School of Architecture and The Built Environment
http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/863
2024-03-28T08:25:38ZTransformation of Housing in Nairobi
http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/914
Transformation of Housing in Nairobi
Makachia, Peter
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.
2015-05-19T00:00:00ZArchitecture and planning under different political systems
http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/912
Architecture and planning under different political systems
Makachia, Peter
This book was initiated at the beginning of 2013 by Sven Thiberg, the co-founder and former chairman of ARC•PEACE (International Architects/Designers/Planners for Social Respons - ibility). He then submitted an application for funding from the Swedish Association of Architects, which granted us a sum of USD 1000. This allowed us to arrange a panel debate on Architecture and Planning under Different Political Systems in connection with ARC•PEACE’s
General Assembly meeting in Vienna in April 2014. (It covered travel costs for panelists with scarce resources plus some administrative costs).
Later on an invitation was sent out calling on ARC•PEACE members to send contributions to this book. There was a tremendous response, resulting in no less than 15 willing authors. In order to support the contributors, an editorial committee was formed composed of:
Prof Emer Sven Thiberg, Sweden
Prof Emer Dick Urban Vestbro, Sweden
Dr Osman El Kheir, Sudan
Dr Lina Suleiman, Sweden/Palestine
All the papers have been examined by the editorial group. In some cases chapters were sent back to the author for revision, minor corrections or shortening.
In order to ensure that the papers would be presented in proper English, the Swedish/South African journalist Madi Gray was approached. We extend thanks to her for doing the valuable work of thorough corrections. We also thank Ingrid Sillén for offering to do the layout and final editing, and for offering to use her company for publishing the book, including marketing and taking care of orders. Her costs have been covered by a donation of SEK 10000 by the Head of Department of Urban Planning and Environment at KTH. The donation was made “in honour of our long-time co-worker Dick Urban”.
2015-05-19T00:00:00ZParticipative Design for Urban Housing
http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/904
Participative Design for Urban Housing
Makachia, Peter
In African cities, people are peripheral to architectural processes despite the fact that those processes produce buildings houses that they use and interact with every day. Laypeople’s disengagement often produces socially dysfunctional neighborhood whose residents lack both a strong sense of community and environmental awareness.
2015-05-19T00:00:00ZThe Influence of the Tenure System to the Physical Environments in Nairobi’s Human Settlements
http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/897
The Influence of the Tenure System to the Physical Environments in Nairobi’s Human Settlements
Makachia, Peter
Tenure has often been cited as the underlying reason for the wanting physical state that defines slums in Nairobi. The contrary view is that secure tenure would bestow physical environments befitting urban spaces. These positions are hardly well-supported empirically, and in fact physical depravity persists broadly across a spectrum of tenure options. This paper aims to identify the variety of land tenure systems in the slum environments of Nairobi and ascertain if this influences the physical qualities of these neighbourhoods. The underlying question is whether the spatial qualities, inside and outside the dwelling units (DUs), that prevail in slums relate to the tenure system of the settlement. The proposition is that the tenure contributes only peripherally to the physical environments in human settlements. Thus, regardless of tenure system, ‘slum’ conditions are unavoidable at various stages of a householder’s economic progression. The findings in the paper largely support this view.
2015-05-19T00:00:00Z