GENDER AND LEARNING IN THE ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN STUDIO

This study aimed at gaining a better understanding of the link between the learning characteristics of students of architecture and their gender. The Learning combination inventory was administered to both undergraduate and post graduate architecture students from the second to sixth year in a private university in Nigeria. Using Parametric and non-parametric statistical tests, it was found that out of four processing patterns, (Sequential, Precise, Technical and Confluent) there were sex differences in Technical and CP with the male students scoring significantly higher than their female colleagues in both cases. Gender identity differences were also investigated based on Bem’s gender schema and the masculine students were found to be more proficient than the feminine students in both technical and CP. These findings suggested that male and masculine students were more creative than female and feminine students. The implications of these findings as well as positive steps that can be taken to ginger higher levels of creativity in the female students were fully discussed

Culture of Architectural Firms in Nigeria: An Exploratory Study

What is the culture of architectural firms and which organizational characteristics influence their culture? These questions are addressed in this paper in a survey of 92 architectural firms in Nigeria. The study investigated the types of culture which are applicable to the architectural firms using the responses of the principals to the value statements questionnaire constructed from the innovation, stability, people orientation, outcome orientation, team orientation, and aggressiveness dimensions of culture. The data were analyzed using two-step cluster analysis to determine the culture types. Categorical regression was also carried out to determine the factors which influenced culture.The study reveals that the architectural firms did not adopt the market and hierarchical cultures. The findings also question the idea that larger firms tend to be impersonal in character. It however confirms the notion that the service sector organizations are more people-oriented than outcome oriented because there was a predominance of the responsive and staff-oriented cultures. The leadership style of the principals was the best predictor of the culture of the firms

Subjective Life Satisfaction in Public Housing in Urban Areas of Ogun State, Nigeria

This study investigated subjective life satisfaction of 452 residents in 10 newly constructed public housing estates in urban areas of Ogun State Southwest Nigeria. Data were collected using structured questionnaire and subjected to descriptive statistics, factor and multivariate regression analyses. The result shows that 61% of the respondents were generally satisfied with life in their current residences. A larger proportion of them were also found to be satisfied with the physical and spatial characteristics of the dwelling unit components of their housing environment but were dissatisfied with access to housing services and infrastructural facilities. Tenure, income and marital status as well as satisfaction with the size of residence, housing services and management of the housing estates and housing delivery strategy were among the strongest predictors of subjective life satisfaction among the respondents. This implies that among other factors, satisfaction with housing environment as well as housing delivery strategy have a significant influence on residents’ satisfaction with life in public housing. Therefore, public housing developers need to take adequate steps to improve residents’ satisfaction with the size of main activity areas in dwelling units, housing services and management of housing estates and encourage the participation of users in housing delivery process in order to enhance the subjective life satisfaction of residents of public housing in urban areas in Nigeri

Characteristics of Global Architectural Firms

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to investigate the factors which discriminate between local and global architectural firms in Nigeria. The rationale was to examine how the globalization process differs in Nigeria and contribute to the discourse on globalization. Design/methodology/approach – The research is quantitative, using discriminant analysis to differentiate the global architectural firms from the local ones. The study used a random sample of 92 architectural firms in Nigeria, examining various characteristics of the firms through a questionnaire. Findings – There was a strong distinction between global and local firms. Compared to the local architectural firms, the global firms were larger, and mostly run by sole principals who were more experienced. The internet was used more to communicate with other professionals, but less to communicate with clients and in designing and drafting. The global firms also placed higher value on developing expertise in specific building types. Research limitations/implications – Data are obtained from architectural firms in Nigeria only. The results suggest that global architectural firms are peculiar and exhibit certain characteristics which further differentiate them from local ones. Practical implications – The implications for architectural firms seeking to operate globally include building size advantage, building expertise in specific specializations, having principals with high level experience and employing alliances with other professionals in operating internationally. Originality/value – This paper adds to the body of knowledge on architectural firms which are under-researched. The importance of this paper lies in its empirical nature in investigating the characteristics of global architectural firms using a sample of architectural firms in Nigeria

Architectural Firms:Workforce,Business Strategy and Performance

The intent of this research was to investigate the relationship between the workforce, business strategy and performance of architectural firms. Data was collected from 92 firms randomly selected from the cities where architectural firms were most concentrated in Nigeria using questionnaires. Hierarchical regression analysis was carried out to investigate the direct and indirect impacts of the workforce of architectural firms on their performance. The findings confirm the significant positive impact. With business strategy controlled, the specific characteristics of the workforce and its management which influenced performance were the number of architects, the work structure, and the age and experience of the principal partners. The impact of the number of non- architecture professionals and staff participation in decision-making on performance was moderated by the business strategy adopted by the firms. The results suggest that workforce characteristics are more important than the management of the workforce in determining performance of architectural firms. This is contrary to the results of previous studies which suggest higher importance of the management. This probably indicates the peculiarity of architectural firm as a professional service firm in the construction industr

Architectural Firms in Nigeria: A Study of Organizational Culture and Determinants

Culture of organizations has received increasing attention in recent years. The questions that remain unanswered are however: what are the dominant cultural values of architectural firms and which characteristics of the firms determined the dominant culture of firms? To answer these questions, we carried out a survey of 92 architectural firms in Nigeria. The factor which best described the cultural values of the firms was innovation and staff orientation dimension, while the factor which least described the cultural values of the firms was the businessorientation dimension. The cultural value dimensions were explained by factors both internal and external to the firms. The results show that the age, size and legal ownership form of the firms were the firm characteristics which determined the dominant cultural values of the firms. The leadership style of the principal was also a major cultural value determinant. This suggests that each firm may need to adapt cultural values to their unique characteristics. The value of this study lies in its empirical nature in investigating the dominant cultural values of architectural firms, an area that hitherto had received little attention from scholar

Organizational Structure of Architectural Firms and Their Performances

The focus of this study is the organizational structure of architectural firms where the mode of coordination had been unclear. The types of organizational structure in architectural firms were identified using data obtained from 92 architectural firms in Nigeria. The findings show that sizes of the firms influenced the organizational structures adopted by the architectural firms. Although, sizes of the firms also had direct influence on the performance, no interaction of this variable or any internal firm characteristic with organizational structure led to any significant change in performance. Although the environment did not directly influence organizational structure, it appeared that particular organizational structures worked best when some external influences are high and resulted in higher profit. The results show that while adhoc structure leads to better performance in firms where the influence of other professionals is considered high, the administered structure is more effective highly influenced by government privatization programmes. Only the adhoc structure was however not suitable for firms strongly influenced by increasing concerns for sustainable environment. The results of the study suggest that while larger architectural firms may record higher profit, architectural firms that adapt their organizational structures to environmental conditions to reap improved profi

The prevalence of peripheral arterial disease in diabetic subjects in south-west Nigeria

Background: Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is rarely sought for and generally underdiagnosed even in diabetics in developing countries like Nigeria. PAD is easily detected and diagnosed by the ankle-brachial index, a simple and reliable test. Objectives: To determine the prevalence of PAD in diabetic subjects aged 50–89 years and the value of ankle-brachial index measurement in the detection of PAD. Method: A cross-sectional descriptive study of 219 diabetic subjects aged 50–89 years was carried out. The participants were administered a pre-tested questionnaire and measurement of ankle-brachial index (ABI) was done. The ankle-brachial index < 0.90 was considered equivalent to peripheral arterial disease. Results: The overall prevalence of PAD was 52.5%. The prevalence of symptomatic PAD was 28.7% whilst that of asymptomatic PAD was 71.3%. There were a number of associations with PAD which included, age (p < 0.05), sex (p < 0.05), and marital status (p < 0.05). The use of the ankle-brachial index in the detection of PAD was clearly more reliable than the clinical methods like history of intermittent claudication and absence or presence of pedal pulses. Conclusion: The prevalence of PAD is relatively high in diabetic subjects in the southwestern region of Nigeria. Notable is the fact that a higher proportion was asymptomatic. Also the use of ABI is of great value in the detection of PAD as evidenced by a clearly more objective assessment of PAD compared to both intermittent claudication and absent pedal pulses

Antihydrogen and mirror-trapped antiproton discrimination: Discriminating between antihydrogen and mirror-trapped antiprotons in a minimum-B trap

Recently, antihydrogen atoms were trapped at CERN in a magnetic minimum (minimum-B) trap formed by superconducting octupole and mirror magnet coils. The trapped antiatoms were detected by rapidly turning off these magnets, thereby eliminating the magnetic minimum and releasing any antiatoms contained in the trap. Once released, these antiatoms quickly hit the trap wall, whereupon the positrons and antiprotons in the antiatoms annihilated. The antiproton annihilations produce easily detected signals; we used these signals to prove that we trapped antihydrogen. However, our technique could be confounded by mirror-trapped antiprotons, which would produce seemingly-identical annihilation signals upon hitting the trap wall. In this paper, we discuss possible sources of mirror-trapped antiprotons and show that antihydrogen and antiprotons can be readily distinguished, often with the aid of applied electric fields, by analyzing the annihilation locations and times. We further discuss the general properties of antiproton and antihydrogen trajectories in this magnetic geometry, and reconstruct the antihydrogen energy distribution from the measured annihilation time history.Comment: 17 figure