Master plan for a mixed used development combined with a park.
Nairobi suburbs, Kenya  
2009 – This is a project in progress. Additional material is coming soon.  

The community will accommodate approximately 9,000 residents and provide places of work for about 1,000 people.

The entire ground floor area is free of cars and comprises a park mixed with housing, public buildings, offices, shops and play areas. We aim to develop a new kind of car free street that would combine the qualities of a park with those of an intensive urban environment.

A perimeter road surrounds the plot, with accesses to parking lots under the buildings. This layout provides motorists with a connection to every building, while keeping the cars out of sight. It also enabled us to utilise the areas that would have been taken by parking and roads - 58% of the plot in this case - and turn them into green areas. The resulting ground floor plan comprises 62% green area, 30% buildings and 8% perimeter road.

Mixed-use environment designed for the pedestrian
The community would present an alternative to the housing neighbourhoods that surround Nairobi, and that depend on the city centre for employment, shopping and leisure. These neighbourhoods are based upon car commuting and are shaped by an extensive infrastructure of roads and parking.  

The new community would offer the possibility of living and working in the same vicinity, as well as a variety of shops, schools and other public functions at a short walking distance from every home. It will include three types of green areas: the intensive park-streets with commercial and public functions, the quiet courtyards enclosed within each block, and a larger park with a stream at the edge of the plot. The environment is planned for the pedestrian. It is designed to encourage community life and enable children to play safely outdoors.

The plan avoids duplication and gives each block a different shape, in order to create places with a distinct character. We aim to achieve this while adhering to a low budget, by keeping the buildings structurally simple and using local technology and materials.

Flexibility: users input
The master plan is designed as an open system, allowing maximal flexibility in terms of the different functions of the built and open areas. Input from buyers and users would influence the growth of the environment over the three stages of construction of the project and beyond:

Each unit on ground floor level can be constructed as a residential, commercial or public function - according to demand. (link: plan with 2 different scenarios one with a lot of commerce one with less). In addition, the developer can decide the amounts of 1, 2 and 3 bedroom flats or offices to be included in the upper floors of each block, and this can be adjusted at every stage of construction considering market needs. Use of the green courtyards of the buildings is also flexible: each courtyard can function as a public open area, can include a public open-air function such as a playground or tennis-court, or/and can be divided into privet gardens for the businesses and apartments located on ground floor level.

The flexibility incorporated into the planning aims to enable each stage of construction to ‘respond’ to the existing situation by adjusting the balance of functions the environment offers. This environment would be truer to the needs of its users then one in which the entire planning is done in advance.   

Plot size: 79,200 sq m 
Plot coverage: 29.5%
Gross building floor area: 145,000 sq m
Plot ratio: 1.83
Number of dwelling/business units: 2,350
Parking spaces: 1 per unit
Client: Jericho Developments
Design: Tamir Addadi, Raphael Cohen