The nature of the housing designs in mass housing schemes in Nigeria is a function of how architects were trained to handle mass housing designs. It is common practice to find that the houses in the majority of the mass housing schemes in Nigeria are never owner-specific. It is often assumed by architects working on mass housing schemes that the process of making the houses specific is cumbersome. The nature of the construction method of these mass housing schemes allows for the design briefs of the individual house to be different. This paper examines how a design brief in mass housing in Nigeria can be customized. This is done through the development of a customization brief model with aid of a network of computers. It is expected that if the model is applied to mass housing in Nigeria, desired houses by house owners in mass housing schemes would be met.

An examination of the curriculum of many schools of Architecture in Nigeria will reveal that the method adopted and taught to students in area of mass housing design is basically generic design principle, where emphasis is often placed on the initial cost of construction and not client needs. This method is adapted in the design brief of mass housing schemes provision. While in countries like the Netherlands, Portugal, Japan and Malaysia attempts are being made to ensure that the houses in mass housing schemes are client oriented. It is common in many mass housing schemes in Nigeria to find the individual houses appearing or being the same within the estate and similar when compared with other estates in the country. This trend creates the impression that the characteristics of house owners are the same in Nigeria. However Nigeria as a whole is characterised with different religions, household sizes, occupation, sense of beauty and cultures. An examination of the housing policies developed by the government over the years have often been considered a failure and a reason adduced for this is explained by Kadiri (2005) that the repetition of the same house type throughout the country and in cities at state level in spite of the socio-cultural differences that prevailed was a major factor