Department: Architecture & Interior Design
Contact Address: P.O. Box 43844-00100, Nairobi
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Position: Chairman/Lecturer
Area of Specialization: Alternative building technologies open space planning in urban design, renewable energy in architecture

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Mr. Franklin Mwango is an urban designer & architect and currently lectures & heads the Department of Architecture & Interior Design at Kenyatta University since 2015. He has taught at university level since the year 2003. Previously he has been a lecturer at the School of Planning and Architecture at Maseno University, Kenya. He was the Head of the Department of Architecture and has been involved in research and design within participatory design processes, trans-disciplinary research & design, environmentally friendly building technologies, public open spaces and designing with renewable energy. Mwango has worked as an architect in San Diego California and Nairobi and has been a visiting lecturer at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, University of Nairobi and the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology.  He has also had a stint at the City Council of Nairobi in the urban design department. Mwango is co-author of several papers including: Rockefeller sponsored “Planning and Designing Flexible Use of Public Spaces for Improved Livelihoods in Urban Areas”; “Innovative Planning for Sustainable Urbanization”; MISTRA sponsored “A Trans-disciplinary Research Approach: Challenges and Benefits of Co-production” and “Sustainable Architecture in a Capitalistic Economy”. Other consultancies that Mwango is involved in include the Urban Empowerment Program that works with local low-income residents in achieving their goal of decent housing through collaborative designing with the end user as co-designer; and The Urban Innovation Program that involved looking at effective and efficient forms of designing urban markets within open public spaces. Mr. Mwango received his Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Design from St. Lawrence University (SLU) in Canton NY and his M Arch in Architecture & Urban Design from the Newschool of Architecture and Design (NSAD) in San Diego CA, The USA.

Publications

• Mwango F., Helena H., Jennifer O., Nystrom M., A Transdisciplinary Research Approach: Challenges and Benefits of Co-productionA paper presented and published at the Cumulus conference Procedings titled:  “Design with the other 90%: Cumulus Johannesburg Conference Proceedings”.  November 2014.  
• Mwango F. et al., Spatial Strategies for Manyatta: Designing For Growth.A report based on an urban design study by the Master of Science in Architecture & Urban Design, Spring 2014. A collaboration of Maseno University- School of Planning & Architecture; Columbia University in the City of New York – Urban Design Program, Urban Design Lab and Millennium Cities Initiative; Cordaid0Urban Matters Program
• Mwango F., Dr. Musyoka R., Prof. Ngau P., Planning and Designing Flexible Use of Public Spaces for Improved Livelihoods in Urban Areas. A paper presented at the 46th ISOCARP Congress, September 2010, Nairobi Kenya.
• Mwango F., Dr. Musyoka R., Prof. Ngau P., Innovative Planning for Sustainable Urbanization. A paper presented at the Planning Africa Conference, September 2010, Durban, South Africa.
• Masters Thesis on the “Provision of Environmentally Low-Impact, Low-Cost Housing in Nairobi Kenya, NewSchool of Architecture & Design, 2002.
• Sustainable Architecture in a Capitalistic Economy. Article in the Architect Magazine. August 2008