Social Housing, Community of Kariobangi South, Nairobi, Kenya
A master planning and building design project, initially for 500 houses. Working with Kariobangi community we developed a low cost house model based on a courtyard pattern and shared walls. Each house featured a street-side ‘Dollar Room’ intended as a means of income generation through rent or business, enabling the house owners to obtain mortgages. The houses thus had far reaching social and economic implications for the owners. The unique aspect of this part of Kariobangi was the fact that although poor its residents had titles to the land. The project won the DESIGN FOR AN EMERGING WORLD - FUTURE COMMUNITIES PROJECT award at CITYSCAPE 2006 in Dubai. The international jury said “This apparently simple approach to creating a new environment for a poor community is in fact based on a sophisticated analysis”. It was shortlisted in the RIBA SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITY BY DESIGN competition and featured in a travelling RIBA exhibition. UN Habitat invited Studio Bednarski to present the project at UH Habitat in Nairobi.
- Client :
- Community of Kariobangi
- Value :
- est. US$10m
