During a recent regional conference held in Nairobi, my fears were confirmed that Kenyan architects were gradually losing jobs to fellow African competitors, especially South Africans. This is not a surprise as local architects seem to have resigned themselves to designing bad buildings. The days of good architecture in Nairobi and other towns are well behind us.
This trend started in the late 1980s and continues to this day. The days when well-designed towers dotted the skyline of our CBD are long gone, and have been replaced by sleek glass-faceted towers. Buildings should house the people while architecture should inspire and nourish their souls. What has come up in recent times in Nairobi is nothing near good architecture; it is an architectural calamity.
Often, the clients, in their naivety, ask for sleek towers like those seen in other big cities around the world, and many local designers embark on these designs without tempering them to suit our physical environment or energy needs.
Shower towers are coming up at a fast rate. In fact, the well-designed buildings to the east of Tom Mboya street and along Biashara Street are steadily being demolished and replaced by tall structures with glassy facades. They are often uncomfortable to work in.
The last good towers were built in the CBD in the 1970s. That is when structures like the Hilton Hotel or ICEA building came up. It is also the era when many government-owned buildings were commissioned. These were, among others, Nyayo House, Jogoo House and even the National Bank House on Harambee Avenue.
These are largely beautiful buildings, and many are very efficient in energy consumption. Nation Centre, built much more recently, is also good in many ways. However, as much as architecture is a subjective discipline, many architects and lay people alike concur that many glass towers around the CBD are awful.
This is due to two reasons. One is that people, especially those who grew up in rural areas, hardly identify with these buildings. Though it may be argued that architecture is not static and our Africanness is being modified through interaction, such arguments are specious. My focus is to address a second reason, which has gathered a bigger consensus: That these glass blocks are unbefitting to our country due to their unbearable heat gain and high consumption of energy.
Africa is opening up fast as the next growth frontier in the world. This has been hastened by the sound investment climate. In sub-Sahara Africa, many multinational companies are setting up office and operations in Kenya due to its geographical location, stability and human resources.
This should translate into many infrastructure projects getting commissioned, including buildings to house a regional workforce. This is fast opening opportunities for local architects, but recently, we have seen them lose these big, lucrative projects to professionals from other countries, especially South Africa.
In today’s world, where every corporation is faced with cut-throat competition and pressure to project their image, no company is taking chances — they all want to ensure their buildings are rated the best, most durable and most energy-efficient.
To do this, corporations are inviting competition from the best architects to design their buildings.
This is where local practices are losing out in trying to address local housing concerns with cut-and-paste jobs from Western Europe or North America that are not sustainable in the tropical heat of sub-Saharan Africa.
While we have refused to heed this global direction, upcoming projects designed by South African architects address these environmental issues and the corporations are warming up to them. One such case where the locals could not match up to the South Africans is the magnificent Coca Cola headquarters in Upper Hill. As I write this, I know of two other big projects that have recently been commissioned to foreign firms.
This is unfortunate for Kenyans, keeping in mind that a large percentage of professionals steering these practices in South Africa are Kenyans by birth and education.
The author is an architect with The Kenya Wildlife Service
really? quite a subjective critique,
In the 1970s the world was much less of a global village. Now the planet is getting progressively smaller; there are no longer exclusive Kenyan jobs or exclusive SA jobs or exclusive jobs anywhere. You are selectively forgetting that in fact there are many Kenyan designed buildings in Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda and even in the US. I could show you several insalubrious examples of terrible South African architecture in Cape Town where I have had the privilege to visit. The quality, health and specification of materials and finishes could also have changed from the standards in the 1970s due to the accumulated knowledge in design and construction. So what's this fuss really about? Were you bumped off some project by a firm of South African architects?
Arch Noel .You said it all
True. Kenyan professionals need to get competitive and conform to global standards rather than cry about our jobs going to foreigners.
The time for this article has passed. A protectionist attitude in an era of labour liberalization is anachronistic. While architects in the East African region are seeking for practice across borders (led by Kenya's AAK) the author is distraught, lamenting the "loss" of a handful of projects to South African firms while grasping at reasons to justify the perceived loss. When you open up borders for international professional practice expect invasions and counter-offensives. Its simple reality.
I felt like the author's intent was to challenge local professionals to up their game, towards international standards, so as not to lose jobs to others in foreign countries. It didn't seem to demand a return to protectionism which must not be encouraged. That said, and as you pointed out, Kenyan architects are actually driving the industry in the region, and some even in South Africa itself.
the factors at play need to be introduced in such a discussion: say timescale, client, usage, brief source, budget and in any case there are many Kenyan architects in the south influencing things down south. could the protagonist post a tabulated comparison. my take no! no one is taking over they are shaping us here we are shaping them elsewhere and architecture grows like all art does over time.