Nairobi's Abstract Architecture

If to collect photographs is to collect the world, as Sontag writes, then humanity, through the presence of the Internet, has built quite the collection. Writing in 2011, Guy Horton observes, “What we see in the images of architecture encompasses all our spatial memories, whether actual or false.” It is important to note that Horton is speaking about the images of architecture, rather than the architectures themselves.

Walking down the streets of Nairobi, one is made to wonder at the arrangements of different architectures, at the conveyance of emotions in the architectures, at the presence of patterns in these architectures. A child’s first kindergarten lessons are in patterns; in lines and circles and zigzags and then mutations and combinations of the same. One then asks whether the omnipresence of the patterns in Nairobi’s architectures is an ode to the patterns one encounters when still a babe, to the beauty of these patterns, to the simplicity of these patterns.

Enkare Review’s Leah Kanda moves through Nairobi, recording patterns in Nairobi’s architectures, seeking memories of a simple beauty, and collecting the Enkare Nyirobi.