Architect bets on emerging designs crashing house prices soon

An architect, Olugbenga Lana, has said that based on new housing designs now coming into the building industry, chances are that house prices will drop significantly soon.

Lana, who is an exponent of alternative building materials, explained that innovative designs are underway to replace the current traditional designs, citing what happened in the telecommunications sector, where the introduction of mobile phones to replace the analogue NITEL phones revolutionized the sector.

He also cited the music industry, where the rapid evolution from vinyl records and cassettes to compact discs (CDs) to complete dematerialization by means of music file downloads and sharing apps has changed the industry’s story

“How can we forget the transition from the purely mechanical typewriter to PC keyboards and now touchscreen graphical user interface?” he queried, noting that what is clear from the instances given is that positive change is irresistible.

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Continuing, Lana said, “just like in the mass market sector, technological advancement and innovation have caught up with the once sluggish and traditional crafts-based housing construction industry as a result of progress in sustainable, technological, engineering, and management (STEAM).

He noted that in Africa, before the arrival of the Europeans and their subsequent imposition of building methods, materials, cultures, and design philosophies, there was an existing building method on the continent.

He recalled that the community simply joined hands and minds together and built for one another as a team effort, wondering if the continent should not reinvent, upgrade, and revitalize these superior practices as has been demonstrated by a Burkinabe architect, Debedou Francis Kéré, who initiated the provision of a modern African primary school built by communal effort with local materials.

“Upon my arrival, I committed my soul to the ideal that it was possible to demystify the fallacy of the assumed incongruity between high-end luxury and affordable quality residences,” Kere was quoted as saying.

Lana said that this was and is still the very substance and essence of true value addition and creativity, noting that the driving motivation and the overarching global goal were improving the quality of life and opportunities for all people through design and construction.

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He cited an example of a Chinese company that is delivering houses for N1.9 -2 million per unit, saying that the figure resonates with what they are thinking about for the Nigerian housing sector.

Lana noted that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a step in the right direction, stressing that he places more emphasis and value on communal efforts than an individual approach.

“This communal effort, however, is better when it’s defined not by age, status etc, but the value being added to the tasks in a timely and highly efficient fashion by each team player.