Kinsuka Garden City

ORG designed a master plan to develop Texaf’s former textile factory site, at the edge of Kinshasa, Congo (DRC). Texaf group owns a plot of land of 104 ha around 10 kilometers to the west of the center of Kinshasa (DRC). This plot, located in the district of Kinsuka, is flanked on two sides by the River Congo. The rapid expansion of the city creates particularly attractive possibilities for development.

ORG prepared an urban and architectural vision for the development of the site, with it's phasing and feasibility- technically, spatially, and financially. The project, provisionally named Jardins de Kinsuka or Kinsuka Garden of Knowledge, will consist of housing for the emerging middle class with the associated infrastructure and communal facilities. ORG is also proposing to join forces with local and international schools and businesses to start a knowledge center on the site. This cluster would include training in business economics, agriculture, skills, information, and learning; the idea is to equip people with skills, after which they can develop their own business.

The first guidelines for the master plan were delivered in January 2018. Within the plan, ORG focused on the natural assets and threats of the site, orientating the plan for a tropical climate, taking care of erosion and flooding, and adding an ecological strategy. At the same time, typological studies and market studies help the client in defining its future market of buyers. A flexible grid allows for strategy changes during the process of development.

At the moment, ORG architecture is working on the typology of housing units to improve Kinshasa’s middle-class living standards and to optimize the construction process.