PhD defense: Edwin Oyaro Ondieki

Time

7 June, 2016, 09.00 – 15.00

Location

AHO, A2, Sverre Fehn Auditorium

Edwin Oyaro Ondieki is set to defend his PhD thesis Tenement Housing in Nairobi. The Case of Lucky Summer (Pipeline) Settlement-Embakasi” at AHO on Tuesday June 7th.

Schedule:

Trial lecture 09.00
High density housing policies and practices in large African cities: A critical analysis.

Disputation 10.15 
Please note time!

PhD thesis
Tenements are increasingly becoming a popular housing option in Nairobi yet it is unregulated. This thesis is a study of an emerging trend of this housing type that is often built on legally owned land, which is unplanned and unserviced. It is carried out through a study of the quality of tenements and domestic life of tenants with reference to the high-rise block consisting of single-room dwellings with shared facilities that predominantly accommodate low-income households. The study has used a multidisciplinary approach to illuminate the multiple factors that exemplify tenement housing through a case study of Lucky Summer settlement in Embakasi, Nairobi. Tenements are presenting a new urban lifestyle perceived to be superior to the slums that are dominated by the upper echelons of the low-income category/tenants/city dwellers. This group is on the rise thus increasing demand for this housing type and consequently providing an opportunity for the private sector to profit from the investment. This residential transformation is happening rapidly in tandem with the city’s growth and should raise concern about housing quality but at the same time, it presents an opportunity to review the ways in which housing is provided. Concerns such as affordability, social and behavioural, commercialization of housing, interest in land administration, planning, design and construction offer an opportunity to redress this urban growth phenomenon through policy reviews, administrative action and improvements to existing stock of housing.

Candidate
Edwin Oyaro Ondieki is an architect and lecturer at the Department of Architecture and Building Science, the University of Nairobi, where he teaches building technology, housing and urban design. He previously worked in the civil service of the government of Kenya as architect and later as instructor at the Kenya Institute of Highways and Building Technology (KIHBT) between 1994 and 2003. He studied architecture at the University of Nairobi (1993) and the University of Auckland, New Zealand (1999).

Supervisors
Professor Karl Otto Ellefsen, AHO and Professor Tom Anyamba, University of Nairobi, have been his supervisors.

Adjudication Committee
Professor Hans Skotte, First Opponent
Dr. Ezekiel Moshi, Second Opponent
Professor Christian Hermansen, Third Member and Coordinator

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