Care is one of the topics, raised by the community at the Kigamboni ++ digital platform to develop a city quarter from bottom up: care homes, small and medium scale medical practices, medical training centers… to facilitate the area’s healthy and sustainable growth, from the inside out/from within.
In this research by design project, care is the programmatic opportunity to explore new typologies and urban spatial compositions that enable the informal settlement to densify, at its own pace, preserving the quintessential public space for daily interactions in the community.Firstly, a subtle network of pedestrian links, in between the existing buildings and private plots, is defined. These lines - or axis - become the guides of future growth, organising new volumes and activities to embrace the public space and create liveable, safe areas without the use of the typical barbed wire walls or enclosures.The ground level of the project focuses on life between buildings, to strengthen the bonds of the inhabitants with the community. The concrete plinth allows large openings enabling the accessibility of the buildings. Rammed earth walls arise on top of this concrete plinth and provide a more eco-friendly building material. Facing the streets, the walls show a geometric pattern and give the building it’s worthy appearance, while the courtyards provide contrast with their sober wooden galleries that link the buildings together. This contrast between these two types of wall creates an onset toward defining public, semi-public and private spaces. The pitched roofs are a typological reference to the surrounding houses and provide a strong identity to the residential block as a whole.
In this lay-out, the volumes can vary in dimensions and height, tailored to its program and function, while adding positively to a coherent urban composition. Carefully ….