“The destiny of this Nation is our responsibility” these were the words spoken by State Department of Public Works PS Professor Paul Maringa in his keynote address at Heron Portico last Friday. He was speaking at the inaugural Construction and Real Estate (CoRE) Awards dinner that sought to award champions of sustainability, excellence and innovation in the Kenyan built environment.
The awards themselves were an unprecedented show of unity in the sector bringing together the AAK, ACMK, KGBS, KFMB, IDAK and IQSK professional associations under one awarding system with seven categories.
Karibu Homes scooped the developer of the year award due to their long-standing commitment to affordable housing. While Garden City was awarded the Sustainability project of the year owing to their rating under LEED and Green Star System. This gave their consultants MML Turner and Townsend and MACE YMR a great advantage in the point system earning them the Project Manager and Quantity Surveyor of the year award respectively.
Similarly, Boogertaman+ partners took home the Architect of the year award and Wammnel Ltd got the Contractor of the year Award. Uniquely, the awards also featured a Kenya’s first university consortium competition that saw a team of 9 Young Achievers take the prize for designing a sustainable ward plan.
In total 85companies participated in the awarding process with organizers looking to have a higher number in the 2020 version. The ultimate goal of the awards is to increase transparency in the sector so as to boost investment, enhancecollaboration and ultimately increase home ownership.
