Open Architecture Network

Happy New Year to all OAN members, readers and supporters!

Looking forward to making numerous leaps this year. With continued support and team work we hope to handover SIDAREC's new home this year.

I am back in Nairobi and things are ready in full swing. The latest updates this month include:

Contract signed

The Building Contract has officially been signed between SIDAREC and CIEM Ventures. This was done at Masterbill offices and in attendance was myself, Eric, Lucy, Charles, Eli, Kairu and Gitahi. It was a straight forward process and both parties agreed to the various clauses stated in the contract.

Site Handover

The site was handed over to the CIEM on Monday 18th January 2010. Preliminary works are currently under way and we hope excavations to commence in the coming weeks. The team is currently working on a transition plan that involves the relocation of the kids from their current ECD structure into temporary structures where they will conduct their classes during the construction period.

We have approached the end of 2009 and what a year it has been!

Summary 2009

The SIDAREC project welcomed two new members to the team, that is myself and Michael Jones.

We have been able to go through the approval stages of the project and have successful got all the approvals from the Nairobi City Council (NCC) and the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA).

The contractor CIEM Ventures has been selected as the Main Contractor on this project. A Letter Of Intent was sent to CIEM Ventures and we will be signing the Joint Builders Contract between SIDAREC and CIEM Ventures at the beginning of next year 2010.

It is all systems go from here onwards and we look forward to the successful completion of the new Technology Centre in Mukuru kwa Njenga.

Thank you for your continued support and look forward to your continued reading of these updates. Have a joyful festive holiday and will see you in the New Year

This was a very exciting month for the SIDAREC family. As hoped, most of the things we were looking forward to this month actually were fulfilled.

Dan Shine and Michael Jones visit.

Dan Shine came back for another visit to his favourite spot in Nairobi and that is amongst the SIDAREC community in Mukuru kwa Njenga. This was Michael Jones' first visit to Africa and it so happens he chose to spend it in Mukuru together with the SIDAREC staff and youth of Mukuru.

It was during this time that we launched the Raise the Radio campaign to help raise funds for the construction of a new studio at the Mukuru site. Have a look at some of the photos that were uploaded under the 'Raise the Radio' folder.

NEMA approval obtained.

Another piece of great news is that we have now officially obtained the NEMA approval. Thanks to the tireless work by the Eco Plan team who are the Environmental consultants on this project. Thanks Elizabeth and Nicholas! We are now set to get the contractor on site since we have all the necessary approval documents.

Holidays are round the corner, so offices will be closing in the second week of December. Continue reading the updates and we appreciate all the support.

Incase you wish to make donations to the Raise the Radio campaign visit the organisation website: www.architectureforhumanity.org.

Thanks to the entire Project team for the work done thus far! Looking forward to major milestones in 2010.

Another month has gone by and we are drawing closer to Contract signing and commencement of construction.

Contractor selection

The team was able to select the most suitable contractor for the job CIEM Ventures based on the company profile, quality of completed projects and referees. Contract documents are currently being prepared by the QS and Architect of Record. As soon as we obtain the NEMA approval letter, then we will invite the contractor to sign the contract with SIDAREC. We are patiently sitting by the phone and waiting for that one phone call.

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Report

The EIA report was submitted a couple of weeks back and the Environmental Consultant is currently following this up with National Environment Management Authority (NEMA). We hope to get the NEMA approval during the coming month of November.

Things to look forward to next month......

Dan Shine (AMD) and Michael Jones (AFH-Project Manager) will be in Nairobi.

Hope to get NEMA approval "phone call" in the early weeks of November.

Signing of contract between SIDAREC and Contractor.

And the battle for, who will make SIDAREC's dream a reality, continues......

Due to the legality issues, the winner of this battle will ONLY be revealed to OAN after the contract has been signed.

We had a very transparent tender opening process, all the contractors and their representatives were present during this process. The tenders were read out aloud. It was a very competitive process. Nine Contractors were invited to bid and out of the nine only seven bids were returned. Out of the seven bids that were returned, five contractors were almost within the same margin which meant that the tender documents had been competitively priced. All seven contractors are reliable contractors that have worked with either Planning Systems or Masterbill on previous projects.

The successful contractor will soon be selected and as soon as this happens, you the reader will be updated.

The Environmental Impact Assessment Report (EIA) was also submitted and as soon as the National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) gives us the green light we will be on site getting dirty faster than you can say; slumsinformationdevelopmentandresourcescentres.

Breaking ground at Mukuru is so near that i am starting to dream about being in one of those foundation trenches, excavating the black cotton soils.

Keep your fingers crossed and continue having faith, the team will make this dream come true.

This month was paperwork and more paperwork....

The team was fully engaged in preparing all the necessary documentation required for a smooth tender process. Thanks to the dedicated and motivated team, we were able to make the necessary adjustments and revisions to the drawings and documents and we were able to send them out to the selected contractors.

We look forward to receiving very competitive bids from these contractors at the beginning of September.

As the saying goes....."May the best person win!"

I have my construction gloves ready to break ground and get all dirty while on site.
Look out for tonnes of photographic evidence and less verbal evidence of the progress being made.

Hang in there with me and please do continue your unwavering support.

This month we have been working hard with all consultants to get all drawings completed before the tender process.

I am glad to say that we managed to receive drawings from all the consultants and have also received estimates from the Quantity Surveyor. The entire team is currently working hard to prepare the tender documents and we are hoping to select the best suited contractor for the job. This selection should be happening in the coming month.

The excitement is building up within the team and we are giving it our all to see that construction commences as soon as possible.

Dear Reader please continue to support our endeavors and we in turn will do our best to deliver what was promised to the Mukuru kwa Njenga community.

We look forward to accomplishing major milestones in the coming months.

Keep your eyes glued to this page and watch out for new developments.

Hey reader,

The month of June was a very significant month in terms of the SIDAREC project. Yes, it was the month we had the gate painting/ ground breaking ceremony at the Mukuru site. Architecture for Humanity, AMD 50X15 Foundation and SIDAREC were all represented by the "big guns" that is Cameron Sinclair, Dan Shine and Lucy Mathai.

A number of things were done in the background, leading to this June 16th event, all thanks to the efforts of various individuals from different companies/ organisations and the Mukuru community youth.

The teams included the SIDAREC team, Architecture for Humanity team, AMD team, Global Inventures team, Silver Bullet team, Mukuru community youth.

2D Gate Design transforms to 3D.

This was very exciting. After one week with no sunlight and behind locked doors, the final gate design was finally presented to the Mukuru youth, SIDAREC and Architecture for Humanity. It was met with all smiles and appreciation for the hard work that was put in order to produce this final product.

The next step was to look for a creative reliable fabricator that would transform this 2D image into a 3D tangible form. I did some traveling and looking around Nairobi. I finally found the ideal "Jua Kali" for the job in the slums of Kawangware. His name was Bernard Okoth. He run a small fabricators workshop by the roadside but seemed very knowledgeable and creative enough for the job. We did go through the design and he seemed equally excited about the gate. It took him and his team, 5 days to have this gate finished and delievered to site.

Have a look at the pics that were uploaded to see the gate transformation process.

JUNE 16TH "D-DAY"

This was a long day for me so in order to avoid boring you with details I will give you a brief overview of the event and in case you need more just email

I woke up very early that day, didn't get much sleep the night before, must have been the cold feet before an event. There were clouds in the sky and I was worried that since it had been raining unexpectedly the week before that it might happen again but lucky for us we had a secret weapon....a well choreographed sun-dance, that one of our organisation members had come prepared with. For purposes of respecting their privacy, no names will be mentioned.

On reaching the site, we went about setting up the chairs, tables and tent for the invited guests. SIDAREC staff and Mukuru youth were up and about assisting wherever they could. By 10am every thing was set up and we waited to welcome the guests. The Mukuru youth did a puppet show for the kids and community as we waited for more guests to arrive.

By 11am, most guests and the media were on site. The event then kicked off with a 1 second speeches, performances from the ECD kids, Emabakasi girls. The performances ranged from poems, songs and dances. The invited guests, representatives, Mukuru youth and ECD kids were called up to each paint a portion of the gate and leave their mark on it. Paint brushes and paint were provided. Every person seemed to have that artistic touch within them.

After gate painting was completed, interviews were held and guests interacted with the community.

At the end of the day, despite the painful backache, muscleache and headache, I had a big smile on my face. It was a colourful event and a big thank you to all those that participated and offered their assistance.

We now look forward to commencing construction as soon as possible. Please continue supporting us as we embark on this community project.

I will have an update every month to keep OAN users and guests updated on the progress of this project.

Design charette concluded

The design charette was concluded Tuesday 26th May 2009. Where David, myself and youth shared eats and drinks and mainly thanked the youth for their contribution and participation during the charette. I made a presentation of the final gate and explained the process we went through before coming up with the final community gate. It was important for the youth to see how each group’s ideas had contributed to the final design. Group 2 burglar design was the successful design that was selected and the reason being that it incorporated all the other two group’s ideas.

Preliminary poster designs for each group were also shown to the youth and they really liked them. These posters will be hang up during the gate painting ceremony so that the guests get to see what designs were done by the youth.
The youth were happy with the final selected designs and look forward to being a part of the gate painting ceremony that is scheduled to happen in June.

Final gate and burglar bar pattern selected

The final gate was selected and approved by SIDAREC and AfH. It will be unveiled on the gate painting ceremony scheduled to happen in the month of June. The pictures will be uploaded after the gate unveiling ceremony.

Visit to local metal fabricators

There are a number of small scale metal fabricators commonly called “Jua Kali”. Most gates around Nairobi are done at these workshops. So I visited some of these workshops to gauge personally if they can fabricate the SIDAREC community gate and deliver it to site. A lot of creativity was seen at these workshops but then in the end we settled with a local fabricator that was known to one of the SIDAREC staff members.

Meet with another contractor

George (SIDAREC - Administrative Officer) and I, met with another contractor to assess and get a feel for what kind of person he is and what kind of work his company is involved in. It was an interesting and informative meeting both from our side and his.

Council drawings approved

The council drawings for the SIDAREC Technology centre were also approved and we are now that much closer to the Bidding process and very soon construction will commence.

Ghetto 99.9FM back on air

Yeah! you read right. Ghetto FM is officially back on the air waves and is broadcasting from their new studio at NACICO Plaza, which is where the SIDAREC head office is. Some of you might remember the Pumwani blaze that occured some months back. Well the radio studio was also destroyed in the blaze. But thanks to various donors they are now up and running. We at AFH are also looking forward to the second studio that will constructed at the Mukuru site.

Look forward to the month of June

During the second part of the charette the groups explored various colour applications that would be used on the gate. Most groups wanted to use the colours found on the SIDAREC logo which are mainly: green, orange, yellow and black.

We also explored the various patterns that could be used for the burglar proofing bars in the windows. We used of Geometric shapes mainly squares and rectangles, which could be twisted, repositioned, resized to create a unique pattern. Each group came up with 4 unique patterns and these will later be fitted into the various window size openings so as to get the feel of what the pattern will look in the actual window.

David (SIDAREC) also proposed the use of grafitti art work along the exterior wall to highlight the various activities carried out at the centre. The youth expressed interest in this type of art and I will try to organise with grafitti artists here in Kenya to see if we can have an artist come demonstrate and train the youth.

We will be finalising with the charette next week and then after work towards completing final posters of the activities and the works done by the youth during this charette. These works will be exhibited to the rest of the SIDAREC administration, Eric (local architect) and any well wishers. They will also be exhibited during the ground breaking ceremony.

The pictures of this charette have also been posted in the workspace and are available to all OAN members.

David Mita (SIDAREC) organised this with a couple of youth at the Mukuru centre on Friday 17th April 2009. We went through an update on the current status of the centre and what the latest drawings include and the services that will be offered.

Following from the previous workshop the youth had with Global studio team. They were curious about the promises that were made to them in regards to their benefit from the centre itself. We assured them that the those promises still hold and that the centre will mostly benefit the youth within the Mukuru area and according to SIDAREC's overall goal and vision is that each slum area will have its own ICT centre.

I expanded on some of the details in regards to the scope of work going to be done on site by the contractor and how much of it AfH wants to be community based work. I emphasised the need of community involvement in a project of this magnitude. It was important for them to know that much as we are constructing a centre for them, it is essential that they play a pivotal role in the centre's construction.

Among the areas we looked at for community involvement were the design of the main gate (main portal to SIDAREC centre), the burglar proofing system for the window openings and the screen construction. David also discussed some of the ideas in terms of graphical elements on the exterior walls and within the ECD centre.

Due to the lack of materials to work with we decided to tackle the main gate design first since it will be the first community element to be showcased during the ground breaking ceremony.

The youth were divided into three groups with 3-4 members. In these groups they were asked to come up with unique ideas in terms of what the gate should look like and among the guidelines was that it should represent what SIDAREC is all about to the kids, youth and community of Mukuru.

On completion of their design concepts they were asked to present their design ideas to the rest of the youth. They were all enthusiastic about their presentations but most of all they really engaged each other. They were able to work as a team and allowed each team member's opinion to be heard and where the rest of the group was not sure about an idea they asked the team member to elaborate. This was observed at the group level and also when it came to group presentations to the rest of the other groups.

The next step will be to get more materials and colours to develop the concepts further and as homework, the youth were asked to walk around their communities and look at the work done by the local metal fabricators and how these components are put together. We will also organise a group tour where we will visit some of local metal fabricators to see how they would go about creating some of the designs the youth came up with.

The next design workshop is scheduled for Tuesday 28th April 2009.

Like all new additions to the family, there is usually a celebration, everyone welcoming the latest member and gifts. That was true for the first two options except in this case I come bearing the gifts.

I have recently been added to this project team that is comprised of ordinary people with different skills and professions but all geared towards achieving a common goal.

Just like all previous, current and future projects we draw mainly from the support of both members and non-members. As a way of keeping you involved in the progress of the work being done. I together with the rest of the AFH team will post updates on this project and you in turn MUST read the updates.

Do comment if you like and in case of any questions I will do my best to answer them.

Together we shall see this project completed but most importantly these kids will have a new home.

OVER AND OUT!