A Theoretical Framework for Contextually Grounded Sustainable Architecture in Sub-Saharan African Cities

Sustainable architecture in sub-Saharan African cities has been predominantly theorised and operationalised through frameworks imported from European and North American contexts, embedding assumptions about climate, technology access, construction systems, social organisation, and cultural value that do not correspond to the realities of African urban development. This dissertation argues for the development of an original theoretical framework that grounds sustainable architectural practice in the specific ecological, social, cultural, and economic conditions of sub-Saharan African cities, using Nigerian cities as the primary empirical context. The theoretical framework is constructed through three methodological stages: a critical genealogy of imported sustainable architecture frameworks and their epistemological assumptions; an empirical investigation of environmental, social, and cultural sustainability values as articulated by architectural practitioners, community leaders, and built environment researchers across six Nigerian cities representing diverse geopolitical zones; and a synthesis producing a contextualised sustainability framework with original conceptual contributions. The framework's original contributions include a social-ecological sustainability matrix specifically calibrated to informal urban conditions, a cultural sustainability dimension that foregrounds intergenerational built knowledge transmission as a sustainability resource, and a context-responsive technology readiness threshold applicable to material and system selection in low-resource construction environments. Validation through application to design projects in three Nigerian cities demonstrates the framework's capacity to generate substantially different design outcomes than imported frameworks on identical briefs. The dissertation makes an original contribution to sustainable architecture theory and to postcolonial built environment scholarship, challenging the epistemological hegemony of Northern sustainability frameworks in Southern contexts. Keywords: sustainable architecture theory, sub-Saharan Africa, postcolonial urbanism, contextual sustainability, Nigerian cities.