From his Planning House outpost situated in Nairobi’s leafy suburb of Spring Valley, along Lower Kabete Road, Trevor has not only witnessed this transformation, but has lent his personal touch to some of the landmark buildings in town.
Together with his partner Jim Archer, the relaxed atmosphere that Trevor has established around his place of work speaks of the philosophy with which the duo has handled their profession.
“Architecture is not a job, it is fun,” says Jim. “If I am not enjoying it I may as well go fishing.”
The theme of fun and relaxation is one that is expressed right from the arrangement of furniture in the office to the dressing code.
On the afternoon of our visit, Trevor is wearing a khaki half-coat and trousers, while Jim is clad in a denim Jacket with a black bandana around his neck making the pair look more of tourists on safari, rather than architects who have worked on some of Nairobi’s most constricted sites to design some of the city’s most enduring commercial buildings.
The Planning Systems Services Limited duo’s CV speaks volumes about the size of construction projects they handled over the years. The latest is the upcoming KCB Tower, which is billed to touch the highest point in Nairobi rising from its upper hill location. (The 35 storey Times Tower however remains the city’s tallest building).
On the other side of town, in the equally leafy Muthaiga suburb, another group of architects at Triad is working on another landmark, UAP Towers that upon completion will be the tallest in Nairobi, surpassing Times Tower, the current title holder.
Julius Kibwage, a partner at Triad, proudly takes BDLife through a brief history of Kenya’s tallest building the Times Tower – also a product of firm.
“When work started on it, the client, Central Bank of Kenya, wanted a functional working space and a banking hall that would cater for its needs as an organization.
The 35-storey tower was to host the CBK’s offices with the ground and lower levels serving as the banking hall. This section of the business was to be in the central atrium made up of a four storey block with offices around it.
The parking area unlike most city buildings was not in the basement but rather on the back.
“The basement was fitted with vaults for Central Bank to store its money,” said Julius.
Upon completion, the bank never moved into the building instead leaving the Kenya Revenue Authorities to occupy it.
Julius, who was then a junior architect with the firm had a chance to sketch and pitch hisdesign ideas for the tower as part of the initial design work.
“We have that sketch hanging somewhere in this office,” he said of the artistic impression he speaks of with great pride. “Designing a building is a long process that requires a team comprising of a large mix of experts, including structural and mechanical engineers,” he says. Jim and Trevor can attest to the team work and time it takes to come up with a functional and viable building design.
In their combined experience of over a hundred years, the duo agrees that the most challenging building they have worked on thus far is Lonrho House.
Though the building may look ordinary, its architect Jim Archer reckons it remains the most challenging design work he has done in his long career.
Initially, the assignment was to build it above a three storey building that had sitting tenants in it.
“They wanted us to build around and above the building, without interfering with the tenants’ businesses,” said Jim. After visiting several architectural firms, Lonrho picked Planning.
“Everyone else had told them it was impossible so they came to us in desperation, and we said ‘give us 10 days’,” said Jim. “For a phenomenal building of that size, you have to have a phenomenal structural engineer and thank goodness for this work we got IB Patel - a top notch structural engineer who practically lived in the building studying it.”
Jim and Patel went on to literally live on site for 10 days before going back to the office to discuss their findings with Trevor.
As Jim is narrating the story, Trevor sits across the table sketching an artistic impression of where they had to locate the building.
The final design looked like an inverted mushroom that had to be built without disrupting tenants in the existing buildings.
“Thanks to I.B. Patel’s engineering magic, we managed to get two additional floors right above the old building for the cars to be packed,” said Trevor.
The structure involved digging and propping to ensure that the neighbouring buildings remained undisturbed. “This we did with great difficulty and I suppose is the reason we both got grey hairs?” said Jim adding that colour selection was used to add a touch of elegance to the building.
“It is actually a squat fat shape and needed the vertical subdivision of the blue and silver to give it its elegance,” said Jim.
Process
A typical design process will involve consultations, proposals, and outlines.
Before the design is fully approved, systems must be tested for functionality still within budgetary constraints. Locally, as Julius explains, we rely mainly on natural ventilation and lighting unlike Europe or America where artificial ventilation and lighting dominates. The width of most buildings in Nairobi is kept within limits to keep the costs down, said Jim.
“You will also find that the closer you get to the city, the higher the buildings get. This is because there is less space he said. “A lot of the design work is as a result of the space and client needs before the architects flair comes into play,” explains Julius.
The client’s preference in the final look of is one that the architects at Planning can relate to.
The owners of I&M Building had for instance approached Planning upon seeing the smooth completion of Lonrho. Both sites according to Jim and Trevor had one thing in common, the limited space to work with, especially for the calibre of buildings envisaged.
Models had been developed in a shade of bronze before the architects suggested aquamarine and after much consideration the client decided to settle for blue. The architectural team had occupied the whole site leaving no room for the construction crew.
“There was no room on-site for the builders to do anything, just about all the structure was pre-cast off site and brought in by lorries at night and then put in place during the day.”
Large trucks would ferry the giant floor slabs already cast from a site in Ruaraka and the cranes would lift the slabs and put them in place.
“There was no room for error. Everything had to be done in precision,” said Jim. “You could not send it away if it did not fit,” adds Trevor.
Then there was also the grave matter of digging the deepest hole in Nairobi - four basements - and underpinning the building next door to ensure it does not fall into the hole.
One of the most interesting facts about the building, besides the fact that it was built offsite, is that a large side of it can be unplugged without affecting the rest of it and returned.
“The podium on one side of the building is designed to come off and be returned when the job is done,” said Trevor.
This provision was made because transformers and generators needed to be installed in the building, usually in the basement, but the basement – still the deepest in Nairobi - had been allotted as parking.
The two firms have designed not only sky scrapers but also hotels, hospitals and even schools.
Triad, which marks its 50th anniversary next year, were the brains behind MuthaigaCountry club, Nairobi Hospital’s South Wing among others.
Planning Systems Services was also the brains behind the Braeburn School and Windsor Golf and Country Club.
The local architecture talent is not limited by the national borders but have its footprints across the the region.
Julius was, for instance, the lead architect for the Bank of Rwanda building in Kigali while Triad has handled projects as far as India.
Jim has been part of the design team that worked on Katse Dam as part of the highland water project in Lesotho. Planning’s scope has stretches as far as the Maldives and United Arab Emirates.
“Our trade secret is we strive to make efficient buildings,” says Jim. “With 100 years combined experience, you learn a thing or two.”
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