Sustainable Architecture Practices – The Extension of the Useful Life of Office Buildings, South Western Cities of Nigeria

Architects are required to design with sustainable practice measures in mind due to the rising global carbon emissions as a result of increased energy consumption. The service sector is rapidly expanding world over and South-West Nigerian cities are not left out. It is desirous that office buildings have service lives that ensure optimum performance thereby reducing the alternative of constructing new offices to replace old ones. This paper focuses on how service life of office buildings in South-West Nigeria could be maximized through critical studies of identified factors in literature affecting their ‘well-being’ over time. Thus contributing to sustainability by conserving resources and preventing the consumption of more energy that would have been experienced in the process of designing and constructing a new building. Secondary data are employed to theoretically deduce means by which service life can be maximized. Findings point to the fact that properly designed purpose-built office buildings with appropriate specifications and ‘change of use’ office buildings which have been converted with comfortable provisions for all facilities required are likely to have maximized service life, therefore, contributing to the conservation of the earth’s resources.