The influence of urban public space patterns on degradation of external envelop of urban blocks: the case of Nairobi Central Business District

Abstract

A view through Central Business Districts (CBD) of most Kenyan cities show that some buildings have either been abandoned or been left unattended thus, enhancing dereliction and decay of the built environment. Since it is not whole city centres that are decaying, it is likelys that the spatial structure and hence the urban space patterns would be having something to do with social, economic and the environmental survival of these capital assets. This paper has empirically established that 33 urban space variables out of 436 variables significantly relate with dereliction and decay of built environment in the Central Business District of the city of Nairobi. This has been done by regressing indexes relating to abandonment, faqade construction, completeness and exterior maintenance and cleanliness of buildings bounding urban space against urban space variables: spatial, social, cultural and economic. These established variables have been grouped into the following urban pattems: constitutedness of space, segregation or integration of space, distributedness of space, grain, land use, and density. The paper argues that most of these patterns have a lot to do with the presence and distribution of human in the settlements. The paper concludes that humanisation of settlements is very important in curbing the decay of built environment.