Uploaded on 2015-06-03 by docpaige

[1]: https://edxuploads.s3.amazonaws.com/14333530173780848.jpg This picture was taken by me of a residential building construction in a ranch resort in Obudu Nigeria discovered by a Scots rancher in 1949. The house is built on the plateau of a mountain about 3000m above sea level surrounded by virgin land/vegetation untouched by human activities. It is a very beautiful location with semi-temperate climate. The temperature ranging from 10 degrees to about 25 degrees on the very hot day. The weather is of two extremes very wet and very dry. During the rainy season it rains every day from April to October and owing to the closeness to the sky there is a lot of moisture in the air and the building could sometimes be covered in clouds owing to the high altitude. During the dry season the weather is usually very dry and there is minimal moisture or rain rather the moisture in the land and wood are completely absorbed into the atmosphere during this period resulting in bush fires and very dry wood. With this in mind the choice of material used in the finishing of the exterior are carefully selected to ensure that they are weather-proof. Most of the material used in the construction are concrete, cement and sand. The sand and granite/gravel used is excavated very close to the site while the cement is produced about 200 kilometers away from the site. The iron rods used in the pillars were produced 300kms away from the site using recycled scrap metal.Wood/bamboo would have been the best and cheapest alternative for the construction of the building but it is a very difficult material to manage when used for the exterior. During the rainy season the timber absorb a lot of moisture and the wood dry up during the dry season resulting in a lot of expansion and contraction of the wood and ultimately the wood start to rot after a few years. Wood is only used for the roof rafters as they would be covered by the roofing sheets. An element of a globalised economy depicted in this picture is the roofing sheet. It is popularly known as Gerard roof tiles imported from New Zealand composed of about 1mm thick aluminium coated with sandcrete and colours/paint are oven baked/incorporated for aesthetics. An alternative to this material would have been thatch roof, which is readily available in the vicinity of the construction, but the durability of the roofing sheet and the lack of maintenance, makes it a material of choice over the thatch roof, even though the thatch roof is a relatively cheaper material to use. The choice of the roofing sheet is also a symbol of prestige and class in addition to its advantage of durability.