« Downtown | Main | 2008 »
November 20, 2007
November
The besetting sin of planners is that when they plan something, they want and expect it to stay as planned and built. They seem to think that things which are completed ought properly to that way; whereas, we should recognize that everything is going to change and try to think how it can change for the better, rather than the worse.
Jane Jacobs in an interview with the World Bank.
The foreigners and the KCs (Kenya Colonials/Cowboys) residing in Nairobi live a 5 days urban or gated community / 2 days rural life. The only time spent in Nairobi seems to be for work and the weekends for golfing or game drives out in the national parks. Although Nairobi still has a strong culture of maximising its outdoor public space, it seems that the rising middle class (ruomours say that there are over 60 000 new cars on the roads of Kenya every month) together with the international professionals are opting for gated malls and gated communities.
The UN has for example a security evaluation for Nairobi in where they assess where its professionals and families are recommended to live in. One of the evaluation criteria is the proximity of a shopping mall.
With a rising informal settlement and the formal part either wanting to be introvert and/or rural the planners of the city will have an impossible task to hold on to its opportunities of being the hub of East Africa with positive spatial, social and economical diversity.
Having said that, for the last two weekends I have been out from the city climbing Mt. Longonot and checking out the waterfalls in Thika with friends.
Posted by hans at November 20, 2007 07:26 AM
Comments
your quote reminds me of the arken building at åbo akademi university - the architect has his idea of how things should be, and although the place is quite elegant, i'd rather fire him altogether for imposing his will on how the classrooms are to be furnished.
but hey, nice to hear from you again!
Posted by: thomas at November 20, 2007 10:54 PM
Hi,Hans.What you mentioned in this diary is just what i'm thinking about while writing my thesis.As you know ,our lab,Nishide and Nagasawa lab,reserch many facilities ,such as hospital,nursing home ,school,and housing etc. What we can know through the reserch is the only programs right now.And we,reserchers, put toghether these things as a thesis.I understand it is important for us to show the programs and It might be help for designing the bulding and environment , but i guess most important things is the prospect ,what these facilities and building,and environment might have the programs in the future, through our reserch as an architect.What i'm suffering from is the gap between an architectual idea and architectual reserch....Anyway sorry for my wired English and i'm looking forword to meeting you again!Chao.
Posted by: Mamiko at December 19, 2007 03:42 PM