The TEAM
a) Green Arch [ARCHITECTS] Green Arch is an Architectural and Planning Consultancy incorporated in Kenya. Green Arch is fully registered by the Board of Registration of Architects and Quantity Surveyors of Kenya (BORAQS), and duly licensed to offer architectural services in Kenya. Further, Green Arch has specialist capacities on environmental design, giving us an edge over other practices. The sister firm Eco-Build Africa offers research consultancy in the built environment. It provides consultancy in niche areas to actors in the government, the private sector and civil society. Our three core areas of focus are: environmental design and planning, housing and landscape. In these areas Green Arch does work ranging from research, policy and programme formulation, and design and implementation of projects. The scope of our work range from broad urban policy issues to macro issues at single building level. The Directors of the company are trained in Architecture, environmental research, housing and landscape from some of the World’s leading universities. We have associates locally and internationally who are leading authorities in their fields, who provide both advice and professional inputs into our projects. Further, our consultancy is uniquely placed to support various practitioners in the built environment with specialist skills and services, which are currently not available in the local and regional markets. For more details see our website:
www.ecobuild-africa.com
b) Gumbi and Associates Engineers
c) Aluvala and Associates Quantity Surveyor
The CONCEPT
a) General
The centre has been laid out with the soccer stadium as an indirect focus. It is accessed from the left side with its own spill over external space for the fans. The rest of the details are as per specs of Architecture for Humanity. The Community hall is another prominent space; it is openable and has a large external spill over space terminating at the back of the stadium. The rest of the spaces have their own well defined external spaces and are served with ablution facilities on both extreme ends of the scheme.
b) Sustainability, simplicity and local materials
The buildings incorporate rain water harvesting and collection though tanks. Storm water shall be harvested and be used to run a tree nursery, which will generate trees for the site and also for the larger Huruma neighbourhood. Storm water management is also through the green open space system, which serves as points of percolation. This will limit the amount of storm water that the centre will discharge into drains in the city.
Both urban agriculture and perma-culture are planned for. Power shall be through solar panels. Water heating will be through methane gas captured from the bio-latrines. Additional solar water geezers can be considered if necessary.
The buildings have a general north – south orientation, with key openings being north facing to deal simultaneously with glare and thermal load. All openings will be shaded though carefully simulated sun paths studies for Nairobi to limit thermal load in the building.
The materials used shall be local, with no embodied energy. Breathing walls made of gabions for example are envisaged to be used in the hall. Other walls will be made of stabilized earth blocks, made through local labour. The construction incorporates a large component of recycled materials. The pergola shall be made of recycled pieces of timber and steel. The roof will be made of corrugated LT-4 iron sheets, which shall be ventilated and insulated to prevent heat gain. The shape has been arrived at to optimize rain water harvesting.
The buildings are largely single loaded for cross ventilation. Large spaces like the community hall are further envisaged to have wind driven fans to drive natural ventilation.
c)Accessibility & hierarchy
The design has been conceived to be easily accessible to the community, yet hierarchical. While a simple earth bund, keeps off traffic noise; open spaces are carefully defined so that they serve very specific functions. In terms of access, the administration offices are the most accessible followed by the cyber café which will be used by a lot of passer bys. The community hall, which is sub-divisible into two separate sections and openable to the outer yard, is the next. The clinic is both accessible and private, through a defined external space, whose nooks can be used for peer counseling and HIV/.AIDS counseling. The library and the classrooms locations are relatively private. Each opens into its own reading and learning yards respectively. The open spaces are functional extensions of the closed spaces they serve. The open spaces, just like the buildings are carefully linked so that they can be functionally reinforcing.
d)Expandability & space matrix
All the key spaces in the development are designed in an expandable manner. The classroom has an open external classroom. The library has an external reading yard. The community hall can be opened up into the front yard and uses the pitch as the back. The office has its own yard where staff can have larger meetings with community or take a rest during lunch break. The clinic also has an open yard. The community in Nairobi spends a lot of time outdoors, hence the need to provide adequate and clearly articulated outdoor spaces in the scheme. The open spaces will further act as space for undefined meetings.
