One of the negative effects of the high rate and pace of urbanisation in developing countries is the decay of urban centres While this decay has eaten deep into the fabric of these settlements turning them into urban slums and ghettoes with poor infrastructure the effects of the decay are multifarious Despite the fact that the economy is the lifewire of urban centres its untold downturn consequent upon urban decay is unimaginable because of the relationship that exists between environmental quality and economic growth This calls for a proactive approach called urban renewal towards the crea

Contemporary architecture has its roots from the vernacular Every cultural group in the world has its own form of vernacular though the approach may vary from place to place and from people to people Vernacular architecture has many values which are relevant to contemporary architecture today This paper looks at vernacular architecture in Nigeria as practised by two ethnic groups who have varying climatic religious and sociocultural practices The approaches to architecture by these two groups ie the Hausas and Igbos are looked at with the intention of finding positive values in the vernacul

The significance of neighbourhood in hosting a group of dwellings units and possessing adequate communal facilities could not be overemphasized in the study of people and place relationships There are two main objectives of this study i to study the neighbourhoods associated challenges through the size growth and land use distribution and ii to investigate the perceived inhabitants activities pattern within the neighbourhood The objectives are explored through a morphological and GISbased land use analysis of a rural neighbourhood in Southwest Nigeria The town is studied in three transforma