ARCHITECTURE AND SECURITY: ISSUES ON THE DESIGN OF PERIMETER FENCES IN RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS IN AKWAKUMA COMMUNITY, OWERRI NORTH L.G.A., IMO STATE.

¹NWABUNA NWOKEDI P., ²ODOM CHRISTOPHER U. and ³WODIKE OBINNA O

^1&2Department of Architectural Technology, Akanu-Ibiam Federal Polytechnic, Unwana Afikpo, Ebonyi State

³Department of Architectural Technology Rivers State College of Arts and Science Rumuola, Port Harcourt, Rivers State Nigeria

E-mail: patrickdeclan99@gmail.com;Obicks3d@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

There is a sense of security in almost all aspects of human life.  Human beings desire security; plants and animals desire security; even in animate objects such as commercial banks and institutional buildings need some form of security.  Live is so precious that it needs to be provided with the requisite security; but live goes along with the acquisition of different kinds of property, hence the talk about the security of lives and property.  Security is important in our individual lives if we must perform optimally in our chosen life endeavours; because security gives the individual peace of mind, it gives a nation an interrupted sense of progress and stability, it gives a commercial entity that sense of steady growth that enables it to be performing optimally and giving favourable returns on investment.  The provision of security through fence design can be of diverse forms and in the case of security through fence design , the argument has been made in this paper as the most appropriate means for the provision of fence design.  The approach adopted was the use of questionnaires and oral interview to collect data from randomly selected tenants and landlords from five streets in the Akwakuma neighborhood.  The data collected were analyzed and inferences drawn.  The paper therefore argues that in the architectural design of fences, it is a better security option to design fences with through views” than those without through-views (all blind walls).  It concludes that through proper awareness of the residents and architectural design of fences; neighbourhood, lives and properly can be better secured.