Browsing by Author "Makachia, Peter"

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Architecture and planning under different political systems
(2015-05-19) 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”.
Architecture and planning under different political systems
(ARC, 2014) Makachia, Peter
City Culture and society
(URP, 2011-12-04) Makachia, Peter
In her century of existence, Nairobi has served as a laboratory of various housing strategies targeting the indigenous Africans and the poor. Discriminated based on racial segregation during colonisation, the poor have also been the object of post-colonial economic marginalisation. Consequently informal settlements and dweller-initiated transformations of formal housing has become their only mode of urban domicile. The paper looks at the later model and isolates the strategic policy and design choices that have guided the dwellers’ drive to transform the provided houses. The investigation uses an historical review of related literature in existing housing estates in city’s Eastlands’ District. Further, a case study of Kaloleni Rental Estate from the district was undertaken. The resultant dwellings point to informalisation leading to deterioration through use of ‘temporary’ materials and unplanned space uses in these formal schemes. The strategies based on modernist templates which ignored consultation, local cultural spatial paradigms and basic functional needs are faulted for the proliferation of these undue transformations that compromise the living environments. Further, the continued lack of tenant security in transforming dwellings has aided in the continual physical and social deterioration of neighbourhoods. The recommendations include a phased design guided densification model, socially inclusive through the incorporation of the existing dwellership and their participation.
Control of Energy in Offices in Nairobi
(Nairobi University, 2012) Makachia, Peter
Heavily glazed office buildings in the Kenyan Capital City Nairobi, common in recent times does not augur well for a micro and macro architectural environment. This has a consequent negative impact on energy use in office spaces. By use of computer simulations, traditional tools and literature review glazing use in office fenestration is analysed and its implications for architectural design investigated. The results indicate a direct relationship between the variable parameters of glazing type and size, glazed opening orientation, shading devices and control of energy loads within the office spaces and the objective of human comfort in the office spaces. In conclusion it is recommended that optimum levels of glazing size and type as well as suitable glazing orientations for architectural use in office buildings in Nairobi.
Control of Energy in Offices in Nairobi
(Nairobi University, 2009) Makachia, Peter
Heavily glazed office buildings in the Kenyan Capital City Nairobi, common in recent times does not augur well for a micro and macro architectural environment. This has a consequent negative impact on energy use in office spaces. By use of computer simulations, traditional tools and literature review glazing use in office fenestration is analysed and its implications for architectural design investigated. The results indicate a direct relationship between the variable parameters of glazing type and size, glazed opening orientation, shading devices and control of energy loads within the office spaces and the objective of human comfort in the office spaces. In conclusion it is recommended that optimum levels of glazing size and type as well as suitable glazing orientations for architectural use in office buildings in Nairobi.
A cost modelling design strategy for Dweller- initiated transformations in urban housing
(Construction industry development, 2005-10-11) Makachia, Peter
Design strategy and informal transformations in urban housing
(Springer, 2011-06-09) Makachia, Peter
Dweller-initiated transformations are mostly chided for their apparent locational spontaneity that is often at variance with functional and aesthetic objectives in formal housing design. This presumes speculator-driven motives as sole reasons for the phenomenon, and yet others, including the social and physical functional objectives also underlie the processes. The paper uses empirical findings from Nairobi housing estates Buru-Buru; a middle-income estate and Kaloleni; a Council rental estate to illustrate physical qualities in informal transformations of formal housing. Using measurements and illustrative material, the results show a (sub)-conscious rationale that generates tenements while also retaining the desired socio-spatial qualities of the middle-income neighborhood. It is posited that a design strategy that is responsive to the varied objectives of economy, social and physical spatial demands of housing should inform concepts in housing design. This is aimed at enhancing environmental qualities of formal housing that emerge when faced with unilateral transformations.
Housing strategies in Kenyan towns and dweller-initiated transformations-Case estates from Nairobi
(Association of civil engineers, geotechnical engineers, archtects and town planers, 2011-12) Makachia, Peter
Housing demand in Nairobi city has exceeded her rapid population growth culminating in shortage, contributory to informal settlements, and now increasingly attributed to dweller-initiated transformation in formal housing. Although additive transformations, manifest as extensions, are responsible for needed additional housing stock, the paper appends the supporting view that qualitative value-addition fulfilling socio-economic needs are also central to the dwellers’ objectives. In first part, the paper traces the historical evolution and the structure of the city’s housing strategies. Favored by her British colonial heritage, these strategies were concurrent with the modernist paradigm and sensationalized as ‘provider’ housing template. The independent state policies hardly deviated from the same premise. This however contradicted participative strategies of the ‘supporter’ paradigm. The paper posits that the absence of dweller participation lends these projects to unilateral transformations prevailing in formal housing in Nairobi. Using two case study projects at Buru-Buru and Kaloleni, the magnitude and nature of the transformations are related. The findings draw a link to the housing consumption model of ownership or rental, as well as the physical design strategy of the estate, clusters grouping entity and dwelling unit. Further, the common negative view of transformations is dispelled in recognition of the conscious enhancement of spatial quality in the transformed estates that promotes the conviviality of the neighborhoods. The only noted negative quality of transformations is use of transient technology and materials which however is directly related to the lack of tenure and other rights to the locations. These lead to the conclusions that the ingredients of strategy guiding positive outcomes from transformations include an increased sense of security of tenure and appropriate physical strategies for inevitable transformations by designers.
Influence of House Form on Dweller-Initiated Transformations in Urban Housing
(2015-05-19) Makachia, Peter
Dweller-initiated transformations in housing are grudgingly being recognized as an alternative mode of producing dwellings in cities, particularly in the developing world. However, the environments generated are often wanting, inviting designers in housing to redress their position. The paper investigates the inhibition of house-form on the quality of dweller-initiated transformations. Paired estate case study evaluations using observations, functional and spatial analyses in Nairobi, Kenya are used. It isolates typological strategies that encompass 1) grouping, 2) storeys, 3) courtyards and 4) detachment in unit(s) design and analyze the ensuing transformation type. The analysis is based on the resulting transformation type including; 1) function (residential or otherwise), 2) form and magnitude (plinth area, ground coverage and storeys) and 3) technology (permanence or temporal). The study confirms the inhibitions of form to dweller-initiated transformation in housing design strategy and proposes a strategic approach that envisages the phenomenon. It places the phenomenon in policy directions for housing production.
The Influence of the Tenure System to the Physical Environments in Nairobi’s Human Settlements
(2015-05-19) 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.
Participative Design for Urban Housing
(2015-05-19) 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.
Transformation of Housing in Nairobi
(2015-05-19) 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.