Event overview
Collapse: Grey development and failed architecture in Nairobi, Constance Smith, Social Anthropology, University of Manchester
On 14 June 2017, the same day as the Grenfell fire, a tower block collapsed in Nairobi. As with Grenfell, this tragedy exposed urban inequalities, disregard for regulations and planning, and the use of substandard construction materials. This was not an isolated incident: Nairobi has recently experienced a spate of devastating collapses in which many have tragically died.
This paper reflects on current fieldwork on Nairobi’s drastic landscape of architectural failure, tracing the afterlives of such events and how they are situated within larger processes of urban transformation. City authorities are currently re-envisioning Nairobi as a ‘world class’ city of spectacular infrastructure and gleaming highrises. When tower blocks collapse, the disparity between these global city dreams and the everyday lives of ordinary Nairobians is materialised.
The paper explores what a focus on collapse might reveal about Nairobi’s housing crisis and urban precarity more broadly, and how this shapes urban landscapes. It highlights how a collapse is not the end of a site so much as its drastic refiguration. Sites of collapse roll forward, setting in motion new urban materialities, economies of salvage and processes of demolition and renewal that remake the city at large.
Free event, all are welcome!
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 17 Oct 2018 | 4:00pm - 6:00pm |
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