OPEN OFFICES
Open Offices are informal drop-in sessions during PAB offering attendees the opportunity to step inside the studios and practices shaping Nairobi’s built environment and contributing to architectural conversations across the wider continent. It’s a chance to meet practitioners in their own spaces, see how they work, ask questions, share ideas and build relationships beyond the formal programme, creating a more open and direct exchange between the people making, thinking and shaping African cities.
Open Offices: SHOUT, Urko Sanchez, Ardhi Na Mbao, O/S Architecture, OMT Architects, Cave Bureau, Localworks, Kounkuey Design Initiative (KDI), and Boogertman + Partners.
Space is limited. RSVP below to confirm your attendance.
Question? Email tickets@panafricanbiennale.org.
Mon, SEpTEMBER 7 - WeD, SEPTEMBER 9
14:00 PM - 15:00 PM
Localworks are designers and builders collaborating to create ecological architecture in East Africa. Motivated in equal parts by idealism, pragmatism and professionalism, they have assembled a closely-knit team of professionals who together are committed to advancing green architecture in theory and in practice, creating buildings that give more than they take.
TUES, SEpTEMBER 8
10:00 AM - 17:00 PM
SHOUT Group is a Nairobi-based organisation working to improve access to decent, affordable housing in Kenya. Their work focuses on developing practical and sustainable housing solutions that respond to the needs of growing communities and help make good-quality homes more accessible to people across the city and beyond.
TUes, SEpTEMBER 8
13:00 PM - 17:00 PM
Urko Sánchez Architects is a Nairobi-based architecture practice with a strong connection to Kenya’s coastal and Swahili heritage. Their work brings together local materials, traditional building techniques and contemporary design, with a particular focus on creating architecture that responds to its climate, landscape and cultural context.
Urko Sanchez will welcome visitors in their office space and offer a brief tour and then visitors will be invited to a site visit tour at Nairobi Waldorf school project in Karen.
WEDS, SEPtember 9
9:00 AM - 18:00 PM (open office)
17:00 PM - 21:00 PM - CAVE Event (5-9)
Cave_bureau is a Nairobi based working group of artists, architects and researchers charting explorations beyond architecture as a deep time earth practice of social and ecological repair. Our work addresses the anthropological and geological context of African settlements as a means to confront the challenges of our contemporary rural and urban lives.
WEDS, SEpTEMBER 9
10:00 AM - 17:00 PM
Ardhi Na Mbao is a Nairobi-based design, build and manufacturing practice exploring the potential of earth and timber in contemporary construction. Their work focuses on making sustainable and affordable building materials more accessible, using locally sourced mass timber and rammed earth to develop climate-responsive approaches to construction in Kenya.
THURS, SEpTEMBER 10
10:00 AM - 13:00 PM
O/S Architecture is a Nairobi-based architecture practice working across buildings, interiors and public spaces. The studio takes a thoughtful, collaborative approach to design, working across different scales and project types while paying close attention to the relationship between buildings and their wider context.
THURS, SEpTEMBER 10
10:00 AM - 17:00 PM
Boogertman + Partners is an architecture practice shaped by collaboration, context and a curiosity about how the built environment can respond to a changing continent. Welcome to our Nairobi studio, where Ubunifu creates a space for research, experimentation and exchange — bringing together storytelling, archives and architecture to explore what emerges at the intersections between them.
FRI, SEpTEMBER 11
9:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Kounkuey Design Initiative (KDI) is a non-profit design and community development organization that works with under-resourced communities to create healthier, more inclusive, and sustainable neighbourhoods. It combines architecture, urban planning, landscape design, engineering, research, and community participation to develop productive public spaces and address social, economic, and environmental challenges.
FRI, SEpTEMBER 11
12:00 PM - 17:00 PM
OMT Architects is an architectural practice operating from two continents, Poznań in Europe and Nairobi in Africa, with projects spanning Germany, Kenya, Poland, and Zanzibar. The firm creates sustainable, context sensitive designs that blend modern aesthetics with traditional influences, integrating local materials, craftsmanship, and technology to craft adaptive, community focused spaces.