Visiting lecturer, Susanne Gampfer will introduce us to her work in the Mathare slums area of Nairobi.
The Skills Centre in Malaa near Nairobi, Kenya is a special project in many respects:
Initiated by a Kenyan-German partnership of NGO’s, it aims at offering young people from one of Nairobi’s largest slum areas Mathare a practical education in several different professions from carpenter to electrician. The school building was designed by a group of German architecture students with input from the future users and experts from a partner University. Finally, the design team travelled to Kenya to realise their ideas working hand in hand with workers from the local community. The building is constructed out of traditional and innovative materials: walls made from local natural stone encase a filigree roof structure made from indigenous Kenyan bamboo.
The buildings create a sense of place in a scarcely populated rural area in a literal but also in a figurative sense. The complex has attracted much attention. Now, about six month after the official opening, local students have joined the courses and neighbours from the surrounding farms are planning to use the school for community meetings and other activities.
Please join us Wednesday, February 20 at 5:00 pm for an arctalk in our continuing Empowerment by Design series in classroom 2 at FAED on KIST’s campus.
