105
2. THE THIKA PILOT PROJECT
The Thika pilot project is owned and administered by the Thika Municipal Council as housing for low-income Municipal employees. The project was completed in March 1971, and consists of twenty-two houses.
The scheme has been labelled a pilot project by its designers because it was conceived of as an attempt to provide adequate low-cost housing as inexpen-s ively ainexpen-s poinexpen-sinexpen-sible.
The cost per house, including all services (land, loads, sewers. water, plant ..
ation, electricity J etc.), came to roughly 7,000 shillings or more exactly ~ to 18(50 shillings per square foot.
The rent of a house, including maintenance and other costs~ is 73/· shillings a month. The Municipal Council chose to rent tile houses to Iow .. income Municipal Council employees~ many of whom had been living in corrugated iron shacks and were badly in need of better housing. Moreover, over half of the houses were rented by the room, thus defeating the original concept of one household/one house.
ETUDES
Sau f dan s deux cas, les m ai sons son t dotees chacun ed' un ca bin et
a
1a tu rque ) d'une dO:1Chc, d'une cuisine avec un f;vier) d'une dalle pour 1a cuisine et d 'eta-gi;rcs de r8.:1gement. Toutes les maisons, sauf deux; ont l'eau courante dans la cuislne> \?t la salle de douche, et en plus un robinet exterieur. Les occupants des :naisons depourvues de ces installations utilisent celles de leurs vobiins.
[nfras tructurc
Infrastructure composee de montants et de poutces en beron acme ptefabriques.
Les ::'lOntants sont scelles dans du betan et les poutces y soot fixees par des boulons.
Sol
Cauche de revetement en ciment/sable sur une dalle en beton~
MUfS
a) Autoporteurs ~ muts en lattes de bois et torchis de 150 mm d' epaisseur, b) ~urs avec briques de remplissage, 150 mm d' epalsseur1
c) Blocs d' argile de remplissage, 150 mm d' epaisseur.
Toit
Toit incline (15·) de 25 mm d' epaisseur environ sur des chevrons. La couver~
ture est realisee aU moyen d' un tissu de tute impregne de ciment" plus une cou~
che de grillage
a
poulailler et une cauche de peinture etanchea
l'eau. Cette cQuverture est portee par l' infrastructure; 1a toiture presente d'importants surplombs quiprotegent les mUrS de la pluie. Dans huH cas, un surplomb le:gerement plus im-portant est soutenu par des montants en bois
a
ta hauteur des gouttjeres.De nombreux occupants ont essaye d'obvier
a
l'aspect plutot austere des cham~bres, en ayant recours
a
des decorations, habituelle;nent des photographies) des dessins et des tlssus. brodes.Caracteristiques demographiques
n
y avait au total 91 personnes vivant dans les 28 unites etudiees; ce qui cor-respondaita
une moyenne de 3/3 personnes par J:'lenage et de 2;4 personnes par piece.Les enfants
a
charge representaient un peu plus de la moitie de la population:54 enfants contre 45 adultes.
Tous les enfants assez ages alIaien t
a
l' ecole} ce qui lmpliquai t souven tune depense pour leurs parents generalement peu payes. 7514 p. 100 des aduItes a valen t de 20a
29 ans.Les hommes etaient plus nombreux que les femmes: 61 contre 30, ou 67 p. 100 contre 33 p. 100.
Professions of revenus
Comme indique precedement; tous les oCCupants du groupe de maison etaient des employes du Consl"il municipal; sauf dans trois cas, tous les occupants ont
ete choisi s en raisoJ~ la modicite de leur revenu.
SECTION
SECTIONIB
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• • •
107
STUDIES
With the exception of two houses, each house has a squatting toilet, a shower and a kitchen with sink, cooking slab and storage shelves. All houses but two have been provided with water in the kitchen; the bathroom and an outside tap ..
Occupants of houses without these facilities use those of their neighbours.
infrastructure
Reinforced precast concrete infrastructure of post and beam. The posts are embedded in concrete and the beams have been bolted on.
Floor
Cement sand floor finish on concrete slab~
Wa118
a) Free standing, 6" thick mud and wattle walts.
b) Infilt brick walls, 6" thick, plastered.
c) Infilt clay blocks, 6" thiel<.
Roo!
Approximately 1" thick pitched roof (1S') on gumpole rafters. The roof is made up of jute cloth soacked in cement and one layer of chicken wire and one coat of water proof paint. It is supported by the infrastructure and has overhangs to protect the watts against weather. In eight cases a slightly larger overhand is supported by additional timber poles at the eaves.
Attempts to alleviate the rather grim appearance of the rooms had been made by many tenants, through the use of decorations, usually photographs, pic ..
turest Or embroidered cloths,.
Demographic characteristics
There were a total of 91 persons living in the 28 units surveyed. giving an average household size of 3~3 persons and an average room occupancy rate of 2.4 persons •
Slightly more than one half of the population is made up of dependent children, there being 46 children and 45 adults.
AU children who were old enough were attending school, often at some ex ..
pense to their generatty low-paid parents. 74.4 per cent of alt adults Were between the a ges of twenty and thirty-nine.
Men in the pilot project outnumbered women, Sixly-one (67 per cent) were males and thirty (33 per cent) were females.
Occupation and incomes
As statedl all occupants in the project are Municipal Council employees and all but three were chosen on the basis of their having low incomes.
~ ~
Bruits
ETUDES
Dans P ensemble1 les residents estimaient que Ie groupe de maison etait plutot tranquille; 60,7 p. 100 ont declare qu' its n' etaient pas genes par Ie bruit que pouvaient faire leurs voisins.
lntimite et lumiere
Les pieces semblent assez Bambres, mais pendant Ie jour la lumiere est suffi-sante selon l' opinion de 85,7 p. 100 des occupants. En ce qui concerne I'inti-mite, la situation aursH
ete
plus satisfaisante si les maisons 0' etaient occu-pees que par un seul menage.S6curite
Pour se protegee les OCCUpants ont organise une patrouille de surveillance qUi monte la garde pendant la nait. Tous les residents possedent un sifflet. II re-suite de ces mesureS un [enforcement de l' interdependance et de la cooperation aU sein de la collectlvite.
Cuisines
Les raisons avancees pour expliquer les difficultes de nettoyage etaient les suivantes:
1) Les cuisines sont trap exigues.
2) Quand Ie sol est lave, les murs mouilles se desagregen t et deposent de la boue qui salit Ie sol beaucoup plus qu' avant Ie nettoyage.
76,9 p. 100 des occupants ont indique qu' it n' y avait pas assez de place pour les rangemenrs,pendant que 85,6 p. 100 se plaignaient du manque de place pour Ie travail.
A vrai dire, les cuisines sont tres petites (3m 2), Ce qui est particuHerement genant quand plusieurs menages doivent utiliser la meme cuisine.
Reserve de combustibles
Les occupants qui se sont plaints du mal'l~ue de place pour les reserves de com ...
bustibles representaient 89,3 p. 100 du total.
Place disponible
92,6 p~ 100 des occupants interroges ont indique qu' ils n' avaient pas assez de place pour leur mobilier.
Dans Ie cas de six menages, tes enfants dormaient sous Ie lit de leurs parents.
faute d'une place suffisante pour un autte lit.
Cabinet d' aisance/ douche
71,4 p. 100 des occupants interreges partagent avec d' autres menages i' instal.
lation combinee cabinet/douche. Le nombre des personnes utilisant la meme installation est compris entre 2 et 10. Comme dans Ie Cas des cuisines, ceux qui utilisent la meme saHe de douche se charg"nt
a
tour de roie du nettoyageet de I' entretien. 75 p. 100 des personnes interrogees ont declare qu' elles n' aimaient pas 1 t emplacement de la douchel et qut elles pnHereraient qu' elle soit separee du cabinet+
SECTION1B
STUDIES
~oise
On the whole, most residents felt that the project was reasonably quieti 60.7 per cent stating that they were not troubled by noise from their neighbours.
Privacy and light
Although the rooms appeared to be rather dark, daylight visibility seemed to be satisfactory. 85.7 per cent of the occupants said that they had enough light during the daytime. In other words, there might have been greater sa ..
tisfaction regarding privacy if each house had been occupied by one house-hold only.
Security
To protect themselves~ they have formed a vigilant patrol to keep watch at night and all residents have equipped themselves with whistles. One side effect of all this has been that community interaction and co-operation has increased.
Kitchens
Reasons given for difficulty in cleaning were:
1) The kitchens are too small;
2) Mud runs off the wall when the floor is washed, making the floor dirtier than it was before washing~
76.9 per cent said that they did not have enough storage space in the kitchen while 85.6 per cent complained of a lack of adequate work space. The kitchen are, in fact} very small; (3m2) particularly when they must be used by more than one househotd~
Fuel stota{je
In aiL 89.3 per cent complained of a lack of adequate space for fuel.
Space
92.6 per cent of the interviews stated that they did not have enough space for their furniture.
There were six households in which children slept under their parent's beds for lack of adequate bed space.
We/shower
71.4 per cent of those interviewed shared a combined toHet and shower with other households. The number sharing ranges from 2 to 10. As with kitchens, those who use the bathroom take turns in its upkeep~
75 per cent did not like the location of the shower. All of these persons would prefer its being located away from the toilet.