The demand for high-density residential housing in Nairobi continues to grow. Lifestyle Heights, a 12-storey apartment development in the Westlands corridor, presented our team with the full range of challenges that come with designing tall residential structures in an urban environment.
Transfer Slab Design
The client architectural brief required a column-free podium level for parking, with residential columns above not aligning with the parking grid below. We designed a post-tensioned transfer slab at podium level to carry the discontinuous columns above and redistribute their loads to the core walls and columns below. Post-tensioning allowed us to achieve the required spans with a shallower slab depth than would have been possible with conventional reinforced concrete.
Lateral Stability
A 12-storey structure in Nairobi must be designed for wind loads and, given the city proximity to the Rift Valley seismic zone, for seismic actions as well. Our lateral load-resisting system combined reinforced concrete core walls around the lift and stair shafts with moment frames at the perimeter.
In tall residential design, the staircore is not just a circulation element — it is the spine of the entire structure.
MEP Coordination
Working with the MEP consultants from early design stage, we pre-planned structural openings in beams and slabs to accommodate service runs without compromising structural integrity. This coordination avoided the costly and dangerous practice of cutting openings through structural elements after construction.
Lifestyle Heights was delivered to a high structural standard, on programme, and has since been completed and occupied.
