The Place – The extensive roof garden for a corporate bank in Nairobi’s, CBD. I&M is one of the largest banks within East Africa, this building is its new headquarters in downtown Nairobi.
The Brief – To create a garden using the limited soil depth of 300mm over the extent of the roof. The garden could not be accessed but instead viewed
from one cafe deck as most of the space needed to be inaccessible to the public for security reasons as the bank itself is on this floor of the building.
The Design – Our design seeks to bring back lost biodiversity to the city by planting a large roof garden with an indigenous grassland for the new headquarters of I&M Bank in the heart of Nairobi’s CBD. We looked to highlight the importance of this unique East African ecosystem which is coming under increasing pressure from overgrazing and desertification. In essence this will become a botanical garden in the heart of the CBD, demonstrating and preserving the rapidly depleting grassland ecosystems. In doing so we are establishing an existing habitat all but lost in the CBD. The grasses and various perennials will provide valuable fodder for the various sun birds , seedeaters and insects which depend on such ecosystems.
The project is nearing completion.
