π°πͺ Quantity Surveyor | Creator of QuantifyIQ | Know what your house will cost before you build | Founder @PodCityKE by @Ujenzibora | Design β’ Cost β’ Build
Kenya
Joined March 2011
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Dear Home Owner,
I want you to pause a little before you build.
The pause can be 1 hour before ground breaking or one week before you sign that contract.
Take a moment.
What if there is a chance you can build a more beautiful, functional and timeless houseβ¦
On the same budget?
β¨π
Inspired by The Olkeri House. This our signature styleπ‘
1/5
David Nahinga Ξ π°πͺβπΏ retweeted
The business community needs extension officers like we used to do it in agriculture.
Their role can be to visit a village and map out existing businesses and gaps in the market.
There is nobody who gains by a collapsed business.
Example 2: Retail Building with timber cladding and glazed storefronts.
The proposal appears as a single-storey retail strip that turns an empty roadside plot into a composed, walkable line of shops.
A slightly taller dark-timber volume at the near corner houses the grocery market, its vertical boards wrapping the mass and giving the anchor a distinct, tactile presence.
Cream plaster walls continue the remaining units in a calm, unbroken plane, each identified by a dark timber signage band carrying simple generic lettering.
Spatial organisation follows a clear linear order: shops share a continuous glazed frontage and a covered threshold, so the grocery, bakery, cafe and retail units read as one street rather than isolated boxes.
#Retail
#design #PoDCity
Let us talk about Retail Shops Design.
Example 01: Retail Building with cantilevered awnings and glazed storefronts.
The massing is low and horizontal, given quiet rhythm by brick piers, slightly stepped parapets and one modest taller volume carrying a simple clock.
The left-hand corner unit, with its larger glazed frontage, reads clearly as the anchoring grocery store. In front, a paved parking and drop-off forecourt leads to a shaded terrace of timber tables and chairs under beige shade sails, framed by brick-edged planters, potted palms and small trees.
On Competitive Foolishness.
βπΏππππ
This does not need to be a default position.
I see it as a Design Problem.
Same shopping malls solve this problem by having only one tenant per category.
We can call this the Nyamakima Mindset:
Everyone is selling goat meat π. Yo attract more customers, they give you a piece of the meat to taste π
Soon, customers buy half a kilo and a quarter has been eaten.
Eventually, to even remain operating, they start selling cats and dogs π π.
This is competitive foolishness.
Can you afford the house you have drawn?
Uncomfortable question. Worth asking now, while it is still lines on a screen and not a foundation you cannot finish.
A design you can build beats a design you can only admire. Cost it before you commit.
podcity.ke/?pc=153b1d931a&utβ¦
We have tried to re-imagine how such spaces can become vibrant again,
Other than design, the catchment rule still applies.
π Retail Building Design Kenya | Terracotta Tile Roof, Timber Lattice Screens, Ochre Rendered Arcade
π REF: UB 012
π FLOOR AREA: 600mΒ²
π BATHROOMS: 2
π "This design is ready to build. Get your estimate!"
#PoDCityDesign #Architecture
via @PoDCityKE by @UjenziBora podcity.ke/portfolio/retail-β¦
The real dead capital are those tiny 3m by 3m Kenyan shops that litter the Countryside.
They all begun with good intentions but because of copycat behavior, they all became unstableβ¦
And collapsed ππΏ
Listen. Only 1 posho mill or brothel can serve a certain catchment area.
#MeTooIsNotABusinessModel
Under NYS, 1 Km of a road in Kibera cost Ksh. 226 million.
Thika Road cost Ksh 80.6 million per Km
What is the current cost of road/km?
What does an extra 10 mΒ² actually cost?
Most people guess. Then they find out on site, in cement and steel, when it is too late to change their mind.
The honest answer depends on your design: your walls, your roof, your finishes. Which is exactly why you should be able to see it before you build.
Adjust the size. Watch the number move.
podcity.ke/?pc=012c1ffdcf&utβ¦
π‘ House of the Day
Tiny House Design Kenya | Lattice Screen Wall, Flat Roof Terrace, Timber Deck (UB 016)
A cream-plaster courtyard cottage with a timber verandah, a breeze-block screen framing a planted court, and a stair up to a roof terrace.
podcity.ke/portfolio/tiny-hoβ¦
Starting a watch repair business requires one to have observed a sufficient number of villagers wearing watches.
Building a 10,000-seater stadium in Wajir or Lodwar ought to raise a similar question: have we observed sufficient demand to justify the investment?
It may not be the watchmakerβs responsibility to worry about whether the customer has water, schools or food.
But a government has to worry about all three.
A government must PRIORITISE.
David Nahinga Ξ π°πͺβπΏ retweeted
I tell clients this all the time. Your current cost position can limit your future needs.
Do you start with the cost, or the house?
I suggest this order:
1. Style first. How do you want to live? Modern, bungalow, maisonette, simple and compact? Decide this before you look at plans.
2. Then the design. Choose one that matches the style, your family and your plot.
3. Then cost it. Only now does a number mean something.
When people cost first, they often cut the wrong things later. When they choose deliberately, the house still feels right years from now.
On podcity.ke you can adopt a style, adopt a design, then use Get Estimates for a regional BoQ-based estimate.
#MjengoElimu #PoDCity
What does adding 10 mΒ² to your house actually cost?
Most people guess. Then they find out on site, in cement and steel, when it is too late to change their mind.
The honest answer depends on your design, which is exactly why you should see it move before you commit.
podcity.ke/?pc=ed8105a095&utβ¦
You don't know what your house will cost.
That is not a character flaw. It is a design flaw.
A drawing is not a price. A quote is a guess that expires. So the number arrives late, in cement bags and steel bars, when changing your mind is no longer free.
What if you moved a wall and the cost answered back?
Make the room bigger. Watch the total move. Shrink the kitchen. Watch it come down.
Change the house. See the cost. That is the whole idea at podcity.ke
What happens to your budget if you make the master bedroom bigger?
That is not a design question. It is a money question wearing a design costume.
Every extra square metre is walls, roof, floor and finishes all the way down.
You should be able to see that consequence before you commit to it.
podcity.ke/?pc=e5f47b9243&utβ¦
David Nahinga Ξ π°πͺβπΏ retweeted
I wish quality housing was what you are doing but you are not doing that.
The highrise AHPs will end up being vertical slums as the template has never worked in any country. They will end up being just like Pipeline because they follow the same logic: maximise the land use.
Ask yourself: if your fundi or engineer left tomorrow, what would you still have on file?
On site I tell clients to keep four simple things:
1. A site diary. A few lines a day: who came, what was done, what was decided.
2. Dated photos. Before concrete, before plaster, before covering any pipe.
3. Delivery notes. Keep every one, signed.
4. Stock checks. Count blocks, cement and steel against the notes.
When people move on, the project's history should stay with you.
A clear design and estimate give you a record to start from. Begin on podcity.ke with Get Estimates.
#MjengoElimu
