Doctoral research on architecture in Nigeria: Exploring domains, extending boundaries

Abstract

This paper explored through a literatu rereview, the domains of research in Architecture and the nature of doctoral research, with a view to contributing to the evolving rese archagenda in the Nigerian context. The research method involved a descriptive and thematic analysis of the titles and abstracts of complete ddoctoral theses in Architecture in Nigeria, in the last 26 years (1990–2015), complemented by semi-structured interviews with six key informants.The study revealed an emphasis on Housing-related topics (34%) relative to other research modules, such as' History and Theory' (20%) and 'Design and Production' (18%). It also reflected the limited coverage and scope of current research, relative to the global terrain, as evidenced in the article titles and contents of 45 Architecture-related Journals.The results of the interviews indicated the strong influence of supervisors'areas of interest in the choices of thesis titles. It highlighted reasons for the perceived focus on Housing,which reflect its unique place and multi-disciplinary nature.It concluded that extending the boundaries of architectu ralresearch at the doctoral level could be beneficial to the discipline and profession in Nigeria in order to align with global trends, while keeping cognizance of the local contexts.

Keywords

Architectural research / Doctoral / Domain / Housing / Nigeria / Researchagenda

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.