Let people live in CBD, says Africa’s top green architect

ARCHITECTURAL ASSOCIATION OF KENYA ANNUAL CONVENTION 2016, LEISURE LODGE, KWALE

Eastgate Shopping Mall is said to be the first building in the world to take natural cooling technology to a new level of sophistication. Tell us about the inspiration behind the design.

In 1984, I met Bill Mollison who is considered the father of permaculture, a system that encompasses not only agriculture, horticulture, architecture, and ecology, but also economic and legal systems for businesses and communities. It uses social design principles centred on simulating or directly utilising the patterns and features observed in natural world. I thought we could do with what I called “perma-architecture” and build a city that acts like a rainforest. Then I studied a video by British naturalist David Attenborough who once got inside a termite mound and described how cool it was during the hottest part of the day. Eastgate is modelled on the way termites construct their nest to ventilate — cooling and heating it through natural means. Eastgate’s ventilation system costs one-tenth that of a comparable air-conditioned building.

Did you say you also learnt a few things from dogs as well?

Oh, yes. Watch carefully the behaviour of a dog on a hot day. It will lie down on a concrete verandah to cool off. However, when the spot gets hot due to heat transfer, it will move to yet another spot on the concrete floor. Imagine, a dog knows about thermal mass and heat transfer. So if we find a way of blowing cool air to concrete to cool off a building, then we do away with mechanical air conditioners.

Eastgate was your first design to mimic nature. Have there been others?

Yes. In 2006, the Council House 2 or CH2 as we call it, was completed in 2006 in Melbourne, Australia. It is the first purpose-built office building in Australia to achieve a six-star rating for following the same principles as those established at Eastgate. Then there is Vortex Centre also in Melbourne that was completed in 2010. The visitors’ centre is inspired by the seashell form and placed on an artificial lake. It gives the idea that you can create a floating city that uses water as a natural cooling agent.

And you are not done with such designs yet....

Not yet. I am currently working on a huge market for vendors in Harare, Zimbabwe. The idea is to have a two-storey structure with 64 units where people can live and work. The second project is a low-cost rental housing.

You also have a radical proposal where you want to redesign some skyscrapers in Harare for people to live in the city centre. How viable is such an idea?

If you walk around Harare, you will notice a number of empty office buildings. People are looking for smaller offices. These buildings can be turned into residential homes. This happens in other cities around the world. Why can we not have people living in the Central Business District here in Africa? Why are people coming and going out of the city? Actually, the foundations can support a few extra floors. There will be reduced traffic if people live in the city centre. We can narrow the streets and widen pavements.

This is interesting considering you almost never became an architect....

I left Zimbabwe as a young man to study forestry management in Vancouver, Canada, but gave up after a few weeks. After an IQ test (of which I never got the results), I was told to try a career that involved outdoor activities. I heeded the advice and did architecture at the London Architectural Association and graduated in 1964. I later became a builder in North East London where I also tried the Ujamaa (socialism) concept from Tanzania’s Mwalimu Nyerere.

You have just presented a paper on building sustainable structures at the AAK’s annual convention in Diani, Kwale. Why does Africa need such kind of construction now?

Look at the Western world, they are spoilt due to access to many amenities such as water and energy. In Africa, however, we have such diverse temperatures, including hot deserts. We learnt resilience more than the rest of the world due to our humble circumstances. Most of our current professionals in the built-environment grew up in Africa looking after cows and sheltering under the shade of a tree with a cool breeze. However, such shades are disappearing fast. Professionals need to look at nature and build with the experience they already acquired early on in life. We just have no choice.

What is the future of architecture in Africa?

Currently, majority of Africa’s population is aged 15. That is the future of architecture. The increasing urbanisation is inspired by this demographic group.

But there is the danger of copying the glass-clad structures of the Western world that do not mitigate climate change. Let us develop our own system based on our cultural diversity. My award-winning project was built in Africa and I was able to export the technology to the rest of the world. That is the way to go.

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