ORIEL Riverside · Nairobi Book a viewing

A-300 · The building

Built around the light.

Seventeen storeys of homes above a garden by the river, each with a glazed bay at its corner. Here is how the building works, what it shares and what every home comes with.

Storeys
17
Homes
86
Homes per floor
6
Floor to floor
3.2 m
Completion
Dec 2028

A-301 · The bay

A window you can sit in.

Every home has a bay at its corner: a glazed box that steps 1.2 metres out from the wall, so you can see along the façade as well as straight out. Corner bays look two ways.

The glass starts at a solid oak seat 0.45 metres off the floor, with storage under it, and stops under a cobalt band. The band and the slab above shade the glass from the high midday sun, while the low light of early morning reaches far into the room.

From the street the bays read as a column of blue-capped lanterns up each corner of the tower. That is the building’s signature, and its name: an oriel is a window that projects from a wall to catch more light and more view.

Section through a bayThe bay projects 1.20 metres from the façade. Its glass runs from a window seat 0.45 metres above the floor to 2.45 metres, under a cobalt band 0.43 metres deep. Low morning sun reaches deep into the room; the high midday sun is held off by the band and the slab.Morning sun, lowMidday sun, high0.452.000.431.20Oak window seatDouble glazing, graphite frameCobalt bandSlab edgeLiving roomLine of façade
A-301 Section through a bay. Dimensions in metres.
A woman reading on an oak window seat in a corner bay, with a cobalt cushion and treetops outside
The bay of a two-bedroom home, on a morning in February.
Three corner bays stacked up the building at dusk, lit from inside, each under a deep cobalt band
The corner bays at dusk, lit like lanterns.
A corner bay in bright sun, its cobalt band casting a shadow on the glass, beside the deep white fins of the side façade
At midday the band shades the glass, and the fins shade the side façade.

A-302 · Sun and shade

Shaped by an overhead sun.

Riverside is a degree and a quarter south of the equator, so the sun climbs almost straight up and comes down almost straight. It tracks a little north of overhead in June and a little south in December.

That makes the long north and south faces easy to shade: the slab edge and the balconies keep the high sun off the glass. The hard light comes low from the east in the morning and the west in the afternoon, so those faces carry deep concrete fins.

Every home’s page shows how many hours of direct sun it gets in each month, worked out from this same sun path and the shade around each window.

  • 21 June
  • 20 March and 22 September
  • 21 December
The sun's path over RiversideA sky chart with north at the top. The sun passes close to overhead all year: north of the zenith in June, south of it in December, and almost straight through it at the equinoxes.30°60°NESW08:0010:0012:0014:0016:00
A-302 The sun’s path over Riverside, as seen from the roof. North is at the top; the centre is straight overhead.

A-303 · The homes

Five kinds of home.

  1. A One bedroom 72 m² 28 homes
  2. B Two bedrooms 112 m² 28 homes
  3. C Three bedrooms 158 m² 14 homes
  4. D Three bedrooms, study and DSQ 176 m² 14 homes
  5. P Penthouse 310 m² 2 homes

A-304 · Shared spaces

What every resident shares.

  • A long pool on the roof with a timber deck, loungers under a slatted pergola and treetops beyond

    Roof

    Rooftop pool and terrace

    A twenty-metre pool with a pale stone edge, a timber deck and a slatted pergola for shade, with the treetops of Riverside on every side.

  • A woman on a rowing machine in a gym with bikes and weights, behind a glass wall onto the garden

    Level 1

    Residents’ gym

    Cardio, free weights and a stretching studio behind a glass wall onto the garden. Open from 5 in the morning to 11 at night.

  • Residents working at a long oak table under pendant lights, with lounge chairs and a cobalt armchair by the window

    Level 1

    Lounge and workroom

    Quiet desks, a long table and a meeting room residents can book, with fibre and a kitchen for coffee.

  • A tall lobby with board-marked concrete walls, a terrazzo floor and a concierge at an oak desk

    Ground

    Lobby and concierge

    A lobby four and a half metres high, a concierge desk staffed day and night, and a cool room for parcels and deliveries.

  • A runner on a path beside a misty river, under tall trees

    Ground

    Garden and river walk

    A planted garden that runs down to a path along the river, kept wild at the water’s edge.

A-305 · Specification

What every home comes with.

Every home is finished the same way, from a one-bedroom on level 2 to the penthouses: a short list of honest materials, chosen to age well in Nairobi’s sun.

Samples of the finishes on a plaster table: board-marked concrete, oak, terrazzo, linen, a graphite window profile, brushed brass and a cobalt glazed tile
The finishes: concrete, oak, terrazzo, linen, graphite, brass and one cobalt tile.

S1 Structure and envelope

S1.1 Frame
Reinforced concrete frame and flat slabs, designed for Nairobi’s seismic zone.
S1.2 Façade
Smooth off-white render, with deep concrete fins shading the east and west faces.
S1.3 Bays
Glazed bays in graphite thermally broken aluminium, under a cobalt powder-coated band.
S1.4 Glazing
Double glazing with a low-emissivity coating throughout; tilt-and-turn windows that open.
S1.5 Balconies
Frameless glass balustrades with a slim graphite rail, and terrazzo paving.

S2 Inside every home

S2.1 Floors
Engineered oak in living rooms and bedrooms; terrazzo in kitchens, bathrooms and halls.
S2.2 Ceilings
2.8 metres clear in living rooms, lowered over each bay to frame the window seat.
S2.3 Doors
Full-height doors in oak veneer, with brushed brass handles.
S2.4 Feature walls
The concrete of the core left exposed where it meets the living room, board-marked and sealed.
S2.5 Wardrobes
Built in, in oak veneer, in every bedroom.
S2.6 Window seat
Solid oak, with storage below and a cushion in the bay.

S3 Kitchens and bathrooms

S3.1 Cabinets
Handleless, in oak veneer or matt graphite, chosen during fit-out.
S3.2 Worktops
20 mm quartz with a matching upstand.
S3.3 Appliances
Induction hob, oven, extractor, integrated fridge-freezer and dishwasher; a washer-dryer in the laundry.
S3.4 Bathrooms
Terrazzo floors and walls, a wall-hung WC, a walk-in shower behind a glass screen, and a bath in the main bathroom of three-bedroom homes and penthouses.
S3.5 Fittings
Brushed brass mixers and showers, a heated towel rail and a round lit mirror.

S4 Services

S4.1 Water
Borehole and mains, with a day’s storage for the whole building. Rainwater is kept for the garden.
S4.2 Hot water
Solar water heating on the roof, with an electric top-up.
S4.3 Power
A backup generator for every home, the lifts, the pumps and the common areas.
S4.4 Lifts
Two passenger lifts and a goods lift, reaching both basement levels and the roof.
S4.5 Connectivity
Fibre to every home from two providers.
S4.6 Security
Gatehouse staffed day and night, access control at the lobby and lifts, cameras in the common areas, and a video entryphone in each home.
S4.7 Parking
Two basement levels: one space for each one- and two-bedroom home, two for three-bedroom homes and penthouses, and charging points for electric cars.

The specification may change in detail as the design is developed; anything that changes will be of the same standard or better.