Sherehe ya Chai transmutation of kikuyu vernacular as an immersive tea tasting retreat

Abstract

The thesis outlines the research for a design proposal for a new tea tasting retreat on the highlands of Limuru, Kenya in order to increase local tea consumption. The tea tasting centre aims to attract tourism to the tea plantations on the Kiambethu Tea Farm, which is known for its history as the first farm to pioneer tea cultivation in Kenya as early as 1903. In order to attract tourism the design proposal will features various facilities that would allow visitors to take part in tea cultivation and tea production on the farm homestead in order to gain a better understanding of tea and it’s health benefits. The project will focus on a community of small-scale tea farmers that form a co-operative that expands on economic issues around business and ownership models in the tea industry. Ecological urbanism which is describes as a successor to landscape urbanism, draws to inspire an urbanism that is more inclusive and sensitive to the environment that introduces the relationships between organisms, the environment and human intervention in an urban domain. In the context of Limuru, the regional development of the farm lands, has seen a trend where farmers are converting their lands into small businesses to supplement their low income from farming. With the rise of residential and commercial devel opment in the area, a sensitive approach should be given to the design of a new tea tasting centre and tea production house. The theories expressed in Ecological Urbanism aims to strengthen the placement of the building on the site that works with the landscape. This holistic approach to design will be used not only to enhance the visitor’s experience of the site but also to gain an understanding of Kenyan identity in architecture. The architectural language of the building will focus on the exclusive use of sustainable strategies to strengthen the role of tectonics in its construction. In ecological urbanism, an emphasis of ‘the return to nature’ emphasises the relationships that people and cities have with limited environmental resources, such as the case where the materials would be sourced from the indigenous forest near the site. Tectonics does not only express architecture as built materials but also ideas that combine aesthetics, functionality and technical aspects into a single building as a manifestation of spatial experience. These combine to create an atmosphere that can be understood as the spirit of place as stated by Norberg Schulz in ‘The concept of dwelling’. This approach to the tectonics of materiality and construction is directed to bring the visitors closer to the local tradition of building methods as well as the natural landscape of the tea plantations