The GoDown Arts Centre, as a cultural anchor in Nairobi’s urban fabric, continues to deepen its reflection on its participatory approaches in urban design, and specifically in its HerCity#HerStreets Project. 

We had an invaluable opportunity to make a presentation on our work during the Uta-do African Cities workshop hosted in Nairobi last week. 

The GoDown’s Urban Division Project Coordinator, MK Mbugua, represented the organisation during the 5-day workshop attended by a select group of researchers and urban thought leaders who are using new and innovative approaches to urban development. [Image: The workshop held at the British Institute of East Africa]

In our presentation, we focused on ways in which to meaningfully engage and sustain community participation in activities that are technical and often inaccessible to non-expert participants.  

The GoDown’s programmatic approach is rooted in the community, with an ethos based on community engagement in identifying its own challenges and creating and implementing home-grown solutions, and the central place of culture and creativity in such processes. 

The HerCity#HerStreets project has been running since July of 2021, engaging a group of girls and young women in redesigning Dunga and Dundori Roads, in Industrial Area, as public extensions of the main GoDown redevelopment that is itself a public space.  The project has employed the Her City Toolkit developed by UN-Habitat’s HerCity Project, and has involved a wide range of stakeholders ranging from school children, street and formal business owners, college students, urbanists, community groups and more.  

Using the Methodkit and Minecraft tools to ideate and redesign the streets, the girls, the primary stakeholders, expressed their desire to see pedestrian walkways, cycling lanes, street furniture, safe crossing and access for people with disabilities, more greenery, space for business and more amenities, among other improvements.  [Image: The young women participating in the Minecraft ideation exercise at The GoDown]

Based on these recommendations, our partners working on The GoDown Transformation Project have developed conceptual designs which have been undergoing a rigorous validation process with the key stakeholders.  

The presentation was also a pitch on the project, and The GoDown is pleased to have been named one of five recipients of grants supporting their work. 

 [Image: The conceptual designs for multipurpose Dunga and Dundori Roads- Industrial Area]

The grant will be used to further the use of appropriate methodologies which will continue to make the conceptual and technical designs of streets more accessible to lay – participants, enabling fuller interpretation by all stakeholders.