TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF KENYA

DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE & ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN

BARCHELOR OFARCHITECTURE (B.ARCH CB501111)

PRESENTER :AHENDA KEVIN OWINO

COLLEGE NO. : 111/00687

UNIT : ARCHITECTURAL RESEARCH METHOD

PRESENTED TO: TU-KENYA

TOPIC : HIGH DENSITY BUILDINGS IN DECONGESTIN

SLUMS

COURSE TUITOR:DR.,ARCH. PETER MAKACHIA

DECLARATION

This work has not been presented for examination to anyUniversity for

academic purposes before. It is my original work in partial fulfillment of a

course leading to an award in B.Arch degree.

TOPIC: HIGH DENSITY BUILDINGS

TITTLE: HIGH DENSITY BUILDING TYPOLOGIES FOR

DECONGESTING SLUMS IN KIBRA

INTRODUCTION

A slum is a heavily populated urban informal settlement characterized by substandard housing

and squalor. While slums differ in size and other characteristics from country to country, most

lack reliable sanitation services, supply of clean water, reliable electricity, timely law

enforcement and other basic services. Slum residences vary from shanty houses to

professionally-built dwellings that because of poor-quality design or construction have

deteriorated into slums.

I have done this research due to personal motivation of decongesting slums while creating

space for open spaces and infrastructure through simple architectural design typologies that

can accomodate the most of tenants at lower rents.

The context of this research is to find out best solution for accomodating and housing the

existing large population without translocating them to other places. The aim is to find out the

best high density building typologies or design that will decongest slums in Kibra. The

research also aims at finding out the results impacts of high rise buildings while freeing up

space for open spaces.

Slums have issues of drainage, congestion of both people and dwellings,poor,inaccessible and

unplanned road networks and spatial issues. Slums spring up due to the rural-urban migration

patterns in major urban towns. The lands where such slums have occured in kenya generally

have land ownership issues which consequently results in low land value leading to no

development of permanent structures and drainage systems.

Problem Statement

According to UN Habitat reports, the Kibra slums is home to over half a million people living

in shanties with very poor and insufficient infrastructure (that is drainage, sewer,waste

management,pedestrian paths and roads).The residents put up shanties in any available space

without order leaving no space for common outdoor space(green spaces) such as children

playground and infrastructure. Each shanty accommodate an average of atleast four people,

some not being family members. This results in congested shanty neighbourhood which

eventually results in great fire outbreak risk, disease outbreak, violence and crime due to the

poor living standards in the area. About 50% of the population is working in the different

sectors of the economy but are not willing to migrate to other better places due to low rents of

about Ksh. 1500 or less. The major factors hindering development in the shanties is absence

of basic infrastructure such as land ownership problems, road network access, sewer system,

water and electrity and poor policy implementation programmes.

Hypothesis

The above mentioned problems can be solved by simple architectural design solution. To

accomodate the large population, low cost high density building typologies settlement can be

used successfully. Low cost building materials and quick high rise building technology can

quickly help transform and upgrade the slums.The high density buildings will not only

accomodate more people at low rents say Kshs.2500 but also result in creation of usable open

spaces while paving way for better infrastructure thus improving the living conditions.

OBJECTIVES OF THE REASEARCH

1. To determine the best design or typology for accomodating the high existing

population without using very modern typologies.

2. To determine cheaper and better technology for high density settlements.

3. To determine the type of low cost building materials for highrise residential buildings.

METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION

In this research, I have collected data using maps,sketches,interviews,photography,precedent

studies and measurements. These methods are best for real life studies,that is architectural

case studies. They capture the situation as it is, for instance, sketches, taking of photographs

and measurements.

FINDINGS

From the data collected using the above methods, the following were the findings from the

case study of Kibra Constituency, kisumu Ndogo area in Lindi ward.

Location Map

Kibera, Kisumu Ndogo is located in Kenya,Nairobi county, Langata sub-county in Lindi

ward.

Existing Housing Clusters and Typologies

Such housing units are arranged in a row and the rows spaced by upto 1.3m apart to form a cluster.

Such a house houses a family of five(5), father,mother and three(3) children of less than fourteen

years. During the night, the table is placed on the three-seater to create sleeping space for two

children while the youngest shares bed with the parents.

Existing Drainage and Sanitation Conditions

Existing Open Spaces

Most of the existing open spaces measure less than 4mX4m and as a result there are no

playing grounds for children and other common activities.

Building Materials and Technology used

The

technology use is that of mad and wooden poles with concrete rough cast on some exteriors

and plastering on some interiors.

Structural Safety Of Existing Houses

The houses are built on poor foundations with poles and mad next to poorly storm drainage

systems whose water washes away the bases of the poles thus reducing the structural ability of

the poles. The mad used on the walls is also washed off by rains during rainny seasons.

Accomodation per household

Type of family Single family Shared by 2 families Bachelors house

No. Of occupants 5 5-7 children(12-18yrs) 6

Beutification Efforts

Statistical Data

DATA ANALYSIS

CONCLUSION

The number of residents in Kibera outdo the number of shanties thereby resulting in

congestion of both people and shanties. This congestion has further resulted in no space for

open or common public spaces within the shanties. From the data cllocted above, the house

measurements are inversely proportional to the the number of occupants. Further more, the

housing units in the slums do not offer the privacy expected in the family epecially that

between parents and older children.

RECOMMENDATIONS

From the above conclusions, it is in order for me to be supportive of my hypothesis that high

density building design typologies could be the best for decongesting Kibera without

translocating some residents. To achieve this, the high density buildings must use the cheapest

technology and materials combined with locally available community labour to ensure that

the rents do not hike past the Ksh. 2500 for single rooms(for barchelors) and Ksh.5000 for

double rooms(for family men) which is the range that Kibera residents can afford while

meeting the objectives of this research.

To meet the objectives stated earlier, the following are the recommendations supportive of my

hypothesis.

1. I propose a pilot project of a typical high density double room and single room units.

Demolishing shanties on 1000m2 area would result in two blocks of double and single

room high density flats occupying 500m. Sq thereby creating another 500m sq. For

open space and infrastructure.

2. The double rooms will offer the required privacy and reduce congestion of rooms by

its occupants.With this regard, I recommend that the double rooms be rented to family

men and women only and the single rooms for the bachelors or people with no

families.

3. I also recommend that the ministry of land in conjunction with the Nairobi City

County issue land tittles and do the physical planning of Kibera and other slums in

order to give land value and control development in the area.

4. I also recommend that the ministry of lands and the Nairobi County Council to come

up with policies concerning physical development in the area. The policies to address

the issues of quality and sizes of open spaces, infrastructure,waste managemnt, type of

buildings(high density) and policies protecting tenants from constant rent hikes.

5. SPIU-Special Programmes Implementation Unit- should be put in place to follow up

and ensure that the slum upgrade programme and policies are implemented to the

latter.

6. Creation of awareness about environment reservation and management

7. Some low cost building materials that could be used include

• Clay red mud burnt bricks- made from burning a mixture of red soil and clay

soil

• precast stone blocks- made from mix of stone wastes,sand and sand

• precast concrete blocks- the precast blocks can be designed to interlock during

fixing on site thereby reducing the need for the expensive steel reinforcement

bars.

• hollow concrete blocks- this building material is best in skeleton structures as

it is lighter compared to floor slabs which require very costy reinforcement

bars to spport the heavy weight of freshly placed concrete.

8. Frame systems-in this technology, local labour can be trained to build quickly and accurately through assembly of structural frames of structures. The feutures and benefits of this technology include:

• Durable and practical construction method • Highly repeatable designs that can be produced quickly • Cost-effective due to speed and method of construction • Fire and pest resistant, and tested to withstand earthquakes

9. Prefabrication - practice of assembling components of a structure in a factory or

other manufacturing site, and transporting complete assemblies or sub-assemblies to

the construction site where the structure is to be located.

REFERENCES

1. McGraw Hill Construction

2. http://www.gharexpert.com

3. http://www.fs.fed.us.com

4. http://www.greenstone.org

5. http://manajemenproyekindonesia.com/

6. http://sepindia.com/

7. http://lauriebaker.net/

8. Low cost housing-an analogical study of the current practices & the technologies

9. By Vastu Shilpa foundation