COCOA HOTELS, AKURE (ACHIEVING SUSTAINABILITY IN BUILDINGS)

Abstract

The oxford dictionary defines a hotel as an establishment providing accommodation, meals, and other services for travelers and tourists” on a broader scale a hotel can also be defined as a commercial establishment providing lodging, meals, and other guest services. For a developing country such as Nigeria, hotels make up a significant number of the projects being embarked upon by the government and private investors especially in states seeking to develop their tourism sector. In creating a hotel space that efficiently meets the purpose of its conception (comfort being one of the strong reasons) by providing adequate facilities within the building space these hotel buildings during their construction process and the lifecycle of the building often adversely affect the natural environment, theses adverse effects are the issues that the concept sustainability seeks to address. Since the early 1970’s and in recent times allot of concern has been expressed about how the activities of man has had a negative impact on his environment and how these activities can further affect future generations also taking into consideration the cumulative effects of such impacts. This remains one of the prominent issues and aspirations in the countries of the world at large. Nigeria has over the experienced a rapid economic and population growth with the creation of urban centers and the establishment of industries but in the midst of all this the issue of sustainable development has not been adequately factored in and as such most of these recent developments have had adverse effects on the environment. The issue of sustainability has just begun to gain some grounds among the various stake holders in the built environment. The aim of this research is to design an eco-friendly hotel that achieves the goals of sustainable architecture and enhances comfort. Also in doing so this study seeks to highlight the various ways in which sustainability can be incorporated into the design and construction of buildings, specifically a hotel building through the choice of construction methods, construction processes, choice of materials and finishes and alternative sustainable energy sources required for servicing the building among others. This study will also seek to integrate these sustainable solutions and alternatives into the design of a proposed 5-star Hotel (Cocoa Hotel) for Akure town in other to achieve sustainability while fulfilling its function of providing comfort and relaxation for its users. In order to achieve the aims of this study some of the tools to be used include; carrying out literature review of existing literature, conducting case studies on existing building schemes similar to this study. This study has found that sustainability when integrated into buildings can have immense environmental, social and economic benefits. Its shows that there are other basic and less expensive strategies buildings could adopt in order to achieve sustainability. And as such the study recommends that the government and various stakeholders of the building industry should begin to apply some of these sustainable strategies and bring the general public into an awareness of sustainability and its significance. The study contributes towards the integration of sustainability into the Hotel design.