Modern Movement Houses in the Colonial Capital City of Nairobi

Authors

  • Yasmin Shariff

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DOI:

https://doi.org/10.52200/64.A.L3ZCOKJZ

Keywords:

Modern Movement, Modern architecture, Modern housing

Abstract

Architecturally, Nairobi was never a backwater. Modern architecture in Nairobi developed in the context of the tropical climate design vocabulary of Otto Königsberger (1908-1999), Maxwel Fry (1899-1987) and Jane Drew (1911-1996), within a racially segregated plan. Ideas and ideals of Modernism came with refugees, migrants and magazines from many cultures and places including South Africa, Europe, the Indian sub-continent and the Americas. Projects by internationally renowned architects and planners such as Herbert Baker (1862-1946), Ernst May (1886-1970) and Amyas Connell (1901-1980) set high standards of design. The Garden City Movement, International Congresses of Modern Architecture (CIAM), the Modern Architectural Research Group (MARS), and the work of many others was influential.

How to Cite

Shariff, Y. (2021). Modern Movement Houses in the Colonial Capital City of Nairobi. Docomomo Journal, (64), 80–83. https://doi.org/10.52200/64.A.L3ZCOKJZ

Published

2021-04-01

Issue

No. 64 (2021): Modern Houses

Section

Documentation Issues

License

Copyright (c) 2021 Yasmin Shariff

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Plaudit

Author Biography

Yasmin Shariff

Director Dennis Sharp Architects, Yasmin Shariff is an architect whose family were some of the first settlers in Nairobi. As a young girl she grew up in Nairobi, Kampala and Emsworth. She was educated at Kenya High School before moving to London to train as an architect at the Architectural Association and the Bartlett School of Architecture. Her mother still lives in Nairobi and she visits Kenya on a regular basis.

References

HART , T., “The Nairobi that Was”, Kenya Past and Present, Issue No. 30, 2006.

HUGHES, E. D., “Prospects for British Architects in the Empire”, Architectural Design, November, 1948.

IRVINE, G., et al, “Nairobi’s Gardener”, Kenya Past and Present, 1944.

QUIRING, C., et al, Ernst May. 1886-1970, Munich, DAM – Prestel, 2011.

SHARP, D., “The Modern Movement in East Africa”, Habitat International Otto Koenigsberger Festschrift, Pergamon Press, 1983.

SHARP, D., RENDEL, S., Connell, Ward & Lucas. Modern Movement Architects in England 1929-1939, London, Frances Lincoln Editions, 2008.

TIVEN, B., “The Delight of the Yearner- Ernst May and Erica Mann in Nairobi 1933-1953”, Journal of Contemporary African Art – 32, NKA Publications, Spring, 2013, 82.

WHITE, Thornton, SILBERMAN, L., ANDERSON, P. R., Nairobi Master Plan for a Colonial Capital, HMSO, 1948.