AN EVALUATION OF APARTMENT DESIGN FLEXIBILITY PERTAINING TO APARTMENT AFFORDABILITY IN LSDPC ESTATES, LAGOS, NIGERIA

Affordability of apartment design began with incorporation of flexibility attributes into the apartment design to accommodate the biosocial life of the urban dwellers. There was no evidence that the connectivity between apartment affordability and apartment design flexibility had been explored in the study area. This study aimed to investigate the apartment design flexibility in relation to apartment affordability in government-built estates in Lagos, Nigeria. A purposive case study of three estates was adopted. Structured survey methods were employed for data collection. 10% of sample population was used as sample size which amounted to 270 units. Systematic random sampling of apartment was employed. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics. The major finding revealed that partitionability had highest significant influence on affordability of apartment in the study area. Dolphin II and Odonla Estates had higher affordability of the partitionability design of the apartment. Odonla and Amuwo-Odofin Estates had higher affordability of the extendibility design of the apartment. Odonla Estate had the highest affordability of the expandability design of the housing units. The study discovered the usage of apartment design flexibility as an indicator of measuring apartment affordability. There is opportunity in this area of research to be explored in future. The will assist the stakeholders in the built environment to improve on the conceptualisation of apartment design. The study affirms that the partitionability attribute of flexibility design could be incorporated into design-based affordability of apartment at point of creation.