Real Estate firm HassConsult has today launched Africa’s pioneer experience-driven township of and in a sensory garden. The planned Enaki development will be the firm’s largest yet, and Kenya’s first sensory botanical garden, designed by award-winning Spanish architects iGreen to sit within the innovative township filled with cascading waterfalls and community facilities.
The township which focuses on giving residents a more pedestrianized experience, will be complete with golf carts for residents and visitors, boutique-lined high streets, a hotel, amphitheatre, and floating restaurant, was conceived as the legacy project of the former Agriculture Minister the late Dr Munyua Waiyaki on his own farmland, opposite the Nyari Estate in Nairobi.
The public Five Senses Botanical Garden was his donation, and has now been designed to stimulate the senses with a health backed botanical array. HassConsult said the botanical garden, which is a core feature of the township, would cost about $1.2million to complete.
The development is timely as the data shows that Africa is lagging behind in such developments. There are currently 1,775 botanical gardens across 148 countries worldwide, with just a handful of them (17) in Africa. In Kenya, there is only one widely recognized botanical garden based on its plant culture and diversity.
“As developers, we began with a donated park, and realized we had an opportunity to create something entirely new in Kenya and in real estate by leading the way with a holistic botanical experience that defined the nature of the whole township and its lifestyles,” said Farhana Hassanali, CEO of HassConsult.
To connect the township with the sensory delight of the park, HassConsult moved the parking underground and created a pedestrianized network of gardens and facilities, with 70 percent of Enaki now dedicated to green space.
“The idea has been to seamlessly ignite the five human senses of sight, smell, touch, hearing and taste in an unrivalled experience for residents and visitors alike,” said Farhana.
The garden has then been designed around aromatic rooms made from chocolate cosmos, frangipani wisteria, gardenias, sweet aslysium, sweet peas and jasmine flowers, enhanced with coloured shadow and scented tree gazebos.
The garden will also include a children’s nature park, a floating water-lily restaurant and tea house, as well as a lake, recreational music space, water jets and fountains.
“Timeless yet contemporary, Enaki is an exquisite realization of Waiyaki’s dream, across cycling trails, an outdoor fitness circuit, a gym, sports lounge and dance studio, as well as a business cluster with working pods that are set in woods, and an on-site spa,” said Farhana.
The Enaki development will cover a total of 22 acres with its life-cycle housing nestled into its middle zone and featuring bespoke homes for single, young people, couples, and small families, large families, downsizing families whose grown-up children have left the nest, and assisted living for the elderly. HassConsult said the entry price for the smallest units would be about KSh. 6.5 million.
“Each home was designed with a specific demographic in mind, all of them served by on-call staff and restaurants, and every design driven by the specific needs of residents at different points in the life cycle,” said Farhana.
“The big deal in modern and even futuristic living isn’t all about the tallest, or the highest density, or the newest, or the prettiest building – our new chalice is the real estate that makes people happiest,’ she added.
The first phase of the development is set to begin in the second quarter of 2019, and will consist of 450 residential units. The residential developments are expected to cost about Ksh. 10 billion. The development is to be located in Nyari.
