Open Architecture Network

After the site visit their was a realization that you could take down ALL the structures and start a fresh. SIDAREC is leaving this decision in the hands of the designers.

From the pictures I can tell that the site has black cotton soil which has high swelling and shrinkage characteristics and is generally bad for structures built on them.

If you zoom out of the site location, links provided below, you will see abandoned quarries nearby. In fact the SIDAREC buildings on site provide you with a picture of what are the cheapest building materials available in Kenya and they are:

1. Natural stone which can either be machine cut or shaped on site

2. metal sheets for roofing which are normally a form of galvanised steel and is manufactured locally. Scrap metal is expensive and would get stolen especially in a slum.

3. wooden frame from trees which are harvested when about 5-7m tall with a diameter of about 10-15cm. Generally wood is expensive as Kenya has put a complete stop to logging. Most hardwoods are imported from either Sudan, Congo or even as far out as South Africa.

4. There is a cement factory further down south of the site but please note that cement has become scarce as there is an unprecedented building boom that is even threatening expansion of the airport and has had an effect of prices shooting up (http://www.bdafrica.com/index.php?Itemid=5813&id=2915&option=com_content...)

infact, the shape of the site is not the perfect rectangle that is depicted in the sketch. check out the google earth image and superimpose the sketch to the satelite photo to give yourself a better picture

I have tried comparing it with the aerial photograph of the area from Google earth, but the drawing does not seem to correspond precisely the aerial photograph. if i locate it, i will let you know. i wouldn't mind if you could do the same.
thanks!