Evolution of the ‘Modern’ expression in African Housing: an investigation of the architectural expression in African residential space using case studies from Eastland’s Housing Estates, Nairobi

Authors

  • Peter Makachia The Technical University of Kenya

Keywords:

African Urbanism, Architecture, Modernism, Nairobi, Urban Housing

Abstract

African colonial urbanism, (in)famous for segregationist spatial practice, was also a laboratory for interrogating African spatiality through housing estates. Although the ensuing spatial qualities remain central to contemporary African urban housing challenges, predominant discourse still dwells on the quantitative deficits disregarding conceptual underpinnings of housing architecture and hence only aggravates the problem. Based on aesthetical qualitative analyses, the paper is anchored empirically in fieldwork of African estates located in Eastlands, Nairobi. The pre-1950s concepts are revisited and though cursorily contrived; they were significant as foundational to novel aesthetic paths for later concepts ensuing in the post-2nd World War-era. The aesthetic expressions traverse an ‘African vernacular’, a ‘European vernacular’, and culminating in ‘modernist’ versions by the Central Housing Board and by a German émigré Architect and CIAM protagonist, Ernst May. These fail because of their modernist reductionist, prescriptive origination that was devoid of a dweller-engaged housing methodology. The inevitability of a bio-political power shift to grassroots’ formations is the envisioned prerequisite for better urban space in African cities. A practical and theoretical application is proposed for gentrification strategies of inner-city estates now under discussion.

Author Biography

Peter Makachia, The Technical University of Kenya

PhD; is a Kenyan based architect (Makro-Space) and a researcher in architecture, housing and urban design. He has taught architecture at university including at University of Nairobi (UoN, 1998-2012) and Technical University of Kenya (TUK, 2012-to date). He graduated with a B.Arch. (hons) (UoN, 1986), an M.Arch.(Human Settlements), (cum laude), KUL, Belgium, 1995) and a PhD (UoN, 2010). His publications include: “Housing Strategies in Kenyan Towns and Dweller-Initiated Transformations – Case Estates from Nairobi”, in Izgradnja, 2011; ”Evolution of urban housing strategies and dweller-initiated transformations in Nairobi” in, City, Culture and Society, Elsevier, 2011; ”Design strategy and informal transformations in urban housing” in, Journal of Housing and the Built Environment, Springer, 2013; ”The Politics and Architecture of Housing in the African City, in: Architecture and planning under different political systems, DU. Vestbro (ed.) ARC-PEACE, 2014; and a book: “Transformation of Housing in Nairobi”, LAP, Saarbrucken, 2012.

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Published

2019-12-23

How to Cite

Makachia, P. (2019). Evolution of the ‘Modern’ expression in African Housing: an investigation of the architectural expression in African residential space using case studies from Eastland’s Housing Estates, Nairobi. PARALAXE, 6(1), 70–100. Retrieved from https://revistas.pucsp.br/index.php/paralaxe/article/view/46605