ABSTRACT
Tourism is a phenomenon that engineers growth and development of any community or nation through promotion of traditional values, arts, crafts and resource centres. It embraces activities that are of broad appeal for the population. It provides the outlets to appreciate the diversities as well as the complexities of cultures and industries, in addition creating a magnificent uniqueness which adventurers and mountaineers would cherish worldwide.
However, tourism is said to be a major economic activity worldwide, available statistics show that it employs about 6% of the world’s labour force, and this figure is increasing daily with growth in population, and the discovery of new attractions. Nigeria, unlike most nations has not tapped in to the vast and abundant attractions that abound in the Country. Tourism in Nigeria is like our precious coal, the hidden treasures which when lit, shines like rosebuds. If Nigeria is to partake in this present global tourist trend, then there is need to develop and improve facilities and infrastructure in the country.
This thesis will elaborate on the potentials of tourism in Plateau State and making provision for the development of a tourist resort in Shere Hills. A tourist resort is essentially developed for the sojourn of tourists, providing multiple facilities for their recreation, accommodation, leisure and other needs. The development of a resort in most cases involves altering the natural and cultural environmental settings which tourist comes to see and enjoy.
The thrust of this work is to proffer design solutions that will not be foreign to the host environment. It would also be a design that is subservient to the local environment.
In line with this, the design emphasizes on the use of the cultural landscape as a means of enhancing the natural and cultural environments and also the minimization of developmental impacts on the environment.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
• Introduction
Tourism has been a rapidly growing sector and a wide sweeping socio- economic phenomenon with broad economic, social, cultural and environmental consequences. It is likely that tourism will continue to dominate the international scene for many years to come. As a result of increasing human activities and the inherent degradation of the environment through these activities, there has been a conscious effort towards protecting the environment.
This consciousness has led to the development of a great number of alternative forms of tourism in the last decade. Various names are used to demonstrate the typologies of the environmentally conscious tourism viz ‘Green, ‘soft’, ‘Eco’, “sustainable, ‘responsible’ or ‘alternative’ tourism are some of the terms used to describe this “new tourism”.
The emergence of this “new tourism” has prompted the need for a rethink in the way we plan, design and construct our tourist environment. According to David Waan, in his book Biologic, “poor design is more often responsible for environmental problems. The overall consequence of these problems is environmental degradation. Environmental degradation as a problem could be looked at from two perspectives, namely; pollution of the environment and depletion of natural and cultural resources.
The continued use of natural resources without appropriate measures to either replace or preserve them, may jeopardize the lives of future generations. As a result of the magnitude of this problem, sustainable practice in architecture has been proposed as the best possible solution to environment degradation. Sustainable simply means rethink in the way architects approach design.
Sustainability according to European charter “is a process wherein responsible consumption, so as to minimize waste and interact in balanced ways with natural environments and cycles is practiced”. Therefore, sustainable practice entails environmentally sustainable developments. This type of development aims to balance human needs with the carrying capacity of the environment. This balance can only be achieved through minimization of impacts, minimization of importation of goods and energy conservation intents as well as minimization of waste generation. It also tries to capture the vernacular architectural style of the locality which entails cultural preservation.
• statement of research problems
Sustainable development has always tended towards the humane and regenerative approaches to the use of resources to achieve highly functional built forms or spatial enclosures that guarantee minimal distortion of the natural environment and accommodating the users and any other component of such environment. Since the object of any sustainable development is to protect the sanctity of a place, its people and its spirit through architecture. This has always been lacking in the architectures that had preceded this century.
The capital-intensive nature of construction and maintenance of buildings which are mainly due to the uncontrolled exploitation of resources especially in less developed countries has made it imperative to find ways of reducing the cost of building as well as their impact on the environment and the preservation of the special characteristics of the environment that attracts people.
Therefore the theses will attempt to propose a savoury solution that will carter for the needs of the visitors and to complement the sites natural attractions as well as capture the spirit of the place by responding and conforming to the traditional layout (the decentralised clusters) common to the middle belt region of Nigeria (Sa’ad and Ogunsusi 1996) as well as being organic with the buildings seemingly growing out of the site.
• Motivation
The main motivating factor for this thesis stems from the recent drive by the democratic dispensation to boost the Nigerian tourism sector with the intention of attracting foreign interest in our country, which by and large will be a boost to our economy. Another factor is the recognition given Pusdung festival by the federal government as one of the festivals to be adopted as a national cultural festival. This recognition is as a result of the importance of the festival and its unrivalled place as one of the largest cultural festivals in Nigeria.
• aims and objectives
The aim of this study is to find architectural solutions that guarantee the well-being and coexistence of inorganic elements, living organisms and humans within a cultural concordant spatial context in a recreation environment. To achieve this aim, the following objectives will be pursued.
• Establishing a harmonious combination of modern and local technologies with as much local materials as possible to realise a homogenous design typology.
• To create an environment that will encourage to a good degree social interaction amongst the people.
• To create a resort that will be subordinate to the environment, this is in the spirit of sustainability.
• Create a serene and conducive environment that will provide a unique holiday experience where man is in a symbiotic relationship with nature.
• Research methodology
• Primary sources of data
The researcher will investigate sources of data based on their relevance to the research field of sustainability. Primary source of data will be through case studies of existing resort developments in Nigeria and abroad. Case studies are an essential ingredient in this research because they offer practical knowledge of how sustainable concepts have been incorporated in to real-life situations.
A set of criteria for selecting case studies was adopted based on the research topic. An important criterion is the use of sustainable building materials, which involves sourcing materials locally. Another criterion for selecting the case studies is how the vernacular style of architecture has been incorporated into the design. Other criteria to be considered include waste management/ prevention and the conservation of natural resources, and efficient energy management in resort developments.
In light of the above criteria, 10 local case studies were analysed, and two were selected because they met some of the criteria mentioned above.
Two foreign case studies were also selected. The local case studies selected are Obudu cattle ranch resort in Cross River State and La Campagne Tropicana beach resort in Lagos. Obudu cattle ranch provides valuable lessons on sustainability. Over dependence on mechanical systems has been clearly avoided and locally sourced building materials have been extensively used. An attempt was also made to preserve the natural environment by planning developments in such a way that some places are preserved. In La Campagne Tropicana resort, artificial energy mechanisms have been adopted to reduce discomfort associated with high humidity regions like Lagos. Spaces for cultural performances and local crafts have been provided to encourage the indigenous people to be part of the development.
The lessons learned from theses case studies will be compared with literature review to assist in forming a design brief that will make the proposal better than the existing resources in the area of sustainable development.
• Secondary sources of data.
Secondary sources of data will be the review of relevant literature on tourism and sustainability. These sources are unpublished thesis/ dissertations, journals, articles magazines and books on sustainable tourism developments. More recent and up to date materials will be sourced here.
• Research scope
The architecture of resort development more often tries to only meet tourist’s needs with very little thought given to preservation of these attractions people come to see. The consequence of this is environmental degradation.
This thesis will be delimited to the creation of a serene and conducive environment that will provide a unique holiday experience where man is in a symbiotic relationship with nature.
It will cover other aspects of sustainability such as minimising generation of waste and energy consumption. The research will also deal with the vernacular style of architecture and the use of alternative sources of energy like solar and wind.
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