Kenya’s Garden City mall has scooped a major accolade for being the best green building in sub Saharan Africa, a statement from the Africa Property Investment Summit and Expo 2017 has said.
The development was recognized for putting sustainability at its core. It features the largest solar paneled carport in Africa on its rooftop parking area.
Garden City is East Africa’s first integrated residential, retail and office development. Set on 32 acres the development includes an approximately 45 000m2 shopping mall, over 200 residential apartments and 20 000m2 built-to-suit office space.
The project has been developed in line with Kenyan government’s Vision 2030. The aim of Actis-the developer-was to create a “live-work-play” environment to cater to the community in the North-East suburbs of Nairobi.
LEED pre-certification
Garden City is one of the first projects in Kenya to receive a LEED pre-certification by the Green Building Council for implanting practical solutions for high performance in sustainable site development, materials selection, energy, water savings and indoor environmental quality.
LEED or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is a green building certification program that recognises best-in-class building strategies and practices.
To receive a LEED certification, building project must satisfy prerequisites and earn points on different levels of certification. LEED certified buildings save money and have a positive impact on the health of occupants, while promoting use of renewable, clean energy.
Apart from Garden City, another Kenyan development that was recognized is Karibu Homes.
Karibu Homes is a leading Kenyan developer of mass market affordable housing with 1000 homes currently under development.
The developer has successfully delivered the first community of affordable housing in Nairobi having already completed Phase 1 of the project with 285 homes built and sold.
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Work on Phase 2 has started with 500 homes under construction.
Since inception the development has had a significant systemic impact on the affordable housing ecosystem in general with both public and private institutions actively seeking to learn something from the development through site visits, panel discussions and scholarships.
Other projects which were awarded include the Kumasi City Hall in Ghana which scooped the award for the Best Retail Development, Accra Financial Centre also in Ghana (Best Commercial High-Rise Development), Strand Hotel in Namibia (Best Hotel Development), and Rain Torres in Mozambique which received the award for the Best Architectural Design.
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