Rethinking the Building Performance Gap: A Multi‑Perspective Stakeholder Analysis of Passive Cooling in Nigeria’s Sahelian School Context

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@article{1718164,
      author = {Samaila umar, Kabiru Auduwa, Aisha Ahmed Alkali},
      title = {Rethinking the Building Performance Gap: A Multi‑Perspective Stakeholder Analysis of Passive Cooling in Nigeria’s Sahelian School Context},
      journal = {Iconic Research And Engineering Journals},
      year = {2026},
      volume = {9},
      number = {11},
      pages = {3855-3863},
      issn = {2456-8880},
      url = {https://www.irejournals.com/formatedpaper/1718164.pdf},
      abstract = {The gap between design intent and real thermal conditions in buildings is well-documented, but its institutional and stakeholder aspects in public-sector architecture in hot-dry regions remain unexplored. This study examines passive cooling in public schools in Nigeria's Sahelian zone, analysing published case studies from many perspectives. The study investigates the competing logics of architects, public works authorities, and school users using secondary analysis of 32 carefully chosen case studies. The performance gap is caused by competing stakeholder logics, including officials' cost- and schedule-driven decisions, security policies embedded in institutional rules, and professional norms that equate "modern" with concrete. Institutional theory explains how coercive (procurement rules), mimetic (industry imitation), and normative (professional expectations) influences work together to maintain this disparity. This study presents the Institutionally Mediated Thermal Performance (IMTP) paradigm, which combines adaptive comfort, performance gap, and institutional theories to explain how these influences consistently change design results and limit occupant adaption. The article presents a stakeholder-centered analytical approach for analysing building performance in Global South contexts. Policy recommendations include implementing interim thermal compliance checkpoints during construction and changing procurement criteria to incorporate life-cycle cost analysis.},
      month = {May},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.64388/IREV9I11-1718164}
  }