The multi-award-winning Lake View Estate is a unique residential development set in a fully landscaped, well-maintained, secure, and competently engineered estate, with carefully considered land use. It has become a milestone in excellence in residential development in Nairobi. The lake within the estate has become a major landmark in Nairobi, and the entire area around Lakeview Estate has collectively come to be known as Lakeview.

This remarkable project originated from an architectural competition in the late 1970s. The winning design aimed to transform 60 acres of abandoned coffee plantation, which included three low-lying swampy areas, into a vibrant residential community. The planning team recognized a unique opportunity to create a lake in a large vlei (wetland) at the center of the site, avoiding the need to bring in vast quantities of earth to fill it, as proposed by other architects.

Initially, there were doubts about the feasibility of the project, as the outline designs from PLANNING called for 88 four-bedroom, 2.5-bathroom houses on the 60-acre site. However, the innovative design ensured the lake’s self-cleansing capability through carefully selected water-purifying plants and fish that controlled mosquito larvae, frogs, and algae. The development also aimed to protect many exceptionally mature trees.

A botanical study of the site yielded discoveries, including two ground creepers previously unknown to the Herbarium and a species of eucalyptus tree not found elsewhere in East Africa. The materials and design of the typical house type were the result of an intensive study by PLANNING to identify the most cost-effective yet sustainable materials to use. The combination of “dry stone” for the external walls, brick, cedar wood block floors, and timber columns, beams, and sloped wood strip finishes under clay tile roofs (without ceilings) gave these houses a unique and appealing character, leading to swift sales