The 3rd edition of the ATO Annual Lecture held on Thursday the 3rd of December 2015. There were 2 guest speakers for the event. Frederic Schoeller, Architect, of Richard+Schoeller, Paris, France, spoke first. He discussed the projected population size and density for Nigeria by the year 2050 and by the year 2100 and what this could mean to Nigeria itself and to the rest of the world. He talked about amounts of space needed per capita to take care of not just housing, but agriculture, industrial production, services, entertainment etc. He talked about creating living spaces efficiently, to make the best use of the land that would now be limited. He raised the energy question and finally raised the question of cost to meet what would become urgent needs.
The second speaker was Dr. Adeleke Akintilo, Structural Engineer. His paper was titled “Concrete in Architecture – Architectural Demands and Engineering Solutions for Contemporary Structures.” Dr. Akintilo gave Architects several guidelines for structural considerations in the design of their buildings. He focused on tall buildings. He spoke about top down construction for structures with over 3 basement levels. He spoke about transfer structures especially in buildings such as hotels. He gave the rules of thumb for concrete wall thickness when designing elements like lift shafts, diaphragm walls, cantilevers and so on. He asked the Architects to consider dynamic loads when designing buildings.