Study of transformations of built forms in Ngara Area, Nairobi

Abstract

Transformations of the built form has for a long time been a challenge to the expanding and sprawling cities and a concern of many urban designers. This is driven by different motives like the quests for better urban life, search for economic sustainability, adaptability of forms for changing functions which has shown little or no regard to urban public spaces and their uses.

Open public spaces have greatly been ignored in the transformations. This thesis intended to contribute to this discussion, proposing particular design strategies. In order to do this, transformations were documented and detailed in selected buildings of Ngara area, which have undergone tremendous transformations in the last two decades and their ability to accommodate change.

This thesis sought to investigate and propose design guidelines for transformations of urban built forms and spatial adaptations and to bridge the gap between architecture and urban design. The transformations in Ngara area are not coordinated and are a result of private investments and therefore bear no similarity between one plot and any other, it is a matter of private interventions since the local authorities are not concerned with conservation or planning but the existing city bylaws. Ngara area is dramatically transforming from a largely low lying single storey building fabric to an increasingly dense collection of multi-storey buildings developing within a tight and unchanging plot and street structure.