Participative Design for Urban Housing

Major deviation Participation in housing-delivery strategies is a major deviation from the cornerstone of modernist theories and practices in architecture. In Kenya, modern development models adopted in housing delivery have proved inadequate to meeting the demand for urban housing. This shortfall has been reflected both in the quality and in the number of available houses. It has led to the proliferation of informal settlements on land occupied by squatters. Additional problems are dwellerinitiated transformations (DITs) and the physical and social deterioration of the few existing public-housing estates. The policy direction offered here is applicable in four possible housing scenarios in African cities. These entail the following: (1) new schemes for virgin land, (2) informal settlements as upgrading projects, (3) increasing housing density in underdeveloped neighbourhoods (densification), and (4) the repair and rebuilding (gentrification) of existing run-down public housing. A people-centred approach to public housing engages users at the various phases of housing—namely, (1) feasibility and planning studies, (2) design and conceptualization, (3) building and project management, and (4) inhabitation and maintenance. The strategy is to engage the public in stakeholder meetings at each of these stages, during which ideas are shared with the target groups, the public, and other interested parties, such as developers of utilities, services, and other elements of infrastructure, as well as financial institutions, social organizations, and non-governmental organizations. The government— central, county, and local—is also expected to participate in these sessions, and depending on the scale of the project this involvement can be broadened.