Part One: http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/articles/shokos-mixed-bag/the-kingdom-versus-the-states-part-one.html

Houses

The UK Experience

Housing in the UK is dominated by one simple fact: there is simply not enough space in a country that crams over 60 million people in a country that’s less than a quarter of a million square kilometers in size. This means that housing in many areas is very dense, with high rise apartment blocks and terraced housing being very common. Even in the suburbs, completely detached houses are hard to come by.  And needless to say, bungalows are an abomination. So expectedly, house prices tend to be higher than prices in the US. And even the sizes of rooms in these houses aren’t much to speak of – some are barely larger than a walk in wardrobe.

The terraced housing and semi-detached houses that do exist seem to have been built according to some standard formula for entire streets. This means that there is not a great deal of variation in the external appearance, and it does lead to an appearance of dullness. I suspect that the dull effect is quite deliberate, as it is quite rare to see people paint their houses any colour other than beige, white, cream or grey. It could be that the idea is to complement the grey of the skies – I don’t know.

Again because of the shortage of land, there tends not to be a great deal of new urban housing development. So what happens is that developers typically scour the place looking for old and decrepit buildings – not because they do historical preservation as a sideline, but because they’re interested in the land on which the building stands. And that’s why as soon as the building is acquired, the bulldozers move in, and before too long, you see billboards proclaiming that ‘stunning studio and 1-bedroom apartments’ will soon be ready to be sold ‘at prices starting from £999,995 ONLY’.

The US Experience

Because of the ready availability of land (40 times more land with only five times more people), houses in the US can afford to be much more generous with space. And they are – with a vengeance. Even in urban areas where space is somewhat constricted, rooms in apartments (that’s right – ‘apartments’, not ‘flats’) are much bigger than in the UK. Rather than try to be economical with space in the city centre, US developer s just acquire more and more outlying land and build and build like ker-razy, sending the wave of suburbia rolling further and further into virgin land. It seems the pace of building can be as frenetic as it is, because it’s faster to build the timber frame housing that is used in the US.

But it’s not just about the availability of space. The thing is, having a big house seems to be all part of achieving the supposed ‘American Dream’ and showing people in your social circle that you have ‘arrived’. Plus if you are acquiring stuff left, right and centre in pursuit of the Dream, you need to have a big house to put it all in, not so?

Unlike the UK where blocks of housing seem to be put up along a section of streets, US developers will build a block of housing in a housing subdivision. This might be a housing community, or an apartment complex – I guess the equivalent in Nigeria might be housing estate. Such subdivisions might have their own semi private roads, and some might be gated outright so that the riff-raff can be kept out. The housing in these subdivisions tends to be quite varied - there are different appearances and different sized units, which makes quite a interesting view, except that those who live in the smaller units are now reminded of their lesser position. But hey, if everyone was content with their lot, what would happen to the pursuit of the American Dream?

Naija – UK or US?

I don’t have to ponder too much about this. Observing the fancy architecture of big houses in Nigeria, I’m pretty sure that the experience in Nigeria would tend more towards what obtains in the US.

Robot  # 1 | 18.07.2009 22:34

Houses The UK Experience Housing in the UK is dominated by one simple fact: there is simply not enough space in a country that crams over 60 million people in a country that’s less than a quarter of a million square kilometersin size. This means that housing in many areas is very dense, with high rise apartment blocks and terraced housing being very common.Even in the suburbs, completely detached houses are hard to come by. And needless to say, bungalows are an abomination. So expectedly, house prices tend to be higher than prices in the US. And even the sizes of rooms in these houses aren’t much to speak of – some are barely larger than a walk in wardrobe. The terraced housing and semi-detached houses that do exist seem to have been built according to some standard formula for entire streets. This means that there is not a great deal of variation in the external appearance,...Read the full article.

Pius72  # 2 | 18.07.2009 23:40

Shoko: You are spot on. Their dreary little spaces is the one nightmare I have whenenver I have to unavoidably be in Europe, given what we are used to in the US and Canada. I am in Paris and will be here till september. I've been grumbling about space since I arrived last week. And to think that living spaces are even much more constricted and smaller in London! It is as if you wrote this piece listening to my dinner conversations about space with my hosts here in Paris. I have to take the train to London next weekend and I already dread the idea of a weekend in those very small spaces. Na wah for Europe. Pius Adesanmi

katampe  # 3 | 19.07.2009 00:34

But the question remains, is the suburban sprawl that is found in the US sustainable? What feeds the pattern? Is there any Ideology or race issue underlying the growth pattern? Urban Sprawl which is what US promotes has implications for energy use. It explains partly why California is greatly in financial crisis at the moment, the loss of agricultural land and the low taxes paid to service the developments scattered all over the state has put enormous burden on the state and has nurtured its doom and has visited it with disaster. Yet, the conservative ideology fueling issues like property rights has always been a cover to keep blacks out of suburbs using filtering mechanisms like big lots and cost of land and home owners policies that carefully select residents based on income and subtly on race. Right there is the phenomenon of white flight created suburbia. So, there is more than meets the eye about this issue of Suburbia.It fuels the war for oil that has become America's obsession and its inability to promote a green economy. Europe has a relatively good design model. Not only only in terms of housing, but in terms of its size of cars too. It explains why environmental standards and multi-modal forms of transportation are part of the urban design. On Nigeria, the development pattern has not shown enlightenment on the need to incorporate best practices into its urban development plans. For instance, satellite towns like Kubwa, Karu and Gwagwalada and its residents have been put in a financial bind now that they have to commute to the city center at enormous costs for transportation. It highlights lack of foresight in the planning of the place. Not only that alone , fully serviced plots in Abuja Master plan phase 1 enjoy 'welfare payments' in form of very ridiculous property taxes.I have always wondered equally on the idea that you have low , medium and high density plots in a country with 150 million people . It seems ridiculous when compared to country's like Canada that a whole province is as big as Nigeria, and yet there is responsible plot sizes even with a ridiculously low population. Spaces are better managed when developments are compact and not scattered all over the map. Services are easily rendered more efficiently. It helps cities cover costs and incur lower operational costs to service its residents. Most of the inner cities have been rendered poor and services like buses have been made inefficient because of this suburban madness. At least in most downtowns across North America you see a similar pattern of space shortage like it obtains in many European countries. Parking and narrow roads are big issues.

akuluouno  # 4 | 19.07.2009 03:13

Nigeria ought to follow the US/Canadian model especially in Abuja and up north where there is an abundance of land resources:D

EezeeBee  # 5 | 19.07.2009 07:21

Katampe raised truly significant issues of sustainability and white flight in relation to housing typology and stock. A larger underlying question is how realistic or sustainable is the 'American Dream' and how willing are you to shut your eyes to the injustices in parts afar that support it? In the era of the McMansion there were homes with basements measuring upwards of 4,000 sq ft! The whole home would measure between 8,000 and 12,000 sq ft. Think of the heating and cooling loads!