Improving living conditions in extreme environments can begin with a student project. Taking with her a small infantry of students, Maria Nyström – Professor of Design in Urban Development – has made field trips to places as diverse as NASA headquarters in Houston and the slums of Nairobi. Her field-testing involves getting to know people in their lives on the ground to provide both low-tech and high-tech solutions. The next step is creating a local affiliation of the university – the East African Academy, in Kisumu, Kenya.
About one billion people lack water, electricity and sewage; one in three of the world’s city dwellers live in a slum. Of course, difficult living conditions contribute to greater creativity and resource management. Nyström has worked with extreme habitats for almost two decades. She has studied the living conditions in both developing countries and in space – and found many common denominators. Her latest project in Kisumu, Reality Studio, involved two dozen Chalmers students on site in the Kenyan city. Driven by the results, it’s now time for a more permanent solution.
Welcome to the East African Academy
The new school for architects, designers and engineers is a collaboration between Chalmers, University of Gothenburg and several local universities around Lake Victoria. The building itself will reflect the East African Academy’s special teaching methods and growth strategy. Inspired by the Luo tribe villages, for example, the school will be built in smaller modules that can be expanded later on. The gardens will be designed for outdoor teaching, and the nucleus will be a workshop where prototypes are built and ideas are tested.
Learning by living
Field studies and experience-based learning are central pedagogic concepts. To carry out research in urban development and design in this type of environment demands a down-to-earth approach. According to Maria Nyström, you have to live among the people and observe their lives to find viable solutions. Often it’s about combining different approaches and executing ideas – rather than retreating to write a dissertation for a few years.
Small steps towards a healthier market
An area in great need of development is the marketplace. Up to 60% of the crops transported to market are destroyed due to poor hygiene or storage methods. Chalmers and the East African Academy can make a difference here. But the marketplace is a complex system where a variety of factors – formal and informal – influence behaviour. For example, it would be impossible to close down the market while a new drainage system is set-up. Yet by working from within, confidence can be gained together with small but effective improvements using limited resources. This could be as simple as determining a suitable chopping board for meat, or providing adequate lighting to improve personal hygiene – or finding a way for mothers to look after their children while they sell their produce. Healthier marketplaces is the subject of one of the first student projects.
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