Sustainable Housing Through Sustainable Planning Practices: Challenges and Opportunities for Formal Housing Provision in Nairobi, Kenya

Abstract

Rapid population growth and urbanization is a phenomenon that is characteristic of numerous cities in the global South. Nairobi, a rapidly urbanizing city in Kenya, and also the regional hub of East Africa, is no exception. This growth has resulted in enormous pressure on the city’s urban infrastructure in tandem with a high demand for formal housing for the increasingly affluent residents. Historically, the trend has typically been the growth in informal settlements to meet the growing housing demand of poor and low income residents who constitute the majority of the city dwellers. However, in recent years, while the historical trend has continued unabated, the new phenomenon of a rising middle class has increased pressure on the existing limited formal housing stock. This has resulted in the rapid transformation of the extant low-rise single family housing units, mostly bungalows, to high-rise multi-family housing units, in the form of high-rise apartment blocks. This paper evaluates this transformation in housing and highlights the unsustainable way in which it is occurring as evidenced by negative externalities. It concludes with a discussion of possible strategies that could be employed to ensure more sustainable urban planning to address the need for sustainable housing. And in fostering the understanding of lifelong learning and education in healthy and sustainable cities, this chapter hopes to achieve a clearer understanding and appreciation of the fundamental issues that need to be considered, contemplated and addressed in ensuring sustainable outcomes despite the fluidity and dynamicity that accompanies change, which is inevitable in a complex system such as a city.