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James Cubitts Architects and James Cubitt Interiors host the Mixer, an evening of Connection, Conversation, and Forward Motion to celebrate the recent achievement of the Abuja Trade Center’s completion.
The Center opens up space for thinkers, builders and believers in the African design potential. It is an edifice signifying integrated thinking, cultural depth and continental relevance as it showcases how collaboration between disciplines elevates results.
Alan Davies, Chairman of James Cubitts Architects, while welcoming guests, says sustainability remains a core advantage to the organisation. Maintaining that some buildings are recyclable without having to be demolished and rebuilt, Davies iterates that the firms are expecting that more buildings will be renovated externally rather than being renovated internally.
Read also: Green Building Council Nigeria deepens collaboration to attain greener future in Nigeria
In his words, “Detailing a building is paramount as this determines whether the project is run to budget and program.” Highlighting carbon emissions, the renowned architect stresses that, “Cutting of emissions means the more you can protect a building from heat gain and excessive use of energy, reducing the amount of energy expended or air conditioning obviously are going to create a lot more energy efficient environment within the building.”
Meanwhile, Tubi Otitooluwahe, Associate Director of James Cubitt Architects still harping on sustainability, says the firm’s focus is on employing data and technology to provide value-added services. It is pushing for lower energy consumption buildings and the efficient use of materials.
In a period when mist buildings are collapsing in Nigeria, Otitooluwa says, ‘Buildings are not just shelters anymore. When you design a building, the difference between a comfort level of the building when it comes to the occupiers affects productivity and eventually profitability because if people are not productive, they are not profitable.’
Speaking about the use of data to generate built decisions, he expresses that fieldings generate information that can help to form design decisions. So using technology by building information modelling and also understanding the data that these buildings are generating, for example, comfort level in the building to inform decisions on how to design, is actually something that has been honed while providing value-added services.
Read also: Sustainable Building Conference
Even as the world is moving towards energy efficiency in building materials, they believe that energy consumption is very key because one could have spent some money to build, but the running cost of that building is for the lifetime. Otitooluwa expresses, ‘So if we can save you by design 15 per cent of the energy cost per year, we have saved you a lot over the lifetime of the building, ‘ he emphasises.
Still on that note, Jacqueline Aki, Managing Partner of James Cubitt Interiors, speaking on emerging challenges, admits there is an aversion to adapting to technology in a lot of businesses.
Most business executives are not natives of technology. Unfortunately, as we would have it, people who work for them are mostly natives of technology- millennials, Gen Zs. These ones understand it, she maintains.
Aki advises business owners to adopt a reverse-mentorship approach as a forward-thinking mechanism, simultaneously involving the tech-savvy generation who would help them see through their lenses.
