Passive Cooling Consideration in the Effective Planning and Design of Public Buildings in Nigeria

The rapid increase in the growth of Nigerian cities as a result of mass rural-urban migration has led to a demand for more public buildings. The ongoing campaign for sustainability backed up with the statistics that confronts us daily have necessitated the need to deliver more environment-friendly public buildings. This study is aimed at enhancing sustainable utilization of energy through passive cooling in the planning and delivery of public buildings with optimum design condition for users’ comfort in Nigeria. The objectives are: (i) to identify the factors that enhances the passive performance of a building (ii) to measure these factors through case study survey and post occupancy evaluation of three existing public buildings (iii) to arrive at optimum design conditions using passive cooling in public buildings. Findings showed inadequate consideration of the design strategies that enhance the passive performance of a building due to dependence on active cooling means in the public buildings visited. The paper recommended for a policy framework for the planning of public buildings and canvassed the need for professionals in the built industry to consider how key design strategies can be considered in the early stage of their design decisions that will lead to sustainable public buildings.