Urban Speedcubers-Finding the Algorithm to Solve Urban Tenement Challenges. The case of Pipeline, Nairobi, Kenya.

As cities struggle to keep up with the demand for affordable accommodation, rental housing has overtaken home ownership as the primary form of delivery. In the ten years between 2009 and 2019, the Kenyan census reports that the rental population grew by 1,6m households, while the ownership population grew by just under 400, 000 households. Meanwhile, official state statistics suggest an annual, national housing delivery rate of about 50,000 units per annum. According to the census, almost all of these new tenant households (89%) rent from individual landlords, not companies, who develop largely informally-built-multi-story urban rental housing known as Tenements. Tenements exist and have existed in cities all over the world; a market response to urbanisation and population growth, responding to the housing needs of the working poor. It’s a step up from shack living, but not yet what is called “affordable housing”. Reminiscent of tenements of 1900’s Berlin or New York, Nairobi’s tenement buildings are emblematic of a similar built form emerging in Dar es Salaam, Abidjan, Kampala, Cape Town and other cities, where entrepreneurs are responding to a clear demand outside the boundaries (and costs) of what is permitted by local building codes and bylaws. Yet these areas are thriving, delivering affordable housing at a cost far below the “formal” market. In our study area in Pipeline, Nairobi, units are fully let. Tenants pay their rent. The streets are bustling with commerce, 24-7, and landlords fully realise their investments in record time. The demand for this niche of rental accommodation, with rents of between US$38-$115 per month, appears to be insatiable. Can this local economy be directed towards delivering better, but still affordable housing outcomes? The training will take participants through an interactive and multi-stakeholder exercise using a modified Rubik’s cube tool, a calculator and a framework to think through scenarios for brownfield intervention using Pipeline as an example but applying it to their contexts.