The traditional Okum Society has in the past three or more centuries had two major contacts which have impacted upon her social practices and general worldview. The first of these contacts was with the people inhabiting the eastern boarders of Obubra Local Government Area, notably the Ikom people, coming mainly through the Cross River. The second was with the Missionaries and traders and colonization later. The effect of British rule on the built environment in Okum land was very insignificant. But western planning and spatial concepts. new building materials and methods, land tenure and administration system as well as western education anti western method of public administration all combined to induce changes in domestic architecture that was erstwhile traditional to Okum people. The traditional Okum compound as a house has thus rapidly been replaced with modern homes whose spatial structures were conceived along western models. This study therefore seeks to investigate the nature of and pattern of these shifts in domestic architecture in Okum from 1960 to the end of the 20th century, in the year 2000. The study specifically evaluates and compares patterns of spaces, space use, spatial concept, spatial organization, structure of co-residency and processes involved in actualization of modern houses that are surveyed in this study.
