The Role of the Architect in Ensuring Sustainable Maintenance of Public Buildings in Nigeria

Lack of maintenance culture for public infrastructures in Nigeria is not a new phrase to building professionals and the general public. There have also been several conferences and workshops directed at addressing this problem yet the solution appears elusive. This has become more challenging as buildings become more and more sophisticated; intelligent, sustainable, eco-friendly and ‘greener’. This paper presumes that Architects who in Nigeria are typically responsible for the development of the base scheme, upon which every other member of the building supply chain works, has a role to play; ensuring maintainability of their designs. In so doing, they ensure an enduring sustainability in building operations and maintenance through the building life cycle. The research methodology seeks to identify and analyse existing maintainability regime in the UK with a view to proposing a best practice approach for Nigeria. It draws data from a research conducted by the authors to explore a best practice approach to operability and maintainability of low carbon buildings in the UK. A mixed method research approach involving across-method and within-method triangulation (interviews, surveys and case studies) were adopted. The study concluded that building designers must prove the maintainability and operability of their designs before they are constructed. The need for this research is reflected in the views of several authors who have decried the dearth of sufficient research in the subject of building operation and maintenance. It becomes more compelling when we understand that no matter how sustainable a building may have been in its design and construction, it can only remain so if it is operated responsibly and maintained properly.