To create modern building designs by Kenyan architects is the brief of many clients may give, with the charge to conceptualize their dream home, commercial space or signature building. After lots of travel and pursuit of many interests all over the globe, many individuals would like to be at the top of their game with regards to how their next real estate development ought to look like. And for many, the prospect of a modern building is definitely mouth-watering. The question is however, how does one ensure their building designed by a Kenyan architect is a cutting edge design of today?

Trends In Modern Building Designs By Kenyan Architects

In my considered opinion, there are a couple of trends that stand out with regards to modern building designs by Kenyan architects being put up today. Due to the fact that many of these factors are consistently being incorporated into several buildings of late that can be considered as modern, it is fine to assume that this is a major part of achieving modern designs that respond to this character.

Modern building design, especially of modern homes, has particular external forms (also called morphology) attached to it. The form of a building can take any shape whatsoever, and construction technology has grown to the level that anything is possible, and the sky is the limit. However, a key design trend is the incorporation of building elements that make the building feel light and transparent, character that is associated with the need for transparency in the 21st century.

Certain Materials Are Popular In Modern Building Designs By Kenyan Architects

In order to achieve this kind of mix of elements to create a good mix of light materials and heavy ones, the use of glazing of different types has become a major staple for modern homes. Glass has the ability to allow light into spaces, and allow visual continuity and interaction between spaces within a house or a building, with those outside.

Glass technology has also so improved that it is possible to get very large panes of glass, self supporting and able to maintain their character and strength. By virtue of this kind of transparency, wide open views can be harnessed within a house, simply through the incorporation of ‘window walls’ or curtain walling, allowing wide continuous openings to be achieved. The large window openings are major part of creation of spaces with a modern character.

By having this kind of openness achieved within a building, there is a beautiful sense of lightness that can be associated with this kind of modern architecture. The resultant interplay of planes, voids and mass create a beautiful modern sculpture. When the building takes on that aura of being light, structures such as roof slabs and upper planes often get a feeling of floating in mid-air. This is part of the high tech novelty of such structures.

The truth is that it is not a very new phenomenon in the architectural world to construct buildings in this manner. Such buildings having this kind of outlook first appeared with the advent of the modern movement in architecture. Many other architectural trends have come by since, including postmodernism, deconstruction, among others.

Modern Building Designs By Kenyan Architects Are Richly Textured

The other means of creation of that modern look on a modern commercial building in Kenya is through the incorporation of interesting textures on the building form. This is often achieved through the application of great interesting textures upon each surface of the building.

Texture is largely a function of the type of materials that will be applied on each plane within spaces. This is one of the most interesting parts in designing an interior of a building. The mix of materials creates a collage between the smooth and the rough, the ‘void’ spaces and textured areas that make the difference in the feel of the space.

One of the most interesting areas of the means of creating a beautiful interior is through the incorporation of finishes that have a strong texture on them, including stone patterns or other organic patterns such as wood grains. The use of modular members in a particular pattern or direction can create interesting patterns or visual textures.

The Use Of Materials And Textures Create Strong Modern Building Designs By Kenyan Architects

By using various textures, a design can take a very interesting character on its surface expression. Depending on the choice of materials and texture chosen, a building’s skin can take on a particular character.

For example, linear expression that denote movement and modernity can be derived through the use of timber or aluminum lattices arranged in horizontal fashion. Likewise, a feeling of vertical height on a building can be reinforced through the use of vertical members like colonnades or vertical fins along the side of a building.

A popular trend in creating modern looking commercial designs in Kenya has been in the use of such vertical fins on the facades of buildings. They serve as both screening elements as well as parts of the building used to create strong visual characteristics in the building on which they are used.

Indeed, the possibilities are endless, interesting commercial and residential modern building designs by Kenyan architects can be realized in this manner.