Core–housing and Collaborative Architecture: Learning from Dandora

This paper introduces a case study which aims to record and reevaluate the current state of the emblematic sites-and-services project of Dandora, located in Nairobi, Kenya. Sites-and-services schemes are a set of principles and steps aimed to provide housing to low-income people in developing countries. The researchers surveyed and recorded the actual state of the self-built houses and the resulted typologies, while also interviewing the current tenants. The analysis shows that the involvement of the tenants in the shaping of the Dandora project has reached unforeseen extents on both architectural and communal levels. The paper discusses the implications of these typologies and their possible applications in social housing and collaborative design.

keywords: Core-housing, Collaborative Design, Informal Settlements, Sites-and-services