Looking at the present through the perspective of the past is not a new idea (Kamenju, 2013). This
paper involves insights into the traditional house design transition in East Africa. It entails the process of
development of African house design from traditional design to contemporary design. The paper discusses
a brief background of African traditional house designs. Using desk study methods, it analyzed in depth
- from a design perspective - three key cases of three East African communities; the Agikuyu of Kenya,

Vernacular architecture evolves over time reflecting the characteristics of the local environment, climate, culture,
natural materials, technology and the experience of centuries of community building. Mostly, men build the house and
the women decorate the facades. All the figures have a symbolic meaning. This paper studied east African vernacular
wall decorations from an art and design point of view. The objective was to document the fast fading cultural practices

In this paper, we investigate the physical manifestation of ongoing urban habitat transformation in the
context of a residential neighbourhood, Kileleshwa, which is located in the western suburbs of Nairobi.
This is done through an analysis of the emergent morphology of the urban habitat by delving into various
levels of urban resolution: the street network, the plots, and the buildings, while tracing the roots of the
neighbourhood in the colonial era and its rapid change in the current millennium. In so doing, the aim