Browsing by Author "Balarabe, Muhammad Kabir"

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Open Access
Energy efficiency in residential buildings using nano-wood composite materials
(IAEME Publication, 2018-03) Shema, A. I.; Balarabe, Muhammad Kabir; Alfa, M. T.; Balarabe, Muhammad Kabir
Wood is one of the conventional building materials in the world, due to its availability and sustainability in nature. The electric and thermal conductivity of wood have made it exceptional among the other conventional construction materials. Nevertheless, wood has deficiencies such as deterioration as a result of fungal and insect attack, vulnerability to fire and dimensional variability to water absorption. Nanotechnology has been in use in other scientific and technological fields for long period of time, but it is still fresh to some extent in architecture. When nanotechnology is applied to the conventional wood, a nono-wood composite will be produce with enhanced properties such as mechanical strength, fire resistance, durability, water immersion. This paper is aimed at examining how wood as a conventional building material can be enhanced using nanotechnology. It further consıders the conservation of energy in residential buildings through the building integrated nano-wood technology.
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Metaspace, mobility and resistance: Understanding vendors’ movement pattern as a resistive strategy in Kano, Nigeria
(Sage, 2020-11) Balarabe, Muhammad Kabir; Şahin, Murat; Architecture; ŞAHİN, Murat; Balarabe, Muhammad Kabir
The street vendor's (SV) potential mobility in subverting authorities' hegemony over public space has been theorised within the contexts of urban informality and resistance. Discussions mainly revolve around movement tactics as resistance strategy while evading arrests and confiscations. This negates SV agency and limits understanding mobility in resistance. Using Bunschoten's metaspace and Cresswell's aspects of mobility, this paper employs semi-structured interviews with mobile SV, road users and pedestrians in Kano (Nigeria), to describe vendors' mobile practices and how they delay hostility from the state. Observing the interplay between vendors, users and environment, this paper identifies four types of vendor movement: focused, targeted, sporadic and self-regulatory; and examines how vendors exploit Cresswell's speed and rhythm in challenging formal urban practice hegemony through continuous operation. The paper also describes how vendors' movement affects other actors' mobilities. Finally, the paper discusses urban design implications for integrating SV within city plans, setting out potential proposals.
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Street vendors' adaptive strategies and the dynamic nature of urban space: Developing an integrative framework in Kano, Nigeria
Balarabe, Muhammad Kabir; Şahin, Murat; Şahin, Murat; Karahan, Ebru Ergöz; Tekçe, Işılay; Polatoğlu, Ç.; Gülmez, N. Ü.; Department of Design, Technology and Society; Balarabe, Muhammad Kabir
This thesis attempts to develop a framework that integrates street vendors within the urbanscape. Spaces within the cities are increasingly becoming scares and valuable, resulting in increased competition for them. Coupled with the desire by city administrators and capital interest in create an ideal vision for a city, street vendors are, as a result, pushed away for potentially viable vending locations. However, as is in the global south, vendors are critical services provider to both the formal and informal sector. Additionally, the methods up till now employed to redress these gaps are falling short. Different approached have been taken, such as the design/planning approach, the inclusivity/people/procedural approach, the organisational approach. All have set out strategies for incorporating street vendors, from the mundanity spatial allocation, rethinking vending instrument design, to suggesting urban planning/design process. Despite their attempts, hostile actions and evictions have continued, emphasising their ineffectiveness at integration. Conversely, the number of vendors is increasing despite hostilities. This has created a vicious circle, one counterproductive to the cities, vendors, and users. Within this regard, set to create an alternative, integrative framework informed by the everyday experience of vendors, and the perception of professional and urban users. Taking Kano as a site of investigation, three streets (MM-Way, DEL and SSA) were selected using space syntax methods in conjunction with other qualitative criteria. Street vendors' (ambulatory and non-ambulatory) behavioural mapping was conducted to ascertain the categories and type of vending activities along each street, as well as study their spatial practices and external influences exerted on them. In the philosophical tradition of constructivism, vendors selected through snowball sampling were interviewed and thematically analysed to gain more in-depth knowledge into their adaptive strategies while operating. Users and professional views were sought out to establish the perception of each group towards street vending within the city. The result showed views in a converging, diverging and equivalence range among users and professional. This is translated as an opportunity for co-opting allies. Combining the date with literature regarding integrative approaches, a multidisciplinary framework was developed that placed street vendor's spatial techniques as the entry frame for proposing integration into new and existing geographies. A combination of the result shows that the framework can act as a retrofit, the views espoused by the participant as gauges in evaluating the diversity of participation processes while avoiding tokenism. Finally, street vendors design adaptions were domesticated within the resistance narrative complementary to the conceptions developed within urban sociology.