The Kenya Building Research Centre (KBRC) officials paid a courtesy call to the UoN’s department of Arts and Design on a design management evaluation.
Arch. Oliver Okello. Director KBRC(in the middle) Prof. Lilac Osanjo Chair department of DADs posing in a group photo with a delegation from KBRC and other staff members from DADs.
The Kenya Building Research Centre (KBRC) officials paid a courtesy call to the UoN’s department of Arts and Design on a design management evaluation. The officials led by the director of KBRC Arch Oliver Okello were hosted by the Chair of the department of Arts and Design; Prof. Lilac Osanjo in discussing the development of the ceramic project on a mission to monitor the progress of the design deliverables to ensure conformity with the agreed design schedules of the affordable housing programme.
The 2 institutions are working in partnership to develop a library of low cost samples of building materials by investigating reservoirs of soil materials that can be explored for the affordable housing projects under an Appropriate Building Materials and Technology (ABMT) framework through affordable housing. The ABMT framework is a key pillar to affordable housing programme reforms being undertaken to lower the cost of production and to improve accessibility of affordable houses as it propagates for adoption of processes, materials, elements and tools that are compatible with the local socio-cultural, economic as well as physical and ecological environment of an area while advocating for affordability, innovativeness, and safe, environmentally friendly and with significant socio-economic multipliers.
The key areas of corporation include developing a concept design, conducting necessary data collection and producing schematic design translating into the programme need of low cost housing. The department of Arts and Design has so far conducted field tours to gather soil samples available and is working in collaboration with the UoN’s department of Bio-Chemistry to conduct a soil analysis. The soil analysis is needed in establishing the appropriate chemical composition of soil ratio of locally available soil for standardization. Further, the department is at an advanced stage of producing a water cistern model as a viable product of the approved schematic designs.
Speaking during the meeting, Arch. Okello noted that the collaboration has been a process desired for designers to gain exposure to procedures of building technology and that the overall goal of the project will be to provide a detailed design of low cost locally available soil sample material that can be absorbed by the local small and medium enterprises and lower the cost of housing to address affordability challenges among low and middle income communities and households.
The KBRC is the Integrated Project Delivery (IPDU) Unit of the State
Department for Housing and Urban Development undertaking the affordable housing project and mandated to provide; a library of samples of building materials; a library of manufacturer’s trade catalogues and Literature; and a technical reference library. Essentially, the project aims to yield an appropriate manual of soil mixing ratios of the available soil material. This will further enhance the viability of the affordable housing program by providing low cost samples of building materials and design product such as the cistern sanitary ware under study.
The event was held on Thursday 17th February, 2022 at the Architecture Seminar Room in the ADD building.
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