Neighbourhood units in Nairobi a survey of Bahati and Ofafa 1 Estates
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Date
1989-08Author
Tuts, R.
Agevi, E.
Shihembetsa, L.U.
Type
OtherLanguage
enMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
"
During the four Workhops which have been jointly organized in Nairobi by
PGCHS, HRDU and UNCHS (Habitat), it has always been emphasized that Nairobi is
one of the richest towns in terms of variety of housing environments. At the
same time Nairobi is a city of contrasts. Some of the important types of
dwelling environments are:- large informal settlements with a rich history
such as Kibera; sprawling slum settlements such as Mathare and Kangemi; inner
city slums such as ·Pumwani; older City Commission rental estates from the
1940s and 1950s such as Kaloleni and Mb~tela; former Asian neighbourhoods such
as Pangani and Parklands; former European executive estates such as Muthaiga
and Lavington; large middle-income estates from the 1970s, such as Buru Buru;
site and service schemes such as Kariobangi and Dandora; relatively new
initiatives such as Umoja II and Pumwani NHC. There is an enormous need for
housing, but also a lot of opportunities in terms of unexplored housing
potentialities. Part of the housing stock and capacity which has been often
neglected by several authorities in the field of housing, is the belt of
Neighbourhood Units which stretches along Jogoo Road in the Eastern Part of
Nairobi.
Only now, when the pressure on land for housing in Nairobi is getting really
out of hand, some attention of the Local Authority is paid to this part of
their rental housing stock, while the Central Government has shown sone
interest too. This coincides with the growing consensus about the fact that
the service and space standards of some of these Neighbourhood Units are no
longer in tune with the current opinions of what (low-income) housing ought to
be.
So, the Nairobi City Commission is currently seriously considering the
"Redevelopment" of some of the Neighborhood Units. The term "Redevelopment"
however is very vague and many approaches are still possible. The actions to
be taken can vary from minor adjustments (e.g. additional sanitary blocks) to"
densification (e.g. infill of housing blocks in the open spaces) to the
complete demolishing of an estate (e.g. introduction of a new medium-rise
housing scheme).
It is however very evident that still a lot of questions are left unanswered.
Which estates should receive first priority ?How to increase the current
densities? What is the technical state of the art of the buildings and
infrastructure? How can one preserve the architectural qualities of some of
the estates ? What will happen to the actual inhabitants ? Many questions
touching various professional fields are raised but not yet answered.
PGCHS and HRDU have taken advantage of this burning housing issue to formulate
an architectural project during the 1989 Course of "Housing in Development".
Bahati and Ofafa I have been selected as possible project sites, because of
the priority given to them by NCC and the feeling that reasonable answers to
some of the above questions can be given for those environments. This report aims at providing a base of information so as to
project exercice as close as possible to the real situation.
hopes to stimulate the relevant authorities to reflect on
finally it could be a first stepping stone towards further
subject of Neighbourhood Units in Nairobi.
Publisher
University of Nairobi
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesUsage Rights
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/Collections
- Research Reports [210]
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