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Impact Factor (2025): 6.9
DOI Prefix: 10.47001/IRJIET
Impact Factor (2025): 6.9
DOI Prefix: 10.47001/IRJIET
Vol 10 No 5 (2026): Volume 10, Issue 5, May 2026 | Pages: 518-529
International Research Journal of Innovations in Engineering and Technology
OPEN ACCESS | Research Article | Published Date: 26-05-2026
Nigeria has a serious housing shortfall, with government estimates ranging from 14.9 to 15.2 million units as of 2025/2026, and other stakeholders reporting amounts as high as 22 million. The building sector's large contribution to national CO₂ emissions, along with rising prices, makes the issue even more difficult. This research uses a qualitative discourse analysis of policy papers, professional literature, and architectural records to investigate how regulatory, perceptual, and capacity constraints contribute to the marginalisation of Compressed Stabilised Earth Blocks (CSEBs) in Northern Nigeria. The study introduces the concept of the "vernacular-mainstream gap" a systemic separation between indigenous building knowledge and formal construction practice. It proposes a recursive causal model: regulatory exclusion professional ignorance risk aversion symbolic devaluation of earth no policy demand code remains unchanged. The findings show that CSEBs are still excluded from precise specifications in the National Building Code (2006, the current version), are linked with backwardness in professional discourse, and are mainly absent from educational courses. The discussion of counter-evidence on CSEB durability constraints is open and transparent. The article reframes cultural responsiveness as a design process rather than a material quality, suggesting that CSEBs can only provide culturally suitable housing when paired with vernacular spatial conventions like the zaure and courtyard seclusion. The suggested framework integrates regulatory reform, educational transformation, demonstration projects, post-occupancy evaluation, and community-engaged design onto the recursive model. Future research should include a testable directed hypothesis. The article suggests that institutional transformation, not merely technical advocacy, is crucial to bridge the vernacular-mainstream gap.
Compressed Stabilized Earth Blocks, Northern Nigeria, vernacular architecture, culturally responsive housing, discourse analysis, recursive causal model.
Samaila Umar, Aisha A. Alkali, & Kabiru Auduwa. (2026). Stabilized Earth Blocks in Northern Nigeria: An Architectural Inquiry into Culturally Responsive Housing and the Vernacular Mainstream Gap. International Research Journal of Innovations in Engineering and Technology - IRJIET, 10(5), 518-529. Article DOI https://doi.org/10.47001/IRJIET/2026.105072
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