Urban/Political Thresholds in Slums by Philip Galway-Witham

Urban/Political Thresholds in Slums VIOLENCE MITIGATION AND (IN)FORMAL VERTICAL METABOLISMS

Philip Galway-Witham, Robinson College Essay 4: Pilot Essay - April 23, 2013 9864 words (approx). An essay submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the MPhil examination in Environmental Design in Architecture (Option B) 2012-2014

CONTENTS PART 00: ABSTRACT PART O1: CONFLICT + AFTERMATH

01.1 Introduction: Kenya and Conflict in Informal Space 01.2 Documenting Violence: 2007-2008 Post Election Violence 01.3 (In)Formal Strategies: Approaches and Methodologies

PART O2: INFORMALITY + DIVISION

02.1 Urban Schizophrenia: Nairobi’s Dual Identity 02.2 Kibera As a Slum City: Informal Status and Actors 02.3 Understanding Division: Factors Behind Urban Conflict 02.4 Designed Informality: Defining the Brief

PART O3: SLUM DESIGN

03.1 Acting in Confined Space: Design Parameters 03.2 Micro Social Responses: Design Provocation 03.3 Slum Towers: Construction and Material Considerations

PART O4: THRESHOLD ANALYSIS + SITE FINDING 04.1 Mapping Thresholds: Flashpoint Sites 04.2 Laini Saba Railway Halt: Urban Testing Ground

PART O5: TESTING TOWER TYPOLOGIES

05.1 Urban Lockdown: Facilitating Control and Security 05.2 Mitigating Inequality: Utilities Provision 05.3 Bridging the Gap: Physical Connections and Dialogue 05.4 Making Space: Housing Possibilities to Allow Growth

PART O6

06.1 Formalized Informality: Hybrid Proposals 06.2 Conclusions: The Catalysts Potential of Quasi-Legal Design

REFERENCES

Acknowledgments List of Illustrations Bibliography

ABSTRACT

ABSTRACT This pilot thesis explores the spatial, urban, and socioeconomic factors that contribute to urban division and ethno-political in the informal settlement of Kibera, in Nairobi, Kenya. Examining the physical thresholds on the periphery of this complex and contradictory urban environment, issues such as colonially charged tribal animosity, political and economic disenfranchisement, and the legacy of illegal settlements will be examined to determine their role in the incidence and exacerbation of urban conflict between communities. Dissecting the roles of actors in this urban condition, design interventions are explored that spatially address these factors. These actors form an important part of this work, with the modus operandi of each providing a critical starting point from which the design responses develop. Drawing from research into the highly dense and transient conditions of Kibera’s threshold sites, vertical architectural interventions are explored as a mechanism to respond the challenges inherent to spontaneous unplanned urban growth, whilst augmenting its beneficial qualities as a mechanism to mitigate violence in slums. Through this method of research-by-design, with programmes derived from study of the underlying causes of violence in Kibera, a case is made for an urban strategy that straddles the divide between formal and informal growth and development. The thesis concludes by making a case for this form of urban strategy and vertical design as a viable catalyst to the discussion of fostering dialogue between disparate communities in Nairobi, whilst remaining mindful of its limitations. As this work represents the first stage of research into the questions of socio-political division in marginalized communities, possible routes for subsequent study are also touched upon.

01.1

INTRODUCTION: KENYA AND CONFLICT IN INFORMAL URBAN SPACE

This pilot thesis analyses the spatial ramifications of the socio-political divisions that exist in the informal settlement of Kibera and its interface with formal Nairobi. By scrutinizing the historical development factors that have led to Kibera’s unique urban condition, this pilot thesis endeavours to discover critical elements that help reduce conflict and division on its periphery: the thresholds to the formal city. The nature of informality will be addressed, coupled with its latent benefits and challenges for inhabitants of this environment. Investigating sites of conflict that lie on the boundary between formal and informal space, spatial qualities will be assessed to ascertain the conditions of the urban typology that is the slum threshold. Subsequently spaces of social and physical intersection and division between communities will be dissected. This work will consider the actors in these threshold sites and their roles in the reduction of violence and social conflict in contested urban environments. Through an exploration of these urban and social forces, this work will harness design at a variety of scales to test potential architectural interventions that act as a catalyst to mitigates ethnopolitical violence. From these forms of testing, conclusions shall be drawn on the suitability and ramifications of design methodologies that straddle the legal, political and physical border between formal and informal.

With the victory of incumbent Mwai Kibaki over his challenger Raila Odinga in the 2007 Kenyan presidential election, thousands of Kenyans took to the streets in protest, claiming election fraud. In the violence that followed, over one thousand people were killed and forced another 600,000 from their homes (Maggah, 2008:3). The capital Nairobi witnessed much of the most egregious violence. Subjected to complex ethno-political tensions and rampant inequality, the informal settlement of Kibera was particularly affected. While the presidential election of March 2013 was marked with far less conflict, in the collective psyche of Nairobi’s population, the sociopolitical and ethnic antagonism that led to the violence five years earlier remains visceral and a dividing force in the city. Approximately 60% of Nairobi’s residents live in unplanned settlements that occupy 5% of the land (Maggah, 2008: 3). Of these unplanned settlements, Kibera is the largest, with an estimated population of 800,000 (UNHABITAT, 2004: 11). Surrounding this sprawling settlement are golf courses, national parks, middle to high-income housing, and industry. These formal, planned areas define the edges of Kibera, creating threshold spaces of ambiguous function and ownership. From colonially charged ethnic divisions to egregious socio-economic inequalities, Kibera is embedded with many boundaries and barriers between communities. In recent years these divisions have turned violent, with rising crime levels leading to Nairobi being named one of the most dangerous cities in the world (Stavrou, 2002: 5).

“NAIROBI IS THE POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC NERVE CENTRE OF KENYA. LOCATED ALMOST 1,800 METERS ABOVE SEA LEVEL, IT COVERS A TOTAL LAND AREA OF 696 SQUARE KILOMETRES AND IS HOME TO MORE THAN THREE MILLION RESIDENTS. UNLIKE MANY OTHER AFRICAN CITIES, NAIROBI WAS PURPOSEFULLY PLANNED AND ORGANIZED FROM THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY ONWARDS. CONSIDERABLE INVESTMENT AND ENTHUSIASM WAS INVESTED IN ITS DEVELOPMENT WITH A VIEW OF DEVELOPING A “GARDEN CITY” FOR ITS ELITE COLONIAL INHABITANTS.”

(MUGGAH, 2011)

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01.2

DOCUMENTING VIOLENCE: 2007-2008 POST ELECTION CONFLICT AND ITS AFTERMATH

In late 2007-2008, Kenyans were witness to the worst election-based violence the country had seen in decades. Following the re-election of President Mwai Kibaki in a fiercely fought election, members of the Orange Democratic Movement, supporting Raila Odinga took to the streets across Kenya, claiming the election was rigged. In the weeks following the election, over one thousand people were killed in violent riots across the country. In addition over 600,000 people were forced to leave their homes. Due to the strong connections between ethnic groups and political parties in Kenya, the violence, it is argued, was significantly more brutal. During protests in Raila Odinga’s home town and in the informal settlements in Nairobi, police opened fire on protesters, with a number of such shootings being caught on camera by television stations. The broadcast of said shootings escalated the violence, targeted on the police and on the Kikuyu people, the tribe of which President Kibaki is a member. During the violence, supporters of the Orange Democratic Movement appropriated spaces within Nairobi and in particular in Kibera. Through the creation of roadblocks and burning barriers, social edges and boundaries were created, controlling space and place along ethno-poltical lines. These barriers were created with nearby refuse, from tires to scrap timber and metal and set ablaze to discourage vehicles from passing. Through the counter incursions by paramilitary forces, these impromptu barriers were broken, re-establishing connection and threshold between disparate urban fabrics. Fires claimed large portions of Kibera during the violence following the 2007 election. Due to the construction quality and flammable materials used in the fabrication of much of thd settlements structures, fires are common place and often used as a tool for forcibly evict communities. The following images document this violence as it manifested itself in Kibera on the 29th of January, 2008, depicting the protests and the subsequent incursions into the informal spaces of Kibera by paramilitary forces.

Protesters flee from paramilitary forces that open fire on the crowd. These security forces were responsible for many of the fatalities during the conflict and the extra judicial methods used in dispersing the protestors exacerbated the unrest, shifting its focus to government forces and institutions.

Paramilitary forces run through an alley in Kibera. In an attempt to quell the riots and restore order, tear gas, rubber bullets and life ammunition were frequently used against the crowds. Four people were killed in Kibera on the 29th of January 2008 as a result of this violence.

“IT WAS CHAOTIC AND AT SOME POINT IT TURNED INTO A TRIBAL WAR.”

- THOMAS BWIRE, EDITOR OF KIBERA RADIO STATION PAMOJA FM

Paramilitary forces move to quell a riot on the periphery of Kibera, through the physical thresholds of the informal settlement. This was a common occurrence during the violence that followed the 2007 presidential election.

Supporters of the Orange Democratic Movement tear up railway tracks of the Ugandan Railway in protest of the election results on January 29th, 2008. Many infrastructural and institutional structures were destroyed during the violence that lead to the death of over 1000 people and left over 600,000 homeless. Additionally, fear that the government would being in soldiers from Uganda led to the direct targeting of the Ugandan train line to stop them.

A burnt out car lies in the road, with smoke damage to the building behind. Behind these physical urban scars of the post election violence, socio-ethnic divisions remain deep, with the coming election process a source of fear for many inhabitants

Fires claimed large portions of Kibera during the violence following the 2007 election. Due to the construction quality and flammable materials used in the fabrication of much of the settlements structures, fires are common place and often used as a tool for forcibly evict communities. Above is pictured a threshold site ablaze with the Ugandan Railway in the foreground

“THEY WERE PUNISHING ALL THE KIKUYUS WHO LIVED IN THE AREA. THEY WOULD STEAL FROM THEM. THEY USED TO CALL IT ‘SHOPPING,’ AND WOULD GO INTO THEIR HOUSES AND TAKE EVERYTHING AND LEAVE AN EMPTY ROOM.” - THOMAS BWIRE, KIBERA RADIO PAMOJA FM

01.3

(IN)FORMAL STRATEGIES: DEFINING APPROACHES AND METHODOLOGIES

The approach for this study pilot thesis is to explore design interventions as a means to mitigate not only the acute urban stress of ethno-political violence, but to also address its causes. It is intention of this body of work to provide a framework of physical responses that are tested, harnessing research into the spatial political and social conditions in contemporary Kibera. However it is vital to note the limitations to the scope of study. The question of acting spatially in highly complex informal urban environments is vast, and requires clear definition as to the goals that should be aspired to. This is done by critically limiting the research to factors behind urban division and conflict. While broader themes of urban equality and development are mentioned in this work, they are explored as underlying facets to the question of ethno-political violence. This document pilot thesis touches on many complex questions, but solely as a mechanism to better understand the key topics of: fractured social and urban space, thresholds informal environments, and notions of division and conflict in Kibera.

Kibera immediately poses questions of scale as to how may this expansive urban condition be responded to. In response to this, the periphery of the slum has been chosen; not only due to the fact the site experienced much of the post electoral violence, but also its interesting relationship with legal settlements. The transient nature of informal settlements, where communities are in constant states of change and movement, provides a rich urban fabric, but also presents difficulties with regards to prescribing defined interventions. Responding to this, the design iterations that are explored in this pilot thesis represent a variety of strategic methods that accept and consider the dynamism of Kibera. The second principle that underpins this work is the recognition of the actors in this environment, and the position that an exploration into the mitigation of sociopolitical conflict should be predicated on the consideration and inclusion of all parties involved. From the slum dweller, to municipal bodies and the police, each of these urban actors plays a pivotal role in the issue of urban tension in informal settlements. Therefore this research will attempt to address the motives and forms of acting of each of these groups, defining their potential capacity to reduce violence. While it may be argued that some of these groups, in particular the paramilitary police (responsible for many of the extra judicial killings committed in 20072008), are in fact aggravating forces in the discourse of conflict mitigation, it is the intention of this research to garner insight into each of the respective elements behind this issue as a way to provide possible strategies and solutions.

Finally, concepts such as social animosity between communities and the vast divisions of wealth between various demographics in Nairobi will repeatedly present themselves in this study. However, due to the scale of this topic and the magnitude of these divisions, this study will not attempt to provide solutions for all of the developmental and social challenges that face Kibera’s residents. Instead, this work will explore how an understanding of these issues may provide insights into the mitigation of urban social tensions in slum thresholds. Issues such as crime and poverty, sanitation and public health will be examined as underlying conditions that exacerbate urban conflict, and shall be responded to as elements that magnify ethno-political violence, instead of as the whole spectrum of the urban challenges that face the inhabitants of Kibera.

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02.1

URBAN SCHIZOPHRENIA: NAIROBIS DUAL IDENTITY

Nairobi is a city that has been defined spatially and socially by segregation and division. Founded in 1899 as a railway halt for the British colonial railway that linked Uganda to Mombasa (Ross, 1975: 6), the city has experienced exponential growth in the last 50 years (Charton-Bigot, H., Rodriguez-Torres, D. (Eds.), 2010: 5). With an estimated population increase of 4-6% per annum, it is expected that the population of Nairobi will reach 4.4 million by 2030 (UN Habitat, 2008: 4). This rapid urbanization has transformed Nairobi into a cosmopolitan metropolis, with a myriad of ethnic and tribal groups. As the seat of Kenya’s government, Nairobi has been called the ‘nerve centre’ of the country politically and socially, with aspects of the ‘best and the worst’ of the nation representative (Muggah, 2011: 6). British colonial administrators perceived towns and cities as sources of social and political unrest, rather than collective cultural and economic spaces (Charton-Bigot, H., Rodriguez-Torres, D. (Eds.), 2010: 9). This was coupled by a general mistrust of town life by African populations, where urban areas were seen as opportunities for employment and a means to support families - rather than spaces to permanently reside (Charton-Bigot, H., Rodriguez-Torres, D. (Eds.), 2010: 10). It is estimated that even by the time of Kenyan independence in 1963, only 8% of the population of the country lived in cities (Nevenlinna, 1996: 259). From its beginnings, Nairobi was a space of migrants; temporary residents and workers who would move to the city for a brief time (Charton-Bigot, H., Rodriguez-Torres, D. (Eds.), 2010: 10). An example of this is the fact that, until World War II, the female population of the city was approximately one fifth of the whole, with the vast majority of its inhabitants being male migrant workers or soldiers. (Ross, 1975: 24) During Nairobi’s colonial history, explicit planning policies divided the communities along ethnic lines. With Whiteonly settlements allocated to the West and North, and land set aside to the East of the railway for the migrant Asian population workers brought in by the British, land was not officially allocated to the African population until 1919, forcing the communities to settle illegally on the eastern periphery of the town (Ross, 1975:27). While the master plan proposed in 1927 for the development of the town did not explicitly forbid non-White inhabitants to purchase land in designated areas in the city, the scheme was still delineated along racial lines. (Olima, 2001: 12)

Contemporary Nairobi has been described as a city with a dual character (Charton-Bigot, H., Rodriguez-Torres, D. (Eds.), 2010.). As a planned urban environment, Nairobi presents characteristics of the Garden City, with parks, golf courses, suburban and public spaces organized in a spacious and ordered manner (Nevenlinna, 1996: 258). Access to services and utilities in these spaces is of a relatively high level (Nevenlinna, 1996: 259). The second facet of this city is that of the unplanned urban space: sprawling high-density settlements with negligible access to services, endemic poverty and high crime (Cruz, da, Sommer, Tempra, 2006: 4). This dual identity manifests itself through massive divisions within the city: between the wealthy and the poor; between formal and informal spaces; between those with access to services and utilities; and those disenfranchised from such facilities (Muggah, 2011: 6). According to a 2003 UN HABITAT report, Contemporary Nairobi, on a planning and infrastructural level, fails to meet the basic requirements of its residents, while simultaneously incapable to respond to the rapid growth of its population (UN HABITAT, 2003). Additionally, it is interesting to note that Nairobi has not had a master plan scheme since 1973, resulting in a ‘lack of a clear vision’ for the city (Muggah, 2011: 14). Examining approaches taken towards the poor and informally housed in the city, several systemic ‘blind spots’ exist. This results in an environment where little is provided with regard to support or initiatives targeting those at the bottom of Nairobi’s socio-economic ladder (UN HABITAT, 2003). This deficiency represents a key socio-political factor in the division of the city. Through the impotency of the municipal bodies governing the city in the provision of basic services and support structures for Nairobi’s urban poor, (informal communities living beyond the proverbial horizon of formal planning), are continually and chronically disenfranchised from conventional political frameworks (Stavrou, 2002: 8). With little mechanism to engage in local policy-making to improve access to services and formalized urban planning, many inhabitants in Nairobi’s slums are disillusioned by the city’s institutions (Olima, 2001: 16). Not only does this lack of engagement in municipal planning and policy perpetuate the cycle of lack of service provision to informal settlements, but also ostracises these communities further from formal discourse with the legal city.

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It has been reported that mismanagement and a lack of financial resources has led to this inability of the Nairobi City Council to fulfil its mandate as the provider of services to the city’s inhabitants (Cruz, da, Sommer, Tempra, 2006: 8). While this body ostensibly has full control of all aspects of the management of the urban environment, unlike other cities in Kenya, the budget of the Nairobi City Council must be approved by the central government through the Legislative branch (Muggah, 2011: 14). A report produced by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme cites specifically the budgetary approval process as a major hindrance to the effective implementation of projects and initiatives (UNHABITAT, 2003). This structure has exacerbated the incidence of corruption within the city’s administrative bodies, with local officials collaborating unethically with elected ministers and politicians (Stavrou, 2002: 33). A prime example of this is in the allocation of land for development, through the privatisation of government owned space in the city. The 2006 Urban Sector Profile for Nairobi shows how the division between the poor and wealthy in the city is directly related to the complexity and lack of effectiveness of the organizational structure in the managing of Nairobi (UNHABITAT, 2006: 10).

CASE STUDY: CONTESTED SPACES The spatial quality that may be highlighted is the presence of physical boundaries that delineate the division between formal and informal place. As has been examined in each of the sites, in addition to the macro analysis of the periphery of Kibera, physical boundaries, whether topographical, structural or infrastructural, act as barriers to inclusion in the urban dialogue, tangible symbols of the disenfranchisement informal actors in the city. These barriers additionally constrain expansion and mobility, while simultaneously often increasing the proximity of disparate communities, brining actors of the formal and informal into at times unwanted contact. Threshold informal sites may be characterized also by the presence and prevalence of contention. Whether over resources, land, access to services, democracy, the edges between Kibera and its formal surroundings are places of sustained and acute competition, where the basic needs of inhabitants of the unplanned settlement come into sharp contrast to the intentions and designs of the planned city. In spaces that have such competition, where thresholds and boundaries affect, for better or for worse, the urban conditions, what may be done to alleviate such tension;how and by whom?

A man stands in ‘No Mans Land’ between protestors and police

Political graffiti in Kibera by urban artist Solo 7

The ‘Formal’ space of the railway, appropriated by residents

Residents of Kibera watch election results in 2007

Contests for basic resources such as clean water a common

A local law enforcement office, within Kibera

“THE TWO CITIES INTERRELATE AND INTERACT ON AN AD HOC BASIS AT BEST AND THE SOCIAL DISCONNECT BETWEEN THE TWO HAS BEEN ACCEPTED BY THE CITY AUTHORITIES AND GOVERNMENT AS AN EQUILIBRIUM, OR AT LEAST AS AN UNFORTUNATE BUT NECESSARY BY PRODUCT OF CAPITALISM.” (MUGGAH, 2011)

02.2

KIBERA AS A (SLUM) CITY: UNDERSTANDING THE SITE, ITS INFORMAL STATUS AND THE ACTORS

Of the many informal settlements in Nairobi, Kibera is by far the largest and is located about 2.5 kilometres from central Nairobi. It is divided into 13 districts and comprised of multiple ethnic groups, informal societal organizations and neighbourhoods. This section examines the unplanned qualities of the settlement and how its unique illegal identity informs not only its socio-spatial condition, but also the effect this informal legacy has. Purchasing policies and bureaucracy created prior to Kenyan independence in 1963 led to an environment that ensured that the African majority of the city would not be able to obtain land legally, be part of formal planning processes, or benefit from services and utilities provided by the Nairobi City Council (Mutiso, 1975: 65). This discrimination resulted in the establishment of many of the informal settlements that define contemporary Nairobi (Cruz, da, Sommer, Tempra, 2006: 36). From Marathe in the north to Kibera in the southwest, these informal settlements, while distinct in their demographics and character, share common beginnings as spaces appropriated by African working class residents in the early 20th century due to the complete lack of formal provision for them elsewhere. (Cruz, da, Sommer, Tempra, 2006: 42). Failure to recognize the legal status of hundreds of thousands of inhabitants, coupled with a broad state ownership of land, has resulted in these same places of illegal tenure being the first areas that are settled by rural Kenyans who lack the resources and financial capital to purchase land in the planned districts of the city (Cruz, da, Sommer, Tempra, 2006: 42). Through systematic collaborations between landowners, local bureaucrats and government officials, informal settlements are continuously threatened with relocation or destruction, with corruption widespread in the land acquisition process (Ross, 1975: 119).

Kibera is constrained by physical boundaries that range from the Royal Nairobi Golf Course at the northern edge, to Nairobi’s Dam and a national park in the south. Physical infrastructure, such as water pipes and sewers, coupled with existing geographical conditions such as topography and rivers all have informed the shape and nature of the informal settlement, with residents occupying space along these entities. Most prominent of these is the Ugandan railway that forms the northern edge condition. This physical infrastructure acts at once as a social threshold and barrier, delineating formal and informal space. However this urban edge also creates a unique temporal space. Along this train line, ad hoc markets and rail stops create temporary communal spaces that are used by inhabitants of both the formal and the informal spaces, only to disappear upon the arrival of trains along the tracks. Such spaces are appropriated by hawkers and permanent stalls; creating neutral zones that are neither formal or informal, used by both communities. They are however in constant flux, with police and land grabbers frequently forcing these squatters to relocate, with threats of extortion and violence commonplace. Insecurity of tenure, coupled with socio-economic disenfranchisement, creates spaces of blurred lines of property and ownership in Kibera. As such, the informal settlement is a site of conflict, between landowners and tenants, between criminals and law enforcement, between forces of ‘development’ at the local and municipal level set against local stakeholders (Stavrou, 2002: 32). These conflicts are exacerbated due to tensions between tribal groups in the city. Despite the void in formal municipal intervention or structure, communities form around neighbourhoods, along ethnic lines, and each possesses a discrete community order (Olima, 2001: 17). Headmen or tribal elders are social leaders in these spaces and attempt to maintain order through the use of gangs and strong men loyal to particular groups. Additionally, ‘Wabenzi’ – local dialect for rich landowners who can afford to drive a Mercedes-Benz, charge very high rates for rent (Neuwith, 2005: 144). It is estimated that in most of Kibera’s districts, approximately 1-4% of residents are land owners, with the vast majority leasing their properties. These precarious living situations, that threaten security of tenure, coupled with a lack of engagement in local planning processes, leaves residents with little mechanism to build individual and community capital within their urban fabric, exacerbating tensions between the formal and informal stakeholders.

THIS SATELLITE IMAGE OF A PORTION OF KIBERA SHOWS THE CONTRAST IN URBAN GRAIN BETWEEN THE FORMAL AND INFORMAL IN AND AROUND KIBERA. ITS EXTENTS AND PHYSICAL LIMITS ARE DEFINED BY INFRASTRUCTURE AND PROPERTY LINES OF THE FORMAL, YET A LESS OBVIOUS RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE TWO URBAN SPACES EXISTS, THROUGH THE INTERACTION OF INHABITANTS ON BOTH SIDES WITH THE SHARED COMMUNAL SPACE AT THE EDGES.

“IN SOME WAYS CONSTITUTING A MICROCOSM OF THE COUNTRY, NAIROBI BRINGS INTO SHARP RELIEF THE ACHIEVEMENTS, SHORTCOMINGS, AND NEGLECT OF THE STATE AND ITS AGENCIES.” (MUGGAH, 2011)

“- NAIROBI HAS ALSO WITNESSED A SPECTACULAR GROWTH IN ITS URBAN POPULATION, PRIMARILY ITS INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS. THESE SETTLEMENTS ARE HIGHLY SPATIALLY AND SOCIALLY SEGMENTED. WHILE SLUMS AND INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS TODAY ACCOUNT FOR MORE THAN 60 PERCENT OF THE CITY’S RESIDENTS, THEY COVER ONLY 5 PERCENT OF THE TOTAL AREA ZONED FOR RESIDENTIAL LAND.” (MUGGAH, 2011)

Despite egregious deficiencies in formal services, economic security and legal land tenure, Kibera’s informal status endows the settlement with a unique character that defines its urban fabric as much as its negative conditions. Within often cramped and poorly constructed buildings, a plethora of activities take place (Neuwith, 2005: 20). From housing to small businesses, to schools and churches, these structures are self built and comprised of salvaged materials. However, the exterior conditions do not represent the functions inside. Throughout Kibera, micro economies abound, servicing not only the informal settlement, but also feeding back into the formal urban fabric; in the form of human resources, market places, services and low cost enterprises (Nuewith, 2011, 63). In the words of environmental theorist Stuart Brand, slum dwellers are: ‘poor but intensely urban. – They are not stuck in poverty, they are getting out of poverty as fast as they can.” (Stuart Brand, TED Conference, Monterey California, 2006) It has been discussed that the informal status of Kibera’s threshold sites, outside the reach of formal municipal and legal mechanisms, poses very real challenges to the stability and quality of life for its inhabitants. However, embedded in these issues of informality and illegality is a freedom to the urban conditions of the settlements (Hamdi, 2004: 21). Without the controlling influence of infrastructures such as taxes, building permission, business permits and regulations, inhabitants of Kibera partake in a vibrant form of urbanism that is at once spontaneous and dynamic. Economically, there are also benefits to living informally that are less obvious. As Robert Neuwith writes in ‘Shadow Cities’: ‘Illegal Ownership, while perhaps legally precarious, is safer for poor people because they don’t have to go into debt to create their houses. They build what they can afford, and when they can afford.” (Neuwith, 2005: 9) This freedom that Neuwith advocates, the phenomena of “architectural emergence”, is central to the more positive aspects of Kibera’s urban condition. As has been advocated by urban development specialists such as Nabeel Hamdi and John Turner, stakeholders (local inhabitants and communities engaged in the issues) are the most capable in the fulfilment of individual needs, particularly in cases of chronic urban stress. However, this metabolism of spontaneous, unplanned and emergent urban growth is not without limits (Hamdi, 2010: 120). The shortfalls in this phenomena, such technical expertise, the inability to harness the economies of scale to facilitate more ambitions forms of growth and the underlying fundamental illegality of emergence must also be recognized and considered (Sinclair, 2006: 27).

To summarize, the slums thresholds of Kibera are home to at once, some of the most egregious living conditions in Nairobi, and an urban dynamism that holds significant potential in its capacity to alleviate urban stress through the fulfilment of stakeholder needs. Lying on the border between the ‘city’ and the ‘slum’, the sites of intervention put forward the possibility to respond with a strategic methodology; one that equally straddles the urban phenomena of formalized and unplanned growth while responding to the informal settlement as a viable, yet unique built environment.

Satelite Image + Nollie Mapping Diagram of Threshold Space Between Formal & Informal Zones

MAPPING BARRIERS + THRESHOLDS

Ayany Junction & Station Railway Halt for Ugandan Train line, major bus and Matutu station. Key flashpoint in 2008 violence

Toi Primary School; private instituion, it is likely that it is overly expensive for Kibera residents.

Old Kibera Primary Schol and Computer Programme School. Provides training in computers for both slum and non-slum dwellers

Creek. Cuts through the formal and informal spaces in and around Kibera, forming a natural barrier that is crossed at points.

Little Prince Primary School; private instituion, it is likely that it is overly expensive for Kibera residents.

Ngong Forest Road; major conduit out of Nairobi and along Kibera. Leads into the Ngong Forest National Park

Steep hills and unplanned landfill space; creates physical barrier between Kibera and the national park land to the south.

Formal Housing Settlement Area, part of the Kenyan Slum Upgrading Programme (KENSUP)

Steep hills and unplanned landfill space; creates physical barrier between Kibera and the national park land to the south.

Arterial pedestrian routes through Kibera, created primarliy along sewer lines, these form market spaces and communal openspace

Topograhpical Barrier

Infastructural Barrier

Royal Nairobi Golf course: Physical barrier between the Ugandan railway and Kibera. Walled off and tightly controlled access

Social Threshold

Contested Space

Kimlaei Primary School, Privately owned with very spacious grounds, unlikely to be affordable to residents of Kibera

Christ the King school, medical clinic & vocational training centre. Adjacent, Laini Saba Primary School

Steep hills and unplanned landfill space; creates physical barrier between Kibera and the national park land to the south.

Physical Threshold

Market place along Ugandan Railway, contested space, in flux and under threat by forces of control. Key site of violence

Ugundu Primary School and play ground. Privately owned school providing education to local children of Kibera

ACK School, church and clinic. Common in Kibera is the combination of religious institution and education facility

Creek. Cuts through the formal and informal spaces in and around Kibera, forming a natural barrier that is crossed at points.

Ugandan Railway Track, leading into central Nairobi, a major threshold and barrier for Kibera, with physical and social boundaries

Government Rd., vehicular circulation bringing traffic from west Nairobi (via Mbagathi Way) to the Nyayo Highrise Area

CASE STUDY: PROGRAMMATIC DIVERSITY

The images shown are exemplar programmes that summarize the diversity of activists within the informal spaces of Kibera. From top to bottom, informal education, entertainment, housing, small businesses and culture and community.

CASE STUDY: KIANDA DISTRICT

Kianda, one of Kibera’s 13 districts, forms the west-most point of the settlement, situated along the edge of the Ngong Forest National Reserve, the Ugandan Railway and one of the prominent Matutu bus stops in the Kibera district. It is estimated that approximately 12,000 residents inhabit this space. The organization MAP-KIBERA completed extensive surveys of this district and with their permission a sample of their research is shown here. These diagrams depict the complex nature of these informal settlements, with a vide variety of age groups and family mixes coupled with a diversity in building materials and building function.

Concrete Structures

Timber Structures

Corrugated Iron Structures

Population Density

Dwellings with Single Parents

Rent Cost

Dwellings with Single Adults

Local Businesses

Child Population Density & Schools

“The informal settlements which accommodate majority of the residents have continued to be denied access to basic services on ground that they are classified as unplanned and therefore unrecognized by city authorities. This misconception that services can only be provided to planned areas of the city has greatly undermined services provision in informal settlements in Nairobi.” MUGGAH, 2011

02.3

UNDERSTANDING DIVISION: ETHNO-POLTICAL FACTORS BEHIND URBAN FRACTURING

Kikuyu, Luo, Kalenjin, Somali, Pakistani; in Kenya these terms come with connotations of tribalism, ethnicity and division. With a population comprised of more than forty tribes and languages, tensions between communities, drawn from generations of skirmishes and conflict between various groups, continue to exist today (Ross, 1975: 56). This is by no means a new phenomenon (Ross, 1975: 20). Historically the British Empire maintained its control of colonial Kenya by segregating the three primary tribal groups - the Luo, Kikuyu and Kalenjin; each receiving different benefits from British rule (Ross, 1975: 18). It was through the stereotypes put in place by colonizers such as E. Huxley that the foundations of division were laid and contributed to the way in which the various tribal groups in Kenya perceived each other (Mutiso, 1975: 47). As such, the Lou were historically viewed as “lazy”, the Kikuyus as mischievous, Kambas as “sex maniacs”, and the tribes of the Somalis and the Masai as trustworthy and virtuous (Mutiso, 1975: 47). This form of stereotyping had severe repercussions, leading to a division of labour and employment based on racial lines; Kamba/Kalenjin men were selected for military service, and other groups, such as the Kikuyu, initially chosen for clerical positions. This form of ethnic specialization directly affected the planning of Nairobi. Preferential treatment was given to the Masai and Somali groups with regard to limited land allocation, specifically following the World Wars (Charton-Bigot, H., RodriguezTorres, D. (Eds.), 2010: 13). Furthermore, the systematic disenfranchisement of the Luo and Kalenjin tribes in opportunities to employment, originating from the racism of colonial administrators, still exists today as a point of contention between these groups and the most populous tribe, the Kikuyu (Ross, 1975: 120). A further aspect to the effect of race and ethnicity in the urban conditions of Nairobi is the historical and contemporary presence of the city Asian community, descendants of the labourers brought to Kenya by colonial administrators in the late 19th century. Therefore, as is discussed by Nevanlinna in ‘Interpreting Nairobi: The Culture Study of Built Forms’(1996), a distinction should be made between the tribalism and ethnicity as they are two parallel concepts.

CASE STUDY: DEMOGRAPHICS OF DIVERSITY

Demographically, Kenya is extremely varied, with multiple tribes and cultures spread across the country. The largest of Kenyas tribe, the Kikuyu, make up 22% of the national population, with high numbers located in and around the capital. While many of the ethnic groups in Kenya are geographically disparate, the rapid urbanization that the country has experienced has brought communities from disparate triable groups together in urban environments.

While the official languages of the Kenya are Swahili (85% fluent) and English, there are approximately 60 other native languages. These vary vastly in their prevalence, with Kama, Luo and Kalenjin spoken by millions of individuals, and more obscure languages such as Boni and Taveta spoken by a few hundred at most. With regard to religion, Kenyans are approximately 78% Christian, with Islam and indigenous accounting for a further 20%.

Map of Kenya, formed by the 60 native languages found in the country. Each is sized in proportion to the number of native speakers.

1900

1920

1930

1940

1950

1960

Spread of the Language Groups of the Country

2% Other

45% Protestant

10% Indigenous Beliefs

33% Catholic

0.3% Buddhist

10% Muslim

Kikuyu

Luya

Luo

Kalenjin

Kamba

Kisiii

Meru

Non-African

Other-African

1% of the national population

40 Million

URBAN POPULATION

30 Million

20 Million

RURAL POPULATION

10 Million

1970

1980

1990

2000

2010

2020

Despite these factors of preferential treatment, segregation and discrimination, it has been stated by key members of Kenya’s contemporary political establishment that it was only following independence that the divisions between African tribal groups in the country began to surface. (Raila Ondinga on Al Jazeeras, ‘The Café’, aired June 30th, 2011.) This is in part due to the void left by the British; where grievances and blame would once be placed upon the occupying power, the leaders of the new nation were Kenyan. This in turn has led to the exposure of the underlying divisions of wealth and power between the disparate tribal communities. Furthermore, it is also vital to state that divisions between communities is a phenomena that is much more prevalent in urban spaces in the country (Ross, 1975: 65). It is interesting to note that the ethnic make of up of Nairobi, excluding a much higher proportion of Asian and European residents than the average, forms almost a perfect sample of the national population (Ross, 1975: 66). This conglomeration of communities, forcing groups to share spaces, live in close proximity and, in the case of the unplanned settlements of the city, exacerbating the struggle to acquire the most basic services, points towards how the urban environment creates a social sphere that acts as a catalysts for tribal and ethnic tensions. To summarize, the diversity of tribal ethnic groups in Nairobi, African and otherwise, coupled with the remnants of colonial institutionalized segregation on an urban planning level, has created an environment that aggravates tensions and divisions between communities in the city. Subsequently, as a traditionally tribal society, the elected officials of the newly independent nation led to the affiliation of successes and failures of individual leaders with tribal groups in the place of British colonial administrators. (Mutiso, 1975: 64).

‘THE ISSUE WITH ETHNICITY, AS FAR AS I’M CONCERNED – ONE OF THE ISSUES THAT STOOD OUT IS THAT, WE ALL KNOW WHAT IT IS WE ARE. I KNOW WHAT BEING KIKUYU IS, A LUO KNOWS WHAT BEING LUO IS, BUT YOU DON’T HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT BEING KENYAN IS. SOMEBODY HAS TO ESTABLISH A BRAND OF WHAT BEING A KENYAN IS. BECAUSE YOU SEE, IN 1963 THE PROCESS HAD BEGUN, SOMEWHERE ALONG THE WAY IT GOT HIJACKED. NOW WE NEED TO FINISH THAT PROCESS.” NGUNJIRI WAMBUGU, KIKUYUS FOR CHANGE, ON AL JAZEERA’S ‘THE CAFÉ’ AIRED ONLINE JUNE 30TH, 2011

02.4

DESIGNED INFORMALITY: DEFINING THE BRIEF

This section explores how, in light of the research presented thus far, this theoretical analysis may translate into a strategy for architectural/urban intervention. Despite constitutional and political power sharing agreements created in the wake of the unrest, underlying elements, such as access to services, violence prevention, physical and social disconnection, have been untouched by these governance reforms. It is therefore the goal of the design responses of this work to focus on the socio-economic and developmental contributors to urban division, forces that are visceral and continue to contribute to Kibera’s fragmented urban reality. Programmatically this translates into the exploration of design methodologies and interventions that may act as catalysts to address these issues, specifically with a view to reducing their impact in cross-community antagonism within and without Kibera’s periphery spaces.

It has been revealed that the complexity of Kibera’s informal status is closely linked to the roles of various actors, from the residents and NGOs inhabiting the informal settlement, to the municipal and security wings of the Nairobi government. The process for testing design interventions, responding to underlying socio-political conditions will draw from the roles and modi operandi of each of these actors. The ambition of this method of architectural and urban testing is to explore how each of these actors may be able to contribute to the mitigation of violence in a spatial and meaningful way. The manipulation of these methods also offers the opportunity to theorize on hybridized principles that examine new forms of architectural typologies, challenging current conventions of building in slums through responding to a specific developmental or political programme. The final defining consideration for the development and definition of the brief is the significance of the informal nature of Kibera. It is the goal of this design project to explore the capacity of formal interventions, into informal spaces, to augment the latent positive qualities of unplanned development, whilst mitigating the severe challenges of such urban typologies. It is the position of the author that the scale, complexity and inherent qualities of Kibera point towards a harnessing of formal development in a hybrid manner that crucially retains the informal nature of the site. This is not to say that Kibera as an urban space should not eventually be formalized, rather that the forms of intervention and scope of this study suggest a more nuanced and considered approach; one that anticipates spontaneous growth and harnesses this urban momentum as a positive design tool.

03.1

ACTING IN CONFINED SPACE: DESIGN PARAMETERS

In the dense compact sites that typify Kibera’s urban grain, any design intervention would inevitably be forced to carefully respond to the existing structures in its vicinity. The nature of the sites informality results in any and all available open space being appropriated by settlers. As such, design moves on any informal site should open access to the under utilised space in the interior of the settlement to minimize the negative impact of formalized interventions. A key aspect to the design methodology is the notion that these interventions are inherently incomplete. It is envisaged as a canvas on which residents may apply their own functions and uses through further development and construction. Without such flexibility it is likely that such an intervention would likely fail, as programming specific function is generally very difficult in unplanned settlements due to their constantly changing needs and characteristics.

“WHEN DWELLERS CONTROL THE MAJOR DECISION AND ARE FREE TO MAKE THEIR OWN CONTRIBUTION TO THE DESIGN, CONSTRUCTION OR MANAGEMENT OF THEIR HOUSING, BOTH THE PROCESS AND THE ENVIRONMENT PRODUCES STIMULATE INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIAL WELL BEING.” - JOHN TURNER, “FREEDOM TO BUILD”, 1972

A further element that needs to be considered is the manner in which any intervention would be constructed, by whom and the availability of local materials. Due to the compact nature of the site and a desire to facilitate the use of local construction workers, the structure should be simple. Additionally, material theft is not uncommon, and therefore surfaces should be simple, mitigating this risk. It is intended that an intervention should be buildable, minimising the complexity of construction. Furthermore the lengths of timber should not exceed 4m, allowing the materials to be transported into these informal sites with minimal infrastructural requirements. Finally, in the connections elements, splicing of timbers and the cutting of angles needs to be kept to a minimum, with overlapping lengths allowing for easy construction and for an increased level of error in their production.

“FLEXIBILITY TO ACHIEVE GOOD FIT THAT CAN CHANGE OVER TIME WAS ARGUED NOT ONLY ON GROUNDS OF COST AND STANDARDS BUT ALSO ON GOOD DESIGN WITH A STRONG SOCIAL AND USER BIAS –“‘TO PROVIDE A PRIVATE DOMAIN THAT WILL FULFIL EACH OCCUPANTS’ EXPECTATIONS.” - NABEEL HAMDI, HOUSING WITHOUT HOUSES, 1995

03.2

MICRO SOCIAL RESPONSES: DESIGN PROVOCATION AND RAMIFICATIONS

The ambition of this initial design intervention was to examine the ways in which interventions in a public open space may act as a stabilizing force in the democratic processes of Kibera. This was explored through the design of a flexible plinth and frame structure that allowed residents and stakeholders to make use of the permanence of the space for their own purposes while doubling as a polling station once every five years. Furthermore the provision of a permanent tangible service to the immediate community, water for fire security, was intended to aid in the creation of a space that is to be visually and socially open. This exercise has however raised questions as to the appropriation of open space by paramilitary forces during times of sociopolitical unrest. As such, progression from this study benefited from a more in-depth analysis of mechanisms that may mitigate counter productive instances of spatial incursion into the informal urban fabric. The primary role of the design intervention is to create a space that may act as a polling station in future elections that nurtures sentiments of legitimacy towards the democratic procedures in the city. As presidential elections in Kenya occur on a 5 year cycle, the primary programme of the intervention is inherently temporal, requiring a secondary programme to allow maximum use of space in the dense urban fabric of the site. This secondary programme is intended to support the interventions primary function through creating a recognizable, open and public space that is flexible while providing a tangible benefit to the surrounding community simultaneously. It is intended that through this secondary programme of a public gathering space, the site may become a place of discourse and interaction, mitigating tensions between social groups.

PLINTH + FRAME

FLEXIBLE PUBLIC SPACE FOR ELECTORAL STABILITY IN NAIROBI’S INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS

Axonometric Exploration Hand Drawings of Polling Station

1m 0m

3m 2m

5m 4m

10m

LOCALZIED THRESHOLD INSERTIONS MAXIMIZING THE POTENTIAL OF OPEN SPACE ON THE THRESHOLD

CIRCULATORY SPACE

COMMERCIAL SPACE

COMMUNAL SPACE

POLTICAL SPACE

03.3

SLUM BUILDING: CONSTRUCTION AND MATERIAL CONSIDERATIONS

The architectural typology that has been developed following the earlier brief intervention is that of the vertical tower. This form of intervention offers a response methodology that considers the spatial conditions that inform Kibera’s thresholds, such as density, single storey housing, poor construction quality and very limited open space. The verticality of tower construction acts as contrasting architectural typology that runs counter to the existing fabric and provides a series of potential benefits in the fulfilment of the programmatic requirements that work to mitigate violence in threshold sites. These include the augmentation of density in the site, providing new forms of interaction between residents and actors, the visibility provided by vertical elements, and their efficient use of space. This section documents a series of drawn studies that were conducted that explore the ramifications of vertical building in tightly packed urban space, harnessing small timber elements as the primary construction material.

These following drawings document the development of the architectural language and tectonic strategy that was used in the intervention iterations that are presented later in this study. Building on the notion of using small timber elements to construct tower elements, the design centres around the inclusion of composite mast structures that act as a vertical core, supporting the structure. Comprised of a dual layer of small-section timbers that overlap in two orientations, making it possible to then continuously add to this element; facilitating the construction of high structures without the use of large construction machinery such as cranes, which require substantial operating space. The remainder of the tower is comprised of overlapping timber elements that again require little construction space. Finally, the overlapping of these timbers adds to the ease with which residents in the informal settlement may add their own interventions on these towers.

EXPLORING TOWER TYPOLOGIES

VERTICAL ARCHITECTURAL INSERTIONS TO RESPOND TO UNIQUE URBAN CONDITIONS

DETAILING AD-HOC STRUCTURES

FOUNDATION DETAIL OF COMPOST MAST CONSTRUCTION AND RELATION TO GROUND PLANE

04.1

MAPPING THRESHOLDS: BOUNDARY CONDITIONS AND THRESHOLD URBAN SPACES IN FLASHPOINT SITES

104

Drawn from the mapping of sites of ethno-political violence that followed the 2007 presidential election, this section analyses the spatial and programmatic conditions of five boundary sites in Kibera, examining the urban grain. This analysis is drawn from open source mapping of communities by NGOs and local inhabitants, coupled with planning documents, images of the sites and qualitatively categorizes structures and spaces that form important thresholds and/or boundaries. These five sites are all on the physical periphery of Kibera, each with a different characteristic with regard to the surrounding context and prominence of elements such as schools and formal institutional structures within the vicinity. Key categories that have been highlighted are as follows: formal structures, informal commercial structures/spaces, threshold structures along a physical boundary and education structures. Additionally key infrastructure elements such as the Ugandan railway and physical boundaries have been mapped qualitatively to provide context to these threshold spaces.

105

SITE+FINDING

MAPPING FLASH POINTS OF ETHNO-POLITICAL VIOLENCE ON THRESHOLD SITES

Violence Incidence Mapping

106

Flash point sites

107

THRESHOLD SITES

FIVE URBAN HIGH RISK INFORMAL BOUNDARY CONDITIONS

108

109

OLYMPIC STADIUM SCHOOL

This first site, on the edge of the Olympic Primary and Secondary School, has been identified as a site of particular criminal violence. While the open space of the school is protected by physical barriers, research indicates that these barriers are broken and violent crime is prevalent in and around these open spaces. Divided by the railway, this site also provides a contrast in the facilities and area provided for, with the large planned and spacious education facilities to the north of the railway of a very different architectural condition to the charity run school within the informal settlement to the south.

Scale: 1/10,000

110

NYAYO HIGH RISE DEVELOPMENT

The boundary site adjacent to the Nyayo High Rise residential area is a clear example of an informal urban space that is physical defined by the formal conditions on its periphery. Constrained by the Kenyan Medical Research institute, the residential settlement and the railway, this site provides for frequent interaction between communities of the formal and informal spaces. It is perhaps this forced interaction that has led to the prevalence of violence on this site following the 2007 election.

Scale: 1/10,000

112

ROYAL NAIROBI GOLF COURSE

Perhaps the most striking example of the division between the formal and the informal, this site next to the Royal Nairobi Golf Course is informed by the railway and tight controls along the end of the luxury golf course. While in many other parts of Kibera small-scale market stalls and houses appropriate the space on both sides of the railway, at the point where the tracks run parallel to the golf course, they are only occupied on one side. As access to the golf course and country club is to the north, there is no access into the space, thus creating a social and physical boundary between the formal and informal.

Scale: 1/10,000

114

AYANYO JUNCTION + BUS STOP

The western most point of Kibera and the edge of the district Kianda, this site is framed by a number of formal conditions. The open space to the west of the settlement is occupied by the Ngong Forest and national park, with the north and east consisting of formal housing and light industrial zones. However perhaps the key element of this site is the presence of the Ayanyo Bus Stop and Junction, which creates a threshold between the formal and informal through the arrival and departure of residents in this shared space by public transport. A space that already has higher crime levels than the norm, this led to the area being a flashpoint for post-election violence in 2007-2008.

Scale: 1/10,000

116

LAINI SABA RAILWAY HALT

The urban space that is occupied by the Railway Halt at Laini Saba is the final of the boundary sites selected for this analysis. It provides a complex space that demonstrates the process of appropriation that occurs in informal settlements. On the boundary of a planned primary school, residential areas and the Ugandan Railway, this site is extremely dense and the presence of the railway halt provides a high density of pedestrian traffic, interacting with the large ad hod market that is formed on the edge of the tracks. Additionally, the appropriating of a vehicular road by informal structures creates an urban moment where the informal ‘punctures’ the formal planned space, in contrast to traditional infilling of disused opens pace that is common in much of Kibera.

Scale: 1/10,000

118

OLYMPIC PRIMARY SCHOOL SITE St. Juliets Education Centre Primary School: A branch of a larger education not-for profit organization, this school provides education at a subsidised rate.

Bakara Za Ibrahim Centre Secondary School: Towards the north of Kibera a number of Islamic schools provide education to the Muslim community in the surrounding area.

Tarpaulin photography installation by guerilla artist JR: offering a new visual threshold through which to view the slums of Kibera; from the air. Semipermanent structures opposite the local railway halt. Given its proximity to a number of large secondary and primary schools, this is a relatively major stopping space for the formal transport in fa structure.

Micro-level market stalls along the Ugandan railway: often victims of land snatchers and paramilitary forces uprooting these precariously placed stalls.

Olympic Primary School + Playground: Major source of crime in the locality due to poor security and dimly lit spaces at night

120

NYAYO HIGH RISE DEVELOPMENT Ugandan Railway; heading eastward to Mombasa from Uganda, the railway track acts as a physical and social barrier between communities in the city.

Kenyan Medical Research Institute: Kenya’s primary research medial institute, it is well connected to transport infrastructure and is physically sealed from outside communities and intruders.

Interior market street passageway, formed along supposedly and existing road, connecting one edge of the settlement to the other.

UN Habitat Office: Situated in the middle of the informal settlement, this small office is used by UN staff for community engagement. Cheif’s Office + Administration, Police Station: A small police station is located on this site.

Kenyan National Centre of Disease Control: a composite part of the Medical Research Institute, these facilities are a major employer and are tightly controlled spaces. Micro Stalls along Ugandan Railway: ad hoc markets next the railway, common through Kibera

Nyayo High Rise Residential Development: A gated community, this formal residential area is a recent development that is segregated from the informal settlement, acting as a physical and social barrier

122

ROYAL NAIROBI GOLF COURSE

Ugandan Railway; heading eastward to Mombasa from Uganda, the railway track acts as a physical and social barrier between communities in the city.

Micro Stalls along Ugandan Railway: ad hoc markets next the railway, common through Kibera

More ‘permanent’ structures line the edge of the settlement, housing residents, small businesses, services and community centres such a churches and mosques. Along the edge of the golf course, squatter structures appropriate space that is disused, adjacent to physical barriers that separate the property from the city. Physical thresholds into Kibera are made along small streets as shown in this space. These are often formed along formal infrastructure such as water pipes.

Micro Stalls along Ugandan Railway: ad hoc markets next the railway, common through Kibera

124

AYANYO JUNCTION + BUS STOP

Ayany bus stop. A key transport link for inhabitants of the formal and informal residential areas, the bus stop is a social threshold that breaks physical barriers between the formal and informal grains of the city.

Ayany residential area: formally planned housing of middle income families. Often gated to prevent burglaries and violent crime.

Small scale shops and houses on the edge of the site. Based on the research and surveys done by MAPKIBERA, the majority of businesses within the site are on the edges, where they can maximise exposure to the public and thus increasing their profit margins.

Privately funded school, within the settlement, run by local church charities, providing primary level education to the children of local residents.

126

LAINI SABA RAILWAY HALT SITE

Formal residences, surrounded by gates and fences, these middle-high income housing units are physically and socially disconnected from their surroundings.

Vehicular road, appropriated by informal structures and now a market space for local residents.

Informal markets and housing, infilling spatial voids left by the formal infastructure of roads in the immediate vicinity.

Micro Stalls along Ugandan Railway: ad hoc markets next the railway, common through Kibera

Ugandan Railway; heading eastward to Mombasa from Uganda, the railway track acts as a physical and social barrier between communities in the city.

128

129

NYAYO HIGH RISE DEVELOPMENT

130

Informal Commercial

Railway Track

Formal Property

Threshold Structure

Wall/Fence Barrier

Education Structure

OLYMPIC PRIMARY SCHOOL SITE

Informal Commercial

Railway Track

Formal Property

Threshold Structure

Wall/Fence Barrier

Education Structure

131

ROYAL NAIROBI GOLF COURSE

132

Informal Commercial

Railway Track

Formal Property

Threshold Structure

Wall/Fence Barrier

Education Structure

AYANYO JUNCTION + BUS STOP

Informal Commercial

Railway Track

Formal Property

Threshold Structure

Wall/Fence Barrier

Education Structure

133

LAINI SABA RAILWAY HALT SITE

134

Informal Commercial

Railway Track

Formal Property

Threshold Structure

Wall/Fence Barrier

Education Structure

135

04.2

LAINI SABA RAILWAY HALT: URBAN TESTING GROUND FOR DESIGN RESPONSES

136

This section examines one of the five sites in detail, the Laini Saba Railway Halt. As expressed in the previous section, this site defined by both thresholds and barriers, physical and social. This site was chosen for a more detailed study due to its nature as an informal space that has actively appropriated the formal areas of the vicinity, creating moments of interaction between the two in a manner that is at once spatial and temporal. Furthermore, context of the site in relation to surrounding boundaries is explored in greater depth, coupled with a qualitative expression of the temporal and social interactions between inhabitants in this space. The following pages explore the relationship between the informal and the formal through the analysis of site sections and the spatial interaction of key structures, open spaces, and infrastructure.

137

Formal residential areas of Ngumo Central and Highview, located along Mbagathi Road, look out over Kibera below. Kimalei Primary school, set back in its grounds, closed off from the surrounding urban space with physical barriers such as walls and fences. Laini Saba Railway Halt site - situated along the railway, this dense site acts as a market place, a transport hub and as housing for the community. Ugandan Railway line, cutting through the site and on the north edge of Kibera, the railway is shown in its context.

Cleared land, structures destroyed either by fire or by forced evictions, give context to the site and the conditions of incursions by formal actors into the informal urban space.

A major internal thoroughfare, exposing nearby open space in comparison to the site itself.

138

LAINI SABA RAILWAY HALT SPATIAL RELATIONSHIPS OF EXISTING BUILT ELEMENTS

140

141

LAINI SABA RAILWAY HALT MODELLING URBAN BOUNDARY AND THRESHOLD CONDITIONS

Site Threshold Model Closed Position Model Scale: 1/500

142

Site Threshold Model Open Position Model Scale: 1/500

143

LAINI SABA RAILWAY HALT SITE SECTION 01

Open space playgrounds of the Kamalei primary school, providing communal space for the community and a source of entertainment.

Kamalei Primary school, physically enclosed, the property and its barriers create boundaries between the formal and the formal

INFORMAL PROGRAMMES + SPACE

SOCIAL THRESHOLDS

The barriers between the primary school and the informal spaces acts as social barriers, restricting movement of residents

The Ugandan railway acts as a social threshold, with the railway halt acting as a catalyst for the moment of residents in and around the site.

PHYSICAL INFASTRUCTURE Sewer Train line Water Point

Road

PHYSICAL BOUNDARY/BARRIER Fence/Wall Railway

Open Space Community Space

Road Structure

INFRASTRUCTURE + TRANSPORT

Dense housing creates physical barriers due to the lack of space between structures, leading to dangerous living conditions

PHYSICAL THRESHOLDS

FORMAL PROGRAMMES + SPACE

Physical structures often divide individual communities, frequently over tribal lines, forming spatial thresholds that separate residents, on an socio-economic lines.

Open spaces within the informal settlement, created by church yards, schools and other community structures provide places that, on a small scale, bring individuals together and form thresholds of interaction.

FORMAL SPACE Business

Entertainment

Services

Housing

Education

Business

Entertainment

Services

Housing

Education

INFORMAL SPACE

LAINI SABA RAILWAY HALT SITE SECTION 02

INFRASTRUCTURE + TRANSPORT

The physical condition of the train line affect the spaces around it, temporally forcing stalls and hawkers to move upon arrival of the train

PHYSICAL THRESHOLDS

FORMAL PROGRAMMES + SPACE

Physical structures often divide individual communities, frequently over tribal lines, forming spatial thresholds that separate residents, on an socio-economic lines.

The Ugandan railway acts as a social threshold, with the railway halt acting as a catalyst for the moment of residents in and around the site.

PHYSICAL INFASTRUCTURE Sewer Train line Water Point

Road

PHYSICAL BOUNDARY/BARRIER Fence/Wall Railway

Open Space Community Space

Road Structure

The residential area of Highview is gated, thus restricting movement of residents, creating barriers.

INFORMAL PROGRAMMES + SPACE

The barriers between the primary school and the informal spaces acts as social barriers, restricting movement of residents

SOCIAL THRESHOLDS

FORMAL SPACE Business

Entertainment

Services

Housing

Education

Business

Entertainment

Services

Housing

Education

INFORMAL SPACE

LAINI SABA RAILWAY HALT SITE SECTION 03

Open space playgrounds of the Kamalei primary school, providing communal space for the community and a source of entertainment.

PHYSICAL THRESHOLDS

INFORMAL PROGRAMMES + SPACE

Physical structures often divide individual communities, frequently over tribal lines, forming spatial thresholds that separate residents, on an socio-economic lines.

The barriers between the primary school and the informal spaces acts as social barriers, restricting movement of residents

PHYSICAL INFASTRUCTURE Sewer Train line Water Point

Road

PHYSICAL BOUNDARY/BARRIER Fence/Wall Railway

Open Space Community Space

Road Structure

INFRASTRUCTURE + TRANSPORT

The physical condition of the train line affect the spaces around it, temporally forcing stalls and hawkers to move upon arrival of the train

FORMAL PROGRAMMES + SPACE

The Ugandan railway acts as a social threshold, with the railway halt acting as a catalyst for the moment of residents in and around the site.

SOCIAL THRESHOLDS

FORMAL SPACE Business

Entertainment

Services

Housing

Education

Business

Entertainment

Services

Housing

Education

INFORMAL SPACE

INCURSION ZONES

PERFORATION OF BOUNDARY BY PARAMILITARY FORCES

(IN)FORMAL ACTORS

QUALITATIVE SECTIONAL EXPLORATION INTO MULTI-ACTOR SPATIAL RELATIONSHIPS

Protestors & rioters, disenfranchised by political and economic processes take to the streets in times of unrest in the city.

Micro business, stalls and hawkers appropriate contested spaces along physical and social thresholds

Train lines and utilities infrastructure, forming physical and social thresholds and barriers along the boundaries between the formal and the informal.

Families occupy small shacks and structures, typically 3x3m, renting lots from illegal landlords.

Private charities and institutions provide basic education to the informal community, allowing children a chance at a better life.

INFORMAL ACTORS FORMAL ACTORS Counter - incursions in and around boundaries by paramilitary forces during times of political and social unrest create temporal thresholds between the formal and the informal.

The use of force by paramilitary forces spark further discontent amongst the inhabitants of the informal city, exacerbating tensions between the communities.

Formal development and slum redevelopment act as consistent forces of unrest and instability within the informal settlements.

05.1

URBAN LOCKDOWN: FACILITATING CONTROL AND SECURITY

154

This section tests an architectural typology that hypothesizes built interventions that act to mitigate violence by the control of flashpoint spaces. An initial exploration into how may informal sites be controlled and given a modicum of security, this intervention is a development on the typology of the military watchtower, made relevant through its design principles. This tower typology is inherently a top-down intervention into informal space and is a pronounced example of how a controlling force, manifesting itself as a visual and physical structure, responds to urban conflict and socio-political tension. Furthermore, the transient nature of the spaces in which these interventions are situated is explored, concluding with an extrapolation into the future of this design approach and how it will respond to Kibera’s informal qualities. With this positions may be taken as to the suitability of this form of over watch as a vertical metabolism that effectively responds to the framework of brief.

155

The concept for this form of intervention centres on the notion of physical control and over-watch, ‘locking down’ sites of violence with towers manned by members of the paramilitary forces. The impetus for this contentious principle stems from an exploration into the methodology of security forces in the control of spaces of unrest. This design intervention attempts to facilitate similar forms of crowd control through the insertion of towers that act as a constant presence within the settlements, with the capacity to dissipate tensions and respond to violence as and when it arises. However, this form of intervention represents many of the issues that the inhabitants of Kibera and supporters of the ODM were protesting during the prolonged conflict. As such the protection of such interventions is crucial and is explored in greater depth later in this section.

156

157

158

Corrugated Metal Roof 100x100mm Timber Purlins

Interlocking Pitched Frame Primary Roofing Structure Prefabricated Timber Panels to protect security forces from projectiles

100x100mm Timber Struts Supporting Staircase System

Watchtower Surveillance Platform

Stair Landing Floorplate

Modular Staircase Element to be built within the structure

Stair Landing Floorplate Supports

Interlocking 200x200mm Primary Timber Columns

100x200mm Overlapping Primary Beams

50x50mm Timber Security Facade to Protect Structure

Interlocking 200x100mm Timber Bracing Elements

Dual 100x200 Timber Posts

Watch Tower Exploded Axonometric Scale 1/200 159

CONTROLLING SPACE + MAKING PLACE CONFLICT MITIGATION THROUGH FORMAL QUASI-MILITARY SOLUTIONS

2m 1m

7.5m

4m 3m

10m

The design is comprised of three main tectonics, the tower frame, the covered observation platform, and facades that protect the inhabitants and the structure. The development of the watchtower typology draws on the principles of fast construction and protection of the site, drawing from earlier explorations into building in extremely dense urban environments (where building materials are valuable and thus vulnerable to theft). Because of these principles, the towers are envisaged to be built rapidly until the first level is complete, enabling building materials and tools to be stored within the footprint of the structure until they are needed. Additionally, the robust construction techniques of overlapping timber elements ensure that so long as the structure is occupied, it would be difficult for elements to be damaged or stolen while simultaneously reducing the need for highly skilled construction teams.

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Dual Primary Timber Columns Half Story Landing

Watch Tower Sections Scale 1/100 Ground Floor Plan 50x50mm Timber Protection Facade Dual Primary Timber Columns

Entry

Dual Primary Timber Columns Primary Timber Beam First Floor Plan

50x50mm Timber Projection Facade

Stair Landing

Timber Bracing Elements

Second Floor Plan Protection Facade (Below)

Stair Landing

50mm Thick Security Panel for Protection from Projectiles Third Floor Plan Opening in Security Panel for Surveillance Observation Platform

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It is safe to say there are tangible benefits to this process of designing formally in an illegal space through quasimilitary interventions. Not only could these interventions literally mitigate violence by diffusing tensions and dispersing crowds rapidly, (which the Nairobi security forces had a limited capacity for in 2007), but also offer a sense of security to the surrounding environment, portraying a symbol of stability. Furthermore, the continued presence of security forces within these threshold sites also provides the possibility for these forces to respond to other forms of violence and crime. However, there are potential negative responses to the intervention of explicit elements of formal control into Kibera. The continuous presence of paramilitary forces in the informal settlements would likely upset current balances of power between the community structures that already exist in the site. This upheaval could have severely negative affects, such as a backlash against Nairobi’s security forces that are seen by many, particularly in the Luo community, as primarily supporters of Kenya’s Kikuyu majority.

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Timber Roofing Purlins

50mm Thick Security Panel for Protection from Projectiles

Corrucgated Metal Roofing

100x100mm Timber Struts for Observation Platform

100x200mm Timber Overlapping Bracing Elements 100x100mm Timber Struts for Stair Landing

50x50mm Timber Security Facade

200x100mm Timber Primary Beam

50x50mm Security Facade

200x100mm Timber Primary Beam Timber Door for Entry into Watchtower

In Situ Concrete Pad Foundation

Watch Tower Sections Scale 1/100 165

SOCIAL EXCLUSION ZONE VIOLENCE

SAFE ZONE TREND TOWARDS INFORMALITY OPENSPACE/FLASHPOINT SITE

EIL

T GH

RV SU

GH TF

LIN

SU RV

SIG

R FO

IL VE

NT SIT E

LIN

F SO

SIONS INTO FLASH POI

GENTRIFICATION

CONTROL

EIL

CA IS

CUR ER IN T N OU LC

LIN

PH Y

INTERVENTION

IMPETUS FOR PEACE + DEVELOPMENT IN KIBERA

PHYISCAL COUNTER INC

URSI

ONS INT O

FL A SH PO IN

T S TE SI

SECURITY LIN

SIG

ILA

LINES O

F SIGHT

FOR SU

RVEILAN

By creating a space of control, that provides a real and perceived level of security, it is possible for these contests sites to economically gentrify, and provide for local residents a modicum of security during times of socio-political unrest. However there is a more nuanced element of security and growth that the intervention of these towers could bring that deserves mention. As the forms of ethno-political unrest explored in this work are chronic with flashpoints of acute violence, in the interim between instances of conflict, these spaces may become sites of safety for other communal activities. Therefore it is possible to extrapolate that the natural growth of these communal activities in and of itself act as a far more effective form of violence mitigation, by creating dialogues and social interactions in contested spaces.

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05.2

MITIGATING INEQUALITY: UTILITIES PROVISION AND ACCESS TO SERVICES

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The second design iteration tested in this work explores the provision of basic utilities service to Kibera’s threshold informal settlements as a means to mitigate ethno-political tension. This premise is drawn from research into the divided social and economic conditions in the city and manner in which these inequalities act to exacerbate underlying animosities in Kibera. Building on an NGO model of intervention, small scale and local, the programme of these forms of architectural intervention provide clean water and basic sanitation to a local area. Additionally, the capacity of such micro-level interventions should not be underestimated in their role as a catalyst for development in an urban environment, and the positive knock on effects on wider society will be explored visually in this section.

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The concept of this intervention is drawn from the chronic lack of safe and cost effective points of water collection and sanitation throughout Kibera. A lack of safe and viable toilet facilitates in the settlement has led to the rise of Kibera’s much publicised ‘flying’ toilets; human waste collected in plastic bags and thrown away out of sight. This chronic lack of basic sanitation and safe water, which is rarely addressed in any meaningful way by the Nairobi City Council, has led to severe disillusionment with the planning and utilities departments of the city’s governing bodies in the eyes of many of the inhabitants. This design intervention is an attempt to mitigate this discord between the communities by addressing the issue of access of services. The intention of this typology is to provide clean water and toilet facilities to a small neighbourhood of approximately 100 people as a means to explore the spatial ramifications of such a design move. This figure of 100 residents is predicated on the recognition of existing informal service provision that does exist within the site. Through the analysis of open source data that maps water and sanitation points in the site, this iteration attempts to respond on a highly local level while not rendering impotent existing informal infrastructures, so as to maximise the effectiveness of the intervention.

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Stainless Steel Gutter for Water Collection 200x200mm Timber Roof Structure

Corrugated Metal Roofing

Composite Timber Mast Supporting Water Tanks

20,000L Water Tanks to Provide Water for 100 People for 1 Week Timber Ladder for Vertical Access

50x50mm Timber Protection Facades 200x200mm Timber Primary Breams

200x200mm Composite

200x200 Timber Bracing Elements

Four 200x200mm Primary Columns

Concrete Blockwork Ground Floor Walls Four 200x200mm Primary Columns

Water Tower Exploded Axonometric Scale 1/200 175

PROVIDING WATER + COMMUNAL SPACE FACILITATING CONFLICT MITIGATION THROUGH THE UTILITIES AND ACCESS TO BASIC SERVICES

2m 1m

7.5m

4m 3m

10m

The design of the water tower is comprised of four primary tectonic that are conceived to be simply constructed and robust, meeting the needs of local inhabitants while reducing cost and maintenance. At its core, a composite timber mast, comprised of multiple small section timber posts bound together with simple steel bands and nails, supports the water tanks and platform above. On the ground floor level two sets of toilets, a public water point and small maintenance floor is present; partitioned by concrete block work walls. At the top of the structure, two water tanks with combined capacity of approximately 22,000L are supported on a platform, and are connected to a water collection mechanism from the gutter and inwardly pitched roof. These more expensive elements, the water tank and steel gutters are protected by simple timber posts that act as a security façade on this upper level, access to which is only possible via a ladder which is located on the ground floor in the maintenance. The calculation of the volume of these tanks, and therefore the design of the tower as a whole is predicated on the need of 100 urban dwellers water needs for a week, which is calculated from the daily average use of a single person (30-35L) in Kenya (Huchzemeyer, 2008: 22). This water feeds into the toilet facilities and is replenished in part by rainwater collection, which would account for approximately 36,000L p/a. The remaining water is supplied via a diesel-powered pump that slowly replenishes the tanks. Additionally localized tanks facilitate backup supply.

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Entrance to Maintenance Room

Watch Tower Sections Scale 1/100

Ladder Access to Upper Levels Diesel Powered Water Pump 200x200mm Timber Primary Structures Reserve Water Tanks 5000L Public Water Point

Ground Floor Plan Public Toilets Concrete Blockwork Infill Walls Downward Water Pipes Entrance to W/C

Ladder Opening for Vertical Access Four 200x200 Timber Columns Timber Platform Decking Water Pipe Shaft First Floor Plan Composite Timber Mast Element Supporting Water Tank 200x200mm Timber Bracing Element

200x200mm Timber Column Ladder Opening to Below 200x200mm Timber Primary Column Water Tank

Second Floor Plan

100x200mm Timber Roof Bracing Elements 50x50mm Timber Protection Facade

Water Tank

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Through the provision of these basic utilities, it is anticipated that the immediate area around the site will benefit from an improvement in the baseline quality of life for its inhabitants. Furthermore it reduces the severe public health risks in the site, theoretically eliminating threats such as water borne disease and other sanitation issues connected to the lack of toilet facilities. By doing this, additional knock-on effects, such as a reduction in child mortality, health care costs and additional discretionary finances for inhabitants (Hamdi, 2004: 5). These knock on affects it is hoped act as a catalyst for the diffusion of tension between formal and informal communities in the site, as the egregious discrepancies in the provision of the most basic services greatly exacerbates communal disenchantment top-down formal urban planning policies and initiatives.

Corrugated Metal Roofing 200x200 Timber Primary Beam Stainless Steel Gutter for Water Collection

Water Tank

Timber Supports for Water Tank Composite Timber Mast to Support Water Tanks Timber Decking Floor Plate

Concrete Block Infill Wall

Public Toilet

Ladder Opening to Above

In Situ Concrete Pad Foundation

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Corrugated Metal Roofing 200x100mm Timber Bracing Element

200x200mm Timber Primary Beam

Corrugated Metal Roofing

Stainless Steel Gutter

Water Tank

50x50mm Timber Protection Facade

Water Tank Composite Timber Mast Supporting Water Tank Ladder Opening to Above 200x200 Timber Primary Beam Concrete Block Infill Wall Reserve Water Tank

Composite Timber Mast

Primary Timber Columns Concrete Block Infill Wall Timber Door To Public Toilet

Public Water Point

In Situ Concrete Pad Foundation In Situ Concrete Pad to Support Timber Mast

In Situ Concrete Pad Foundation

Timber Door to Service Space

Watch Tower Sections Scale 1/100

VIOLENCE

REDUCTION IN THEFT OF SERVICES

DECREASING LEVELS OF SERVICE PROVISION

TREND TOWARDS INFORMALITY

CONTESTED THRESHOLD SPACE

WATER + SANITATION DISSATISFACTION WITH FORMAL GOVERNANCE

COMMUNALLY OWNED SPACE INTERVENTION

OPENSPACE/FLASHPOINT SITE

SAFE WATER BASIC SANITATION CONGREGATION SPACE

Once established and recognized as a viable source of clean water and sanitation, it is envisaged that this intervention also becomes a meeting place and communal space for the inhabitants of these threshold sites. Through this community inhabitation of this space, the collective ownership of the area will then additionally mitigate territorial conflict and tensions between groups within the informal settlement. Building on the principle that such collective ownership is crucial in the mitigation of violence and aggravation between communities and urban actors, the water tower typology acts as a micro scale project that sows the seed of this form of informal appropriation through formal intervention.

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05.3

BRIDGING THE GAP: PHYSICAL CONNECTIONS THAT CREATE DIALOGUE

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Just as economic and ethno-political divisions separate communities in the city, physical boundaries are equally potent in this regard. Ranging from topographical features in the landscape to the extreme density of Kibera itself, access into and from the slum is in places limited. This lack of access has worked to not only ostracize Kibera’s inhabitants from Nairobi’s wealthier districts, but also results in the inability of formal actors such as fire departments and waste collection to have any meaningful impact in the settlement. The design iteration in this section explores a raised architectural typology that is conceived to alter this condition, and injecting a new metabolism of connection between these disparate communities.

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The main principle that is at the heart of this design intervention is the possibility to mitigate conflict through the spatial connection of zones in a city, allowing for the free and easy flow of people and resources from one to another. This is key in the resolution of conflict due to the inherent benefits of reconciliation and dialogue in the political space between communities (Hendricks, 2010). Additionally, the perception in the eyes of wealthy Nairobi dwellers of Kibera as a hub of violence, prostitution, and poverty is magnified by its physical disconnection to the rest of the city. It is intended that through a connection of these spaces this perception may be debunked, while simultaneously providing a conduit that allows the movement of people and goods to and from the informal settlement as a means to increase quality of life.

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Angled Timber Bridge Facade

Timber Walkway Side Panels

Prefabricated Steel Lateral Supports

Timber Walkway Decking

Timber Beams

Prefabricated Steel Triangle Frames

Still Tension Element

Composite Timber Masts

Urban Bridge Exploded Axonometric Scale 1/200 191

FORMAL CONDUITS IN INFORMAL SPACE FACILITATING DIALOGUE THROUGH CONNECTION MECHANISMS

2m 1m

7.5m

4m 3m

10m

The design is comprised of a number of simple elements that are design to be constructed relatively easily given the complex urban grain beneath the intervention. As this iteration is intended to be implemented by the Nairobi City Council as a formal intervention, additional materials that deviate from the palette explored earlier are included. The bridge is supported on a composite mast comprised of small timber elements that overlap and can be built in piecemeal and connected together. The primary truss of the bridge is designed in steel with a series of repeating triangular elements, tied together with tensile cables and beams. Upon this truss, timber decking is supported timber beams. The sides of the bridge are triangular steel sections clad in timber to provide lateral stability. The entire structure is tied to the ground by tensile cables that are connected where possible.

Lateral Supports

Timber Decking

Steel Triangular Frame

Composite TImber Mast

Steel Tension Cable

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Lateral Supports

Timber Decking

Steel Triangular Frame

Composite TImber Mast

Steel Tension Cable

In Situ Concrete Pad Foundation

Bridge Tower Sections Scale 1/100 195

Steel Prefabricated Lateral Supports

Timber Walk Side Panels Timber Side Panels

Prefabricated Steel Triangle Frame

In Situ Concrete Pad Foundation

196

Timber Walkway Decking

Timber Side Panels

Timber Struts

Timber Decking

Steel Tensile Element

Steel Tensile Cables

Composite Timber Mast

Bridge Tower Longitudinal Section and Plan Scale 1/100 197

PERCEPTION OF KIBERA AS SOCIALLY BANKRUPT SPACE

CONNECTION BETWEEN COMMUNITIES

EXISTING RELATIONSHIPS

SOCIETAL RECOGNITION

INFORMAL ECONOMIC BENEFITS

CONTESTED THRESHOLD SPACE

RECALIBRATED CIRCULATORY METABOLISM

INTERVENTION

By implementing this design intervention, a means to access the rest of the city from Kibera would be created. Through this, employment possibilities and access to formal services become viable options for individuals living in the informal settlements. However the primary benefit to this with regards to the reduction of conflict and ethnopolitical tension is the potential of such an intervention to spatially connect communities. This intervention, as it would connect various territories in and around Kibera, would be in part shared by all, creating a form of collective ownership of a single resource that could act as a means to create initial forms of dialogue between tribal groups that historically have not mingled greatly. Finally, as has been examined earlier in this work, existing social and economic hubs exist along current major connection links throughout the city and the inclusion of this in intervention would create a new form of connection that allows for new forms of economic possibilities.

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05.4

MAKING SPACE: HOUSING POSSIBILITIES TO ALLOW NATURAL GROWTH

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The fourth design iteration to be explored in this study examines the concept of urban density and housing. It assesses the suitability of informal densification as a mechanism to alleviate urban conflict through the recalibration of communal territories through a vertical metabolism of inhabitation. A key component to the discourse of ethno-political conflict in the thresholds of Kibera’s slums is the appropriation of, and tension that arises from, contested spaces between communities, whether formal and informal, or along tribal lines. These tensions between communities are increased due to urban density, proximity, and lack of adequate housing available in the tightly packed settlements of Kibera. This design iteration recognizes these aspects and tests a methodology by which simple structures are erected in and around these spaces; providing structural infrastructure to facilitate further informal growth. However, in contrast to the horizontal nature of the spatial relationships in Kibera’s existing urban condition, this design intervention examines the affects of a vertical system that establishes new interactions that could mitigate the territorialism below.

203

The concept behind this design intervention springs from the notion of emergent architecture and its capacity to fulfil the needs of the user effectively, particularly in high risk, low income environments. However due to a chronic lack of space within Kibera, the ambition of this design intervention is to create opportunities for unplanned housing growth through the surgical insertion of simple structural elements upon which inhabitants of these contested spaces may construct their dwellings. The rational for this is drawn from a desire to reconfigure horizontal spatial relationships in these contested zones by creating nodes of communal living that provide a drive for social interaction and economic opportunity on the lower levels of the intervention. Through such forms of social interaction, where communal ownership and unplanned appropriation of space leads to a requirement for cohabitation and discourse, existing social barriers and concepts of territorialism may be broken down. Furthermore, this intervention examines how the relationship between formal and informal metabolisms of growth may work in conjunction with one another; unplanned development made possible through the catalyst of a legal intervention. Through this, a new form of architectural urbanism comes into view, a method of development and growth that, while retaining the positive and contextually sensitive advantages of self-made housing, provides recognition and an intervention of scale to these spaces and inhabitants.

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Inhabitation Tower Axonometrics Scale 1/250

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URBAN NODES + NON-PLANNING

FACILITATING CONNECTION AND DIALOGUE THROUGH VERTICAL INHABITATION METHODOLOGIES

2m 1m

7.5m

4m 3m

10m

Of the design iterations explored in this study, this series of inhabitation frames is the simplest architecturally, yet perhaps on an urban scale the most complex. Building on the principles of small element timber construction and sensitively to context with regards to buildabiltiy, these structures are designed to surgically implant themselves into existing sites, making use of small gaps between buildings to grow above and over them. Using a simple 5x5x3m module, these structures are versatile and adaptable, providing robust structural support that anticipates and is designed for parasitical growth and incremental appropriation. The design does not specific exactly the forms of unplanned growth that may happen, the height of the interventions and the scope of them are determined by specific conditions on the ground. In short this intervention is closer an urban strategy than a bespoke architectural intervention, and as such is much looser in its design specifications.

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Outer Building Fabric Layer Internal Building Fabric Layer 200x100mm Primay Timber Beams

100x200 Timber Overlapping Bracing Elelement

100x200mm Timber Overlapping Bracing Element

200x100mm Primay Timber Columns Timber Connector

200x100mm Primay Timber Beams

200x100mm Primay Timber Beams 200x100mm Primay Timber Columns

200x100mm Primay Timber Columns

Inhabitation Tower Exploded Axonometric Scale 1/200 211

It has been demonstrated in this study that a plethora of functions and activists take place throughout Kibera. The majority of commercial and business programmatic zones have been identified to lie predominantly on the thresholds between formal and informal settlements and along pedestrian conduits that are defined by existing infrastructural routes. These social and economic activities therefore posses the potential to mitigate violence through their communalization of threshold spaces. While this intervention strategy does not explicitly design spaces for the creation of new social intervention, they are designed to create an scenario that, the vertical deification of residential structures creates economic opportunities that facilitate this form of growth. Therefore, it is through the provision of a physical and strategic framework that promotes quasi-legal housing development, that the beneficial forces of communal interaction and economic opportunity may be harnessed in the mitigation of ethnopolitical violence.

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Bracing Elements

First Parasite Elements

Intervention Structural Frame

Lower Levels Become Commercial Hub

Parasite Interventions

Roof Systems Become Circulation

Lower Levels Become Commercial Hub

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VIOLENCE

GENTRIFICATION

CONTESTED THRESHOLD

SAFE ZONE

FORMAL RECOGNITION

INTERVENTION

HO TO FT SHI

ECONOMIC

VERTICAL SPATIAL RELATIONSHIP

N ZO RI

L TA

LAN DP N OU GR

OU TH R

ROWTH GH G

UN P

RECALIBRATED VERTICAL URBAN METABOLISM

NE N LA

TO VERTICAL UN H IN IT S T OW R DG

D SPACE

INFORMAL ECONOMIC BENEFITS

TREND TOWARDS INFORMALITY

TATUS

ION + S

IT RECOGN VISUAL

OPENSPACE/FLASHPOINT SITE

VIS

UA L

ITIO

N+

VERTICAL METABOLISM

LACK OF HOUSING

STA TU

In addition to the mechanism of providing implicit opportunities for a shifting of communal space to new threshold zones as a means to mitigate conflict, the design strategy explores how might this process recalibrate notions of territorial division throughout the site. By shifting communal and economic nodes into these new areas of interaction, it is hoped that this will renegotiate the way in which spaces are appropriated by various groups and communities. This is due to the possibility of new housing densities and vertical relationships that are created through this strategy. By locating neighbours and residents in a vertical relationship to one another, and by inserting surgically new spaces of build, conventional forms of territorialism will be challenged, creating a new mechanism by which individuals and groups interact. Finally, as these sites lie on threshold zones that are contested by tribal and formal actors, the insertion of new inhabitants may act as a mitigating force to the animosity that this traditional relationship entrails.

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06.1

FORMALIZED INFORMALITY: HYBRID PROPOSALS

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This section represents the culmination of this study, drawing on the research into the urban conditions that contribute to ethno-political violence, the legacy of informality, and the various mechanisms that may be harnessed to respond to these conditions that recognizes the variety of actors in threshold slum sites. Through the interlocution of the strategies explored earlier in this work, this intervention represents the hybridization of the architectural and spatial design responses to the question socio-politics in informal threshold sites. This design acts on a variety of scales, from the local neighbourhood level, to a much more urban approach that builds upon the methodology of the bridge towers as depicted in section 05.3. The design concept of this final iteration is the insertion of multi-stage tower structures that fulfil a number of programmatic needs. These include: the provision of municipal water, creating initial watch tower systems to appropriate the site and lock it down from violence, providing a structural framework that facilitates a vertical metabolism of housing, and a means to physically connect disparate communities. The rational for this is to approach the issues of conflict in threshold sites in a temporal way, first controlling and spatially appropriating a space of violence as an initial intervention, then establishing services and connection, and finally providing a mechanism that facilitates the growth of a reconfigured urban relationship that works to ensure the long term dialogue and social interaction.

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BREAKING URBAN BOUNDARIES ADDRESSING SOCIAL BARRIERS THROUGH LEVELS OF ACCESS

ROYAL NAIROBI GOLF COURSE

KIBERA

OLYMPIC PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOLS

LAINI SABA RAILWAY HALT

THE CONDUIT CONTINUES NORTH INTO THE RICHER FORMAL DISTRICTS NEAR KIBERA, ALLOWING FOR SERVICES AND INHABITANTS TO MOVE FREELY BETWEEN THE TWO COMMUNITIES

AT THE THRESHOLD FLASHPOINT OF VIOLENCE, THESE TOWERS INITIALLY ACT WAS WATCH TOWERS TO MITIGATE VIOLENCE, BUT WILL BECOME SPACES OF SERVICE PROVISION AND COMMUNITY OVER TIME, MITIGATING VIOLENCE IN A LONG TERM WAY.

INDIVIDUAL TOWERS WITHIN KIBERA ARE APPROPRIATED, PROVIDING NEW LEVELS OF EXPANSION SPACE AND A NEW LANGUAGE TO THE INFORMAL SETTLEMENT WHILE ADDING SECURITY AND VISIBILITY TO THE SLUM

THE NAIROBI DAM IS THE SOURCE OF THE WATER, WHICH WILL BE COLLECTED DURING THE RAINY SEASON SO AS TO PROVIDE WATER AND SERVICES TO BOTH FORMAL AND INFORMAL ACTORS DURING THE DRY SEASON A RAM PUMP LIFTS THE WATER TO THE TOP OF THE FIRST TOWER AND GRAVITY IS HARNESSED TO ALLOW THE WATER TO MOVE ALONG THE CONDUIT, WITH SMALLER RELEASE PIPES PROVIDING WATER DOWNWARDS ALONG THE SITE

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SCALING/MOVING UP

CREATING NEW ARCHITECTURAL LANGUAGES FOR ILLEGAL COMMUNITIES

(IN)FORMALLY CROSSING THRESHOLDS FACILITATING CONNECTION AND DIALOGUE THROUGH INFASTRUCTURAL PROVISION

226

4m 2m

8m 6m

10m

15m 20m

227

The strategy is comprised of a number of key design moves that merit brief explanation. As an initial intervention, a rapidly deployable watchtower structure represents the first stage of this strategy. Building from this initial insertion, the second stage of this strategy is the vertical growth of the tower structures in points of threshold violence. The third stage is executed through the connection of the towers as a means to link water pipe systems between communities, drawing water from the Nairobi dam and providing it to formal and informal urban spaces. The connection between towers is implemented through the construction of the bridge systems previously depicted. Through these bridge systems it becomes possible for the design intervention to act as a raised conduit on an urban level, joining communities and creating nodes of activity that acts against the conflict and territorialism below.

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PLANNED (SLUM) TOWERS

EXPLORING THE LATENT POTENTIAL OF RECONFIGURED URBAN METABOLISMS

“I DECIDED THAT KENYA WAS MORE IMPORTANT THAN AN INDIVIDUAL CALLED RAILA ODINGA AND HENCE THE NEED TO COMPROMISE AND HELP THE COUNTRY TO MOVE FORWARD. WE DIDN’T WANT TO SEE TOO MUCH BLOODSHED.” - RAILA ODINGA, KENYA’S PRIME MINSTER

IN AN INTERVIEW WITH AL JAZEERA, AIRED ONLINE FEBRUARY 2013

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Corrugated Metal Roofing

Timber Side Panels

100x200mm Timber Bracing Stair Landing Deck 200x100mm Timber Bracing

200x200 Timber Posts

In-Situ Concrete Foundation

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PHASING GROWTH + NON-PLANNING

ARCHITECTURAL STAGING TO FACILITATE VIOLENCE MITIGATION IN A TEMPORAL MANNER

Opening in Structure to Allow Growth

Landing of Stair

200x200 Timber Beams

Composite TImber Mast

In-Situ Cast Concrete Mast Key

In-Situ Concrete Foundation for Mast

236

200x100mm Timber Beams

Opening in Mast to Reduce Weight

Composite TImber Mast

200x100mm Timber Beams

Composite TImber Mast

Drainage Point for Water

Concrete Mast Key

Composite TImber Mast

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Cap of Timber Mast

Composite TImber Mast Tensile Cables for Bridge Elements

Side Panels of Bridge Element

Bracing for Timber Bridge

Composite TImber Mast

238

Tensile Cahles

Access to Bridge Suspended Municipal Water Pipe

Lower Level Pipe to Provide Velocity to the Flow of Water

239

Supported Ad-Hoc Units

Composite Slum Construction

Make-Shift Parasitical Growth

Spaces Inhabited by Micro-Businesses

240

Power Cables Provide Electricity from Below

High-Level Informal Residences

Makeshift Supports

Units Become Connecting Routes Through Structure

241

INCREMENTAL + QUASI-FORMAL GROWTH MULTI-STAGE INTERNVETIONS THAT HARNESS UNPLANNED EXPANSION AS A DESIGN TOOL

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To summarize this strategy, the following design moves have been made to respond to the complex issues of ethno-poltical violence in informal settlements. The initial intervention acts as a watch tower for the police and military forces, allowing sites of ethno-political turmoil to be monitored during times of unrest, such as during and in the period following general elections.Overlapping beams and posts, with a maximum of 3000mm in length provide the primary structure of the frame system, facilitating ease of construction and the transportation of material to the site of each intervention. Upon the creation of water conduits, these pipe forms create possibilities for residents of formal and informal spaces to use these bridges, creating a new level of connection through the city. Supporting the infrastructural functions of the intervention, a timber mast runs through the tower, acting as its core. This mast is comprised of a dual layered composite core of small timber elements that are nailed together and overlap in two orientations. Parasitical interventions grow from the initial frame, creating additional spaces of inhabitation. Using the structure of the tower, they hang off the beams, using wires and overlapping struts to support themselves. Once established, this tower provides space and physical support for the appropriate of its base, creating new housing and gathering spaces that are created by local inhabitants, creating a vertical language of informal settlement in the city of Nairobi.

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VERTICAL KIBERA

VISUALIZING MULTI-ACTOR INTERVENTIONS

06.2

CONCLUSIONS: THE CATALYST POTENTIAL OF QUASI-LEGAL DESIGN IN HIGH RISK ENVIRONMENTS

252

This pilot thesis has examined the social and spatial conditions that create places of ethno-political violence in the threshold sites of Kibera’s periphery. Analysing the historical and urban factors that have created societal and physical division within Nairobi, key issues such as access to services, political engagement, perception and actual security have been determined to be underlying issues in the exacerbation of tension between communities in the city. Building upon this, the study has examined the nuances of Kibera’s illegal status; dissecting the fundamental challenges and benefits of the dynamic nature of growth that urban informality presents. Furthermore, the typology of the threshold informal site has been discussed in depth, highlighting not only key conditions of connection and intersection but also instances of division and socioeconomic segregation. This conglomeration of concepts, all critical to the question of ethno-political violence in slums, has led to the exploration of a series of strategies that respond to this issue in various ways. From the formal control of contested informal space, to the provision of local level services and physical connection, these design iterations have assessed the suitability of a number urban methodologies in the mitigation of violence. This form of architectural testing has harnesses an analysis on the ramifications of building in Kibera’s informal settlements and has been informed by concepts such as small element construction, temporal unplanned appropriation and the language of the tower. Through intervening vertically in these spaces, new typologies and languages of building in Kibera have been explored. The culmination of these tests was the amalgamation of these principles explored into a hybrid proposal that responds to the question of violence in threshold slums in through quasi-legal, temporal and multi-actor interventions.

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This intervention strategy builds upon the concept of informal growth as a method to reconfigure urban spatial qualities in a manner that promotes dialogue and social interaction. The natural metabolism of unplanned growth that exists in Kibera will work to embed these interventions into the fabric of these threshold sites, garnering an atypical architectural form and functionality. This architecture of the quasi-legal inhabitation tower at once legitimizes and recognizes the risks of slum settlements. It represents a methodology in the response to urban conflict that intervenes significantly and sensitively to the inherent complexities of Kibera’s urban reality, whilst considering and incorporating the socio-political entanglements of the actors involved in this question. This study of course has had its limitations and within the scope of this work, and due to its length. The themes that have been explored in this research, ethnic and tribal division, spatial and social thresholds, and unplanned urban space are vast; having been discussed only in brief in the course of this thesis. Additionally each has very real ramifications for Nairobi’s formal urban spaces, and in the development of this research a next stage would include a shifting of focus away from explicitly informal sites. Finally, this work has explored a methodology that entails the reconfiguring of an urban metabolism from the horizontal to the vertical. In the shift of this research from the informal to the formal, further work should be dedicated to an exploration of the potential of this reconfiguration process to address issues urban and societal ethno-division at the wider urban level.

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REFERENCES

AKNOWLEDGEMENTS Several people have been involved in the production of this work and I would like to take this opportunity to mention them. First and foremost, Ingrid Schroder and Joris Fach, the course tutors for this degree. In addition to assisting in the pursuit of this stage of research, they have been invaluable in helping me leave my ‘comfort zone’ throughout this course. Secondly, the visiting tutors and critics of this semester, namely Spencer de Gray, Peter Clegg and Makoto Saito for their insights and guidance throughout the review stages of this degree. Additionally Simon Smith for his insights into the structural ramifications of what I was proposed. Additionally I would like to thank Dr. Felipe Hernandez and Dr. Adam Higazi for their assistance and advice during our meetings, providing excellent information on slums, informality, cultural identify and political forces in sub-saharan Africa. Special thanks should also be made to the organization Map Kibera, without whom I would have struggled in the early weeks of this project. Providing excellent digital resources and survey data on Kibera and specifically Kianda, this has proved as an wonderful resource. And finally thanks to my colleagues on the course, whose input and collaboration has helped enormously in the visual and written narrative of this work.

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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS •

Page 1: Image of child running past political graffiti art and campaign posters, courtesy of Ben Courteys, Reuters, Accessed 12-04-2013 http://hypervocal.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wpcontent/uploads/2013/03/AP-kenya.jpg

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Page 15: Protestors flee from paramilitary forces during Riot, courtesy of EPA/JON HRUSA, Accessed 16-11-2012. http:// news.monstersandcritics.com/africa/features/article_1389051. php/In_photos_Kenya_Crisis_-_29_January

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Pages 17-23: Post Election Violence in Nairobi, January 29th, 2008, courtesy of Uriel Sinai/Getty Images Accessed 16-112012. http://news.monstersandcritics.com/africa/features/ article_1389051.php/In_photos_Kenya_Crisis_-_29_January

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Pages 20: Post Election Violence in Kibera, Photo by Arno Kopecky, http://www.flickr.com/photos/ thewalrusmagazine/2159340279/, Accessed 23-12-2012

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Pages 21: Destruction done by post election violence along Ugandan Railway: Courtesy of Hybrid Solutions, http://www. hybridsolutions.co/case-studies/evacuation-planning-kenya Accessed 16-11-2012

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Pages : 22-23 Post Fire destruction in Kibera, Courtesy of http:// julesmwabe.wordpress.com/ Accessed 18-12-2012

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Page 27: View of Kibera train line, courtesy of Cesar Harada via Flickr & Getty Images, http://www.flickr.com/photos/ worldworldworld/4591686310/ Accessed 16-11-2012.

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Page 35: Kibera at Sunset, Courtesy of Kent Werne via Flickr, http://www.flickr.com/photos/kentwerne/2048776640/ Accessed 19-11-2012

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Page 39: Kibera Slum, Courtesy of Survival Media, http://www. flickr.com/photos/projectsurvivalmedia/8267002176/ Accessed 16-12-2012

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Page 41: Clockwise from top left: Police standoff with protesters in Kibera on December 30, 2007, Courtesy of REUTERS/Noor Khamis (KENYA) http:// picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/EGBNU1UgafewFPca2cBizw Accessed 05-11-2012 Image of Graffiti in Nairobi, Courtesy of (Antony Njuguna/ Nairobi), http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/kenya/100512/ international-criminal-court-nairobi Accessed 02-12-2012 A Train in Kibera, Courtesy of Shack Dewellers International http://www.flickr.com/photos/sdinet/6149118983/ Accessed 04-11-2012 Residents view election results, Courtesy of Evelyn Hockstein for The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/29/ world/africa/29kenya.html Accessed 05-11-2012

Image of Kibera slum and river: http://bettehutchisonsilver. files.wordpress.com/2011/09/kibera-slum-river-red1.jpg Accessed 03-11-2012 Kibera Police Station, Courtesy of Flickr, http://www.flickr. com/photos/nvp/4688894382/ Accessed 04-12-2012 •

Page 42-43: Aerial View of Kibera, courtesy of Hope is Rising Blog, http://hopeisrising.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/200905-18-kibera-006.jpg

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Page 47: Aerial View of Kibera, courtesy of Hope is Rising Blog, http://hopeisrising.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/2009-05-18kibera-006.jpg

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Page 55: View of Kibera Train line, courtesy of the Turning Point Trust Blog, http://www.tptrust.org/blog/kids/tricky-situations/ attachment/rarnold_kenya-tpt-kibera_2011_0659/ Accessed 16-12-2012.

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Page 61: Interior Images of Life in Kibera, Courtesy of Garteh Kingdon, http://www.flickr.com/photos/8528407@N03/with/419 0587451/#photo_4190587451 Accessed 16-12-2012

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Pages 62-63: Diagrams of Kiandas Demographics, Courtesy of the Map Kibera Project, provided via email upon request and through http://mapkiberaproject.yolasite.com/ Accessed 20-102012

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Pages 64: Road to Kibera Courtesy of Dennis Rainaldi, Via Flickr, http://www.flickr.com/photos/denaldi/5411398354/ Accessed 16-12-2012

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Page 71: A train passes through Kibera, on trail sunken into the ground, http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/infocus/7bill102411/s_ s31_RTR2QCJ8.jpg

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Page 83: Aerial View of Kibera, courtesy of Hope is Rising Blog, http://hopeisrising.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/2009-05-18kibera-006.jpg

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Page 255: Image of Slum Grafiti by Artist Solo 7, Courtesy of worthbak via Flickr, http://www.flickr.com/photos/ worthbak/3023214934/ Accssed 16-12-2012

All Satellite images courtesy of Google Maps and Google Earth, All Satellite Images manipulated by Author, Accessed at various times between 01-10-2012 to 20-4-2013 All Images and Diagrams created by author unless stated below. All Photos have been moderately adapted from their original form. 259

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