The Urban Design Lab Creates a Pilot Planning Process for the Urban Poor in the Millennium City of Kisumu, Kenya

The Urban Design Lab (UDL) at Columbia University’s Earth Institute is pleased to announce the release of “Spatial Strategies for Manyatta: Designing for Growth”, a collaboration between UDL, the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP), and the Millennium Cities Initiative (MCI). This publication proposes innovative solutions to some of the most complex and pressing challenges facing Manyatta, the largest informal settlement in Kisumu, Kenya, including those relating to inadequate sanitation, transport, street lighting, water provision, environmental protection, gender inclusion, and economic opportunity.

In close partnership with local counterparts at Maseno University and the Catholic Organisation for Relief and Development Aid (CORDAID), and with Manyatta community leaders and the Kisumu City Council, faculty and postgraduate architects from the UDL and the Urban Design Program at GSAPP designed infrastructural, residential, and commercial upgrades that can be implemented by the government and the Manyatta residents themselves. This report is the fourth annual publication stemming from the partnership between the MCI, UDL, and the GSAPP’s Urban Design Program and it builds on their previous work in similarly under-resourced communities in Accra and Kumasi, Ghana.