Vanishing Houses: The impacts of climate and cultural change on the architecture of Samburu in northern Kenya
Dr. Brendan O’Neill from the School of Archaeology speaks about an active-learning initiative in the summer of 2019 that brought Brendan, UCD staff, and students to Samburu, Kenya, for a two-week ‘learning lab’. They worked with members of the Samburu community (mostly women), who taught them how to build their vernacular houses (Nkaji). This exercise highlighted the intersections of climate change, material culture, natural/cultural heritage, architecture, ecology, landscape management, economy, education, colonialism and people's everyday lives. For all involved, it reinforced the scale and existential impacts of current global challenges and the need for combined approaches to address them.
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