this report explored
sustainable spatial integration and retention of the urban poor settlement areas that architecturally
bridged the gap (spatial solution) between the urban poor settlements (place of abode) and place
of work, a sustainable spatial housing design for the urban poor in Abuja. It investigated,
incorporated and adopted urban design principles, embracing the use of high rise and row
housing. It is a widely accepted fact that the towers and skyscrapers are advantageous in housing
accommodation, in urban areas with high population density and decreases the cost of municipal
infrastructure (Tower Block, 2013).

Recommendations
The focal point of this paper was to introduce sustainability (adequacy) of spatial urban
development in the Abuja Federal Capital Territory with special attention to the urban poor
housing retention (shanty, squatter, ghettos, etc.). This paper recommends granting and giving
lands to the residents of the urban poor settlements of Abuja, to enable them build and
economically develop their settlements. The government‟s approaches to solving the problems of
the urban poor housing issues in Abuja Federal Capital Territory have not worked and to start
solving them, this research recommends retention and sustainable spatial integration of the
urban poor settlement areas, that would architecturally bridge the gap (spatial solution) between
the urban poor settlements (place of abode) and place of work. It recommends adopting urban
design principles, dealing with the density of the urban poor settlements, the aesthetics, urban
amenities, well defined means of circulation, functional parks, how the urban poor settlement
areas function and decongestion of the areas by building high rise and row houses. The buildings
would embrace facilities for factories and industries (commerce) on the lower floors, where the
residents would be gainfully engaged in economic activities while they live on the upper floors.

Researcher’s Proposed Models

Without boring the reader and being repetitive or rhythmic, the current author thinks it
worth‟s the effort to reiterate the emphasis on the use of High-rise or Row housing approach as
was the case in advanced world in solving urban housing population issues. At the same time,
sustainably, spatially integrate the urban poor settlement areas in Abuja FCT with the central city
infrastructure. Asian countries with limited lands and huge urban population problems solved
their housing needs through vertical building approach and the model could be adopted in Abuja
with huge housing needs. The arguments over the mechanical and electrical supports to propel
the proposals are no longer major concerns. Technology has advanced and the use of battery-
inverters, high-powered generators and water supply boreholes, the dependency on state
provided municipal services are dwindling.

Spatial Housing Design Proposed Model: The neighborhoods of Abuja urban poor settlements
are all different and will not adopt a particular layout pattern, but will embrace integrating
housing and commercial activities that would promote growth and integration with the Abuja
City Center utilizing high-rise building approach. This model adopted the high-rise building
approach with factories and municipal activities on lower floors while the upper floors serve as
residential units. Community gatherings and business activities are located at the middle of the
subdivision to spatially and economically tie the model.

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Plate 19. Recommended model for Abuja Spatial Housing Design (site plan).
Source: author

Plate 20 Recommended model for Abuja Spatial Housing Design (perspective).

Source: author

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Plate 21. Recommended model for Abuja Spatial Housing Design (perspective –a different
view)
Source: author

Plate 22. Recommended model for Abuja Spatial Housing Design (perspective-a different view
showing urban the elements).
Source: author

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Plate 23 Recommended model for Abuj Spatial Housing Design (perspective – showing a
landmark).
Source: author

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