Speaker
Description
Geraldine, A. C.
IMO STATE POLYTECHNIC OMUMA
chinweaneke09@gmail.com
Track: Research, Innovation and Knowledge Ecosystems
Nigerian tertiary education Institutions are at a critical crossroads. The choice is between remaining locked in traditional architectural designs and adopting smart, climate-responsive building approach to drive teaching, research, and sustainability. Currently, most campus architectural infrastructures are rarely designed with regional climate possibilities and smart technologies in mind. There is also a paucity of literature on the integration of smart technologies and climate reality in Nigerian higher education ecosystem. Available research dwells mostly outside the corridors of the education sector. Therefore, the call for transformation is urgently imperative, as the 21st century comes with attending consequences of climate change—one greatest threat to humans. Remedying climate change needs changing the methods in which these educational institutions are designed, constructed, managed, used, and maintained. This study is a call, urging governments and stakeholders in the higher education sector across Nigeria to take decisive steps towards prioritizing integrated smart buildings as a fundamental upgrade and institution-wide strategies for sustainable campus infrastructure. While adopting a qualitative research method with data analysis focusing on selected public tertiary schools in Nigeria, this paper calls for a push beyond piecemeal interventions and towards innovation-driven, sustainable, and resilient institutions capable of driving the UN's SDGs and the AU Agenda 2063. Preliminary findings reveal that smart architectural technologies optimize energy consumption, enhance occupant comfort, reduce construction waste, cut costs and save time. This research takes on Bio-climatic Architecture Theory while proposing a phased implementation framework, outlining needs in digital infrastructure and use.