YOUTH DEVELOPMENT CENTRE FOR ADO-EKITI, EKITI STATE ENHANCING FACILITY PLANNING FOR YOUTH EMPOWERMENT

Abstract

Enhancing youth empowerment is essential not only for achieving social justice but also for poverty reduction. The significance of youth to national development cannot be over emphasized. This isin view oftheir high percentage in the entire population and the prospect that can accrue to the nation through gainful channeling of their talents. The aim of this thesis is therefore to proffer an avenue for harnessing, improving and developing the existing potentials and capabilities of youth living in Ekiti state for self-empowerment. Such feat can best be achieved through youth development centres which is none existence in the state. The ones in other part of Nigeria are either poorly conceived or badly maintained. Over the years various approaches have been applied at enhancing youth empowerment and it has been observed that the effectiveness and efficiency of youth programme or initiative is largely dependent on the environment in which it functions. Therefore the thesis seeks to apply an Architectural approach at enhancing youth empowerment by providing a functional and aesthetically appealing design youth development centre as a model of an effective architectural piece to resolving the highlighted problems. The task was approached through study of existing similar cases, literature search, site analysis, design programme development and design conceptualization. The outcome of the analysis of the qualitative data obtained led to the formulation of the principles that guided the design proposal, taking into consideration space allocation, functionality, lighting , ventilation and circulation. An overall appraisal of the proposed design proposal revealed high performance buildings in term of energy efficiency in the choice of material components.