Kenyans should adopt resilient construction methods, experts say
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Mr Franklin Mwango, a lecturer and the chairman of the Department of Architecture and Interior Design at Kenyatta University, is pessimistic about our chances in the face of disaster. This, Mr Mwango notes, is because most buildings in Kenya’s urban centres such as Nairobi and Mombasa were put up many years ago. The materials and engineering methods used back then, he says, are largely outdated.
Mr Douglas Githaiga, a construction consultant and freelance quality assurance officer, is equally doubtful whether our buildings would fare well in the face of disaster. “Though we have been blessed enough not to experience events such as disastrous earthquakes, tsunamis and cyclones, the risk of such events happening, though slim, still looms,” Mr Githaiga warns.
The two professionals are of the opinion that it is time for Kenyan builders to adopt resilient construction techniques. Putting up a resilient building, Mr Mwango says, means considering not only how the building would fare under common use, but also putting in mind unexpected affronts from environmental and man-made forces that might compromise the structure’s integrity.
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The first step towards putting up a resilient home, Mr Mwango says, is to find out as much background information about the site as possible. “A thorough site analysis of the area in which you’re building is paramount. If your architect only visits the construction site during the dry months from January to March, he might end up designing a house that, come the rainy season, gets flooded. A site analysis running back to the past 12 months is often used as a standard, but cautious builders can request a site analysis from as back as ten years prior, just to avoid any surprises,” the lecturer notes.
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The first steps towards putting up a structure that will withstand seismic forces is constructing a strong foundation. This, Mr Mwango says, can be achieved by letting a geologist determine the depth of the foundation, which may be deeper along high-risk areas such as in the Rift Valley.
“A building’s foundation can be joined onto its structure by expansion joints. These expansion joints may include springs that will act as shock absorbers during an earthquake. In such an event, only the foundation of the building would be affected by ground movements, but the rest of the structure will remain intact,” Mr Mwango expounds.
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