Acceptability of Corbel Construction for Housing Development in Ogbomoso, Southwest, Nigeria

Abstract

This study assesses the knowledge and attitude of people on the use of corbel arch for lintel construction to reduce concreting in housing construction. Ogbomoso was the case study and Ikose community was purposively selected being a fringe area receiving an influx of people from the city. Google earth and ground-truthing were used in capturing one hundred and eighty-nine inhabited houses and questionnaire was the instrument for data collection and was administered to collect information on the socio-economic background of respondents, knowledge of material and willingness to utilise. Descriptive statistics were employed in the presentation of findings; chi-square was used to test the relationship between characteristics of residents and willingness to adopt the material. Analysis showed that 32.5% were 51-60 years; 60.4% were male; while 62.1% of the respondents were married. Also, 38.2% had modern/ secondary/technical/teacher’s grade II certificate, while 38.1% were traders. Only 12.1% of respondents knew the material, 68.5% were willing to utilise based on availability within the environment and ability to mitigate the effect of climate change, while 57.1% will recommend its usage. Gender, educational background, income and access to information are significantly related to willingness to utilise the material (P =0.000). Suggestions were made towards factoring the material into housing policies in Nigeria.