ready, set...wow it's over?!?

That's how I've been feeling these last few days -the semester is over just like that! well, one more week to go but classes are done!?! Looking back at my research I am shocked at how much I have learned about home...na bado! there is so much more i don't know about my little big town...but such is the quest for knowledge the more you know the more you know you don't know, cliche but true! ( could that be the addiction knowing you'll never have enough?

I have spent the last two weeks concluding my research mainly to find a departure point- as far as design, there is so much i could choose to focus on but design is so much better when you lay out your interests hierarchically and then make a smaller list of the top things that interested you from the previous extensive list and use that to generate space.

I presented my summation to a jury this past Wednesday it went well got a positive response, many questions as usual but they did not chew me out as they often do students. My proposal is to design Toilets, Markets and Gardens, my site is a portion of Kwa Ndegwa slum near Mukuru. I have not yet selected a specific area as I hope to do that after visiting the slum, what I may perceive as a segment of the slum from Google might be various communities in one; I'd like the freedom to negotiate this kind of dynamic after i obtain enough info. about the area.

Needless to say i got a few chuckles from the students and the group, I am sure no one has opted for toilet design as their fifth year project?!?! but, some excitos accompanied the amusement so that made me feel, better, somewhat.

I look at toilets as a variety of sanitation issues including water provision for hygiene ( showers included) as well as food preparation and consumption. I am fascinated with the idea of water tanks that are habitable, a new form of bath houses more to do with communal space in the developing world than a connection to Nordic countries or those bloody Romans. The idea of Markets is to incorporate places to sell goods esp. vegetables while gardens is about the celebration of urban farming which already happens sporadically in many areas in the city.
Narrowing my focus allows me to narrow my site specific research so when i do visit my (broad) site I'll know the kind of spaces I'd like to envision in them and what cultural, psychosocial, or socio-economic aspects i will need to document while there.
Below are some of the boards i pinned up. My next step is turning my interpretation of my research into a design proposal- excited I am...you should be too, really you should!

Mid -Reviews

I had my mid reviews Tuesday, the purpose of the exercise was to introduce your subject and explain what you intended to do and how you intended to do it. It went well got a lot of feedback from faculty, there were so many questions about the issues of the city and the ultimate goal of the project they seemed to have so many ideas of where i should go next or what i should focus on...most of them helpful..some not so much.

We only had 10 min to talk about our projects introduce them and explain what we intended to research and design- i ended up taking 20...with all the historical research i had done there was a lot to explain about the city, how it works, why, what happened over the years for it to function the way it does. The hardest thing about this project, which is also the most exciting thing to me, is how different it is from anything else i have learned in architecture so far. Cities of the developing world are different, there are some common features with European and American ones but for the most part they function with a different mode of operation- this is what i intend to focus on for the next weeks. I want to pull these differences out to clarify my design considerations so hopefully by next review (on Dec. 2nd!!?!?!?!) I will be able to point out what exactly about the city and these slums stands out to me and what i am doing as a response to these issues.
These are some of the presentation boards i presented.

So much, so fast...always so little time!!!

It has been a while since i updated this page I was stuck in a zone trying to figure out my research what i was trying to get from all of it cause the set back of finding out all this wonderful information is how much of the wonderful there is; so much so that the ultimate goal of the research begins to get lost and the magnitude of the issues we face in our cities and the slums that frame these cities begins to overwhelm, discourage and squash any creativity that exists.
The truth is though that the problem is hugely overwhelming but unless we start to think of things in an out of the box, crazy lined with creative way nothing would ever get done we would all look at the situation feeling tired even before we begin and in the end do nothing because it is just too much. If I could achieve anything i would like my project to at least initiate a dialogue with the way things "could be" "if we..."
That said, that still leaves a monstrous amount of work to be done, resourcefulness to be acquired and design to be creatively executed. Good luck to me!

Tracing the Colonial Landscape

Mapping out Nairobi's colonial history has been a really interesting process, very helpful in understanding how the city developed into what it is today. My first studies begun with an analysis of Pumwani -the structural layout of the slum, location, relationship to the city...etc. I just happened to choose Pumwani by chance...I was looking at the Sidarec community center competition entries from 2007 wondering if the winning entry was really the best option for the site (from my perspective) I am planning to visit the site during my visit home...Global studio did a good job with the project design, it would be nice to see if their design transferred well into the built object...(check out the links above).

Anyway, looking at the sidarec site led me to start analyzing the surrounding slum which in turn led me to ask how, when and why this particular slum had developed. Turns out Pumwani was the first settlement officially developed under the British colonial government the first time they thought "okay the Africans are spreading all over the place lets organize them into some formal settlement before things get more out of hand."

Before this they had controlled the African population by restricting them to certain parts of the city or prohibiting them from moving into "white areas" which usually meant fertile or economically strategic land (as far as location), remember at this time Africans were not allowed to own land or build on anyone else's land but they would come into the city in search of jobs and set up informal settlements wherever they could. The settlers would often have raids where they would dismantle their homes, round them up, arrest them or deport them to reservations.
Funny to learn that the city council raids we see on TV are just a continuation of colonial behavior...

So because the colonial government did not want any permanent settlement for Africans...they purposely neglected to set up infrastructure in these areas...no roads, no water, no sewer or electricity services...they also refused families to move into the areas only allowing men to live in the city, and when they did start constructing settlements like Pumwani, they only allowed single units to be built with communal washroom areas or kitchens. The set up they preferred was for African males to work in the city for short periods and periodically return to the rural areas to visit their families this was mainly to control the population and since this same African male was refused to own property or establish permanent settlement on his own they basically had to live wherever the Brits placed them.


The single (bachelor) units settlements that developed under colonial rule became the single unit systems most slum areas use today where structures are built with about 8-10 single unit rooms measuring about 10 X 10 feet each. After independence the tenants were about one family per room unlike what we find today which is about 2-4 families per room...

Progressive Housing

At first glance it doesn't seem like much, we have all seen social housing we don't expect much from it we expect it to do the necessary, provide shelter for those less fortunate, we are never shocked when we drive by section 8 housing and the neighborhood seems a little dingy, overcrowded or even ugly.
Alejandro Aravena has different expectations Quinta Monroy is a housing complex in Iquique, chile completed in 2004. Aravena's concept is to build better housing conditions on a site previously occupied by squatters- simple so far- but his intention is to keep families on the same plots they occupied but upgrade their living conditions, this allows them to maintain emotional and work ties as well as the historical stratification of the city....the How?

He uses architecture to create basic forms to which families construct additions to accommodate their use over time. The design team uses basic technology and materials to create single family units (keeping the cost relatively low) and a plot layout that allows more than one family to occupy each allocated lot this caters to the congestion of the area but eliminates the chaos that previously existed in the slum. The firm held technical and support workshops showing the families how they could add to their homes over time creating a platform for successful transformations by equipping them with the knowledge they needed to plan and construct additions. Each unit was a basic shell with plumbing and structure provided and each family finished the house over time according to their desired aesthetic. The thinking behind this was that such a move would create a sense of ownership and pride in the community- a place that previously existed as a temporal dwelling; by his definition creating a new domestic intimacy.

I had not really considered ownership as an important factor in my design I believe creating communal spaces within a neighborhood allows different groups living in one area to interact and develop a sense of belonging but the issues raised by Aravena are crucial to my site. Slums seem to have unique cultural languages,different rules of conduct, of existence... to overcome the lack of infrastructure and temporary conditions characteristic to a slum he argues new definitions of intimacy and boundary must be created with a flexibility that allows for growth and modification, qualities innate to slum dwellings. It is hard to disagree when the progressive development of his project seem so successful...

As you look at the pics remember this area was previously covered by squatter settlements!!! that puts some perspective into it!

Beginnings

Although this is the end of my undergrad academic career it is far from a summation of my education I see it more as a synthesis of my understanding of architecture- thus far my suggestions of what architecture can do for the world we live in, why it is important to me in discovering my place, my purpose, and my work. I guess i am a product of my christian background this quest is as important to me now as is was when posed to me in Sunday school however many years ago.

I find my generation powerlessly complacent in the face of circumstance i don't know how it happened but we seem to feel content in observing life nothing stirs us into action, I hate that feeling. I remember the first time i ever understood what it was to be helpless, 1994 evening news on KBC a warning notice flashed on the screen, children were advised not to watch, adults were warned that the images would be shockingly disturbing, of course we watched. I'd never seen so many dead bodies in my life, men, women, children slashed up and flung in the streets no one was left to bury them, to honor their decency, cover their naked bodies from the rest of the world. I don't suppose it mattered nothing decent could be derived from that moment but to my young mind it seemed even more of a violation for me to see them like that.

That was the first time I remember feeling helpless, useless, powerless neither I nor my parents could do anything. From the safety of our home within the safety of our Kenyan borders we watched.

Now, so many years later having seen more chaos, war and many more dead bodies than i had ever imagined always from the safe distance allowed by my TV or computer screen I naively think i have the power to do something, to effect change, peace, happiness. Deep inside where economies of scale, political influence, and everyday realities seem somewhat blurred i believe we all do, we just have to find our way of doing it each according to his/ her own capacity.

Internationally Black

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8077733.stm

Farai Sevenzo made my day with this term, his article seems to trace my thoughts today, I have been thinking about home-Kenya, and about Africa the last few days, wondering how a continent filled with such beautiful, kind and hospitable people can be defined by so much anger. How does that anger result to such brutality towards neighbors. I am plagued by images i saw of Kenya during the election aftermath war had always been far away for me- relatively anyway. It was in DR Congo, in Somalia, in Rwanda places i had never been but all of a sudden it was in Kenya, in Nairobi, on kiambu road, in ridgeways. It was in my home on the road i traveled to and from the city center it could touch those i loved, it could kill them.
That continues to scare me more than anything else i face any obstacle i come across that i have to overcome.