A STUDY OF BUILDING RENEWAL IN COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS IN SELECTED TOWNS IN KENYA

Abstract

The deterioration of buildings hampers the ability to adequately perform their intended functions. The purpose of the study was to investigate the extent of building renewal in commercial buildings in selected towns in Kenya which included Meru, Embu, Nyeri, Nakuru and Eldoret. The term building renewal means modernizing an existing building so as to make it more functional and improve the aesthetic value. The specific focus was to assess the current extent of building renewal of commercial buildings, reasons for non-renewal of buildings, analyse the building renewal policy and the practice of renewal of buildings in Kenya The study was guided by Building Renewal Theory. The study targeted 85,500 buildings in the selected major town in Kenya, 15 500 building owners, 60 000 occupants and 10 000 building experts. Simple random sampling was used to sample, 69 commercial buildings in the selected towns. Owners of the selected buildings were purposively selected. Convenient sampling was used to select building occupants while building experts were selected using snowball sampling technique. The study respondents were 303 comprising 56 owners of buildings, 210 occupants of buildings and 37 building experts. The instruments for data collection were questionnaire for occupants, interview schedule for building owners and observation checklist. The instruments were piloted with 2 occupants 1 building owners and 1 building expert accounting for 1% representation of the sample. The reliability of the questionnaire was tested using split half formula while the supervisors and other experts in the Department of Technology Education at University of Eldoret ascertained the face and content validity. Quantitative data were cleaned, coded and analysed using SPSS version 21. Qualitative data was discussed thematically. The results were presented in frequency tables and graphs. The study established that conditions of commercial buildings in the selected towns were fairly good. The study established that there was no clear policy on building renewal in Kenya. Demand from users, user generated problems, social environmental considerations among others were found to be the factors influencing decision to undertake renewal. The study indicated that there is need for occupants to request for building renewal from building owners, Government needs to legislate a building renewal policy, periodic inspection of building among others are necessary measures that need to be put in place for adoption of renewal of buildings policy. The study recommends that periodic inspection of buildings be done to maintain their condition. Further, the study recommends putting up of proper regulation of building renewal by the government to guide building owners in carrying out renewal.