Transformation of Housing in Nairobi

Abstract

Dwellers in public housing undertake transformations that lead to compromised environments in housing neighborhood. Architectural strategies do not envisage this trends and this had led to questionable environmental qualities. The study investigated these strategies and their contribution to the prevailing scenario. A literature study explored theoretical writings and empirical work from within Kenya and elsewhere. Key to these studies was the three tenets of social, economic, and physical attainment as central to the dweller’s efforts for functional fulfilment. However, the physical spatial aspects of the strategy used, found wanting were least explored in these readings, and this formed the basis for the study’s conceptual framework. Case study estates of Buru-Buru and Kaloleni in Nairobi city formed the location of the empirical investigation. Qualitative and quantitative data that used various techniques including questionnaire and semi-structured interviews, digital photography and mapping, measurements and analyses of project and archival drawings, which were analysed using both qualitative and quantitative techniques and confirmed the prevalence to the phenomenon.