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awards + accolades
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awards + accolades
Title
Date
Type
Bronze Winner
World Habitat Awards
Jan, 2024
awards + accolades
Outstanding Young Planner Award of Merit: Naria Kiani
APA Los Angeles
Jun, 2023
awards + accolades
Honorary ASLA Member - Chelina Odbert
ASLA
Jun, 2023
awards + accolades
Excellence in Advancing Diversity and Social Change in Honor of Paul Davidoff
APA California
Oct, 2022
awards + accolades
National Design Award for Landscape Architecture
Cooper Hewitt
Sep, 2022
awards + accolades
General Design Award - ASLA Southern California
Sep, 2021
awards + accolades
Equitable Communities Champion Award - ASLA Southern California
Sep, 2021
awards + accolades
Low-Rise Design Challenge
May, 2021
awards + accolades
SCAG Award for Efficient and Sustainable Land Use
Apr, 2021
awards + accolades
Emerging Voices 2021
Mar, 2021
awards + accolades
WRI Ross Center Prize for Cities
Dec, 2020
awards + accolades
Emerging Planning and Design Firm
May, 2020
awards + accolades
Excellence in Transportation Planning
APA California
Sep, 2019
awards + accolades
Public Space Fellow: Chelina Odbert
Knight Foundation
Jun, 2019
awards + accolades
Next City Vanguard: Naria Kiani
Next City
May, 2019
awards + accolades
Kevin Lynch Award
MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Oct, 2018
awards + accolades
Richard Trevithick Prize
ICE Publishing
Jun, 2018
awards + accolades
Neighborhood Revitalization Award
The Atlantic and Allstate Renewal Award
Mar, 2017
awards + accolades
Curry Stone Design Prize
Curry Stone Foundation
Jan, 2017
awards + accolades
Elijah Agevi Fellow: Jamilla Harper
UrbanARK
Jan, 2017
awards + accolades
Next City Vanguard: Chelina Odbert
Next City
May, 2016
awards + accolades
Amplify: Urban Resilience Challenge
IDEO.org
Jan, 2016
awards + accolades
The Rockefeller Storytelling Award
The Rockefeller Foundation
Jul, 2015
awards + accolades
National Creative Placemaking Fund
Artplace America
Jul, 2014
awards + accolades
Ideas Scholar: Chelina Odbert
Aspen Institute
Jun, 2014
awards + accolades
Dubai International Award for Best Practice
UN Habitat
Feb, 2014
awards + accolades
Architecture of Necessity Triennal
Virserum Art Museum
Jun, 2013
awards + accolades
Designer and Advocate Shaping the World: Chelina Odbert
Public Interest Design Global 100
May, 2013
awards + accolades
Disruption Index
Next City
Dec, 2012
awards + accolades
2012 Innovation Challenge
The Rockefeller Foundation
Jun, 2012
awards + accolades
Emerging Innovator: Chelina Odbert
American Express + Ashoka Changemakers
May, 2012
awards + accolades
ReSource Award for Sustainable Watershed Management
Swiss Re
Apr, 2012
awards + accolades
Sustainable Urban Housing: Collaborating for Livable and Inclusive Cities
Ashoka Changemakers
Apr, 2011
awards + accolades
New York Prize Fellowship
Van Alen Institute
Apr, 2008
awards + accolades
books + publications
Title
Date
Type
Annual Report 2023
KDI
Apr, 2024
books + publications
Annual Report 2022
KDI
Oct, 2023
books + publications
From Kibera to Kalobeyei: Public Space as a Catalyst for Transformation and Integrated Planning
The Journal of Public Space
Dec, 2022
books + publications
Technical Brief on Kibera Road Developments 2021
Apr, 2021
books + publications
Hybrid Infrastructures, Hybrid Governance
Anthropocene
Dec, 2019
books + publications
Participatory Flood Modelling for Negotiation and Planning in Urban Informal Settlements
ICE Engineering Sustainability
Apr, 2019
books + publications
The Nairobi Dam: From Community Resource to Open Sewer – and Back Again
Re.Think
Nov, 2018
books + publications
Using Future Scenario Planning as a Tool for Informed Decision Making on Infrastructure Interventions in Kibera, Nairobi in Kenya
Habitat International
Nov, 2018
books + publications
Division or Development? Missing Link #12: A New Road Through Kibera
KDI
Jul, 2018
books + publications
The Coachella Valley: Reimagining the Banks of the Salton Sea
Resilience for All
May, 2018
books + publications
Community Camera: Piga Picha
Design as Democracy: Techniques for Collective Creativity
Dec, 2017
books + publications
Green Infrastructure and Tin Roofs
WaterBlog@KTH
Oct, 2017
books + publications
Developing Risk or Resilience?
Environment and Urbanization
Mar, 2017
books + publications
The Kibera Public Space Project
Ecological Urbanism
Jun, 2016
books + publications
Community-responsive adaptation to flooding in Kibera, Kenya
ICE Proceedings
Jun, 2016
books + publications
The Kibera Public Space Project
Now Urbanism: The Future City is Here
Jan, 2015
books + publications
Place-Based Creative Problem Solving in Action
Enabling City: The Innovations
Nov, 2013
books + publications
Kibera Public Space Project 1 + 2
Moderators of Change
Mar, 2012
books + publications
Megacities: Complexities at Urban Edges
Forbes Magazine
Mar, 2011
books + publications
An Expanded View of Agriculture in Ouled Ahmed
Urban Agriculture Casablanca: Design as an Integrative Factor of Research
Mar, 2011
books + publications
Kounkuey Design Initiative
Harvard Design Magazine
Oct, 2010
books + publications
exhibitions
Title
Date
Type
The Future of Space
May, 2020
exhibitions
Conflicts of an Urban Age
LSE Cities + Alfred Herrhausen Society
Oct, 2018
exhibitions
Tujenge na Solar
Nairobi Design Week
Nov, 2016
exhibitions
Pop-Up Public Space
Habitat III Village
Oct, 2016
exhibitions
By the People: Designing a Better America
Smithsonian Cooper Hewitt Museum
Sep, 2016
exhibitions
Africtecture: Building Social Change
Architekturmuseums der TU München
Sep, 2013
exhibitions
Think Global, Build Social! Architectures For a Better World
Deutsches Architekturmuseum
Jun, 2013
exhibitions
Architecture of Necessity
Virserum Art Museum
May, 2013
exhibitions
Design with the Other 90%
Smithsonian Cooper Hewitt Museum
Oct, 2011
exhibitions
Exhibition Vision Verte - ViVe Casa II
Parc de la Ligue Arabe, Casablanca
Mar, 2011
exhibitions
Dirty Work: Transforming Landscape in the Non-Formal City of the Americas
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Jan, 2008
exhibitions
interviews
Title
Date
Type
Designers Select: Landscape Products
ARCHITECT
Mar, 2023
interviews
Next Progressives
Apr, 2021
interviews
Policy Advice to Respond to Covid-19 in the informal settlements
Apr, 2020
interviews
A Space for Everybody
Claremont McKenna Collega Magazine
Apr, 2020
interviews
Forging a Common Understanding: Q+A with Vera Bukachi
Resurgence
Mar, 2019
interviews
Economic and Social Development by Design: Q+A
The Atlantic
Apr, 2017
interviews
Using design to help solve a community’s greatest challenges
The Renewal Project
Mar, 2017
interviews
Making Public Space Productive
Curry Stone Design Prize: Social Design Insights
Feb, 2017
interviews
Building a Sustainable, Social Architectural Enterprise
AfriBiz
May, 2011
interviews
newsletters
Title
Date
Type
KDI at the World Urban Forum
KDI Newsletter
Feb, 2020
newsletters
Let's Get to Work!
KDI Newsletter
Jan, 2020
newsletters
Reflections
KDI Newsletter
Dec, 2019
newsletters
Giving Thanks
KDI Newsletter
Dec, 2019
newsletters
Stories of resilience
KDI Newsletter
Oct, 2019
newsletters
Get outside!
KDI Newsletter
Jul, 2019
newsletters
June newsblast
KDI Newsletter
Jun, 2019
newsletters
Climate Warriors
KDI Newsletter
May, 2019
newsletters
Celebrating women
KDI Newsletter
Mar, 2019
newsletters
press
Title
Date
Type
Making Shade Where There Isn't Any
KneeDeep Times
Oct, 2023
press
Women’s Movement: Removing Gender-based Transportation Barriers
LADOT
Apr, 2023
press
The Road to Equity
Jul, 2021
press
How Weather Forecasts Are Changing Lives in Kenya and Tanzania
Apr, 2021
press
Fines and Confiscation: Explaining L.A.’s Arbitrary Street Food Cart Law the County Uses to Criminalize Street Vendors
Mar, 2021
press
KDI is a global firm that respects local context
Feb, 2021
press
Gardens of Kibera: The Kibera Public Space Project
Feb, 2021
press
After COVID-19, What’s Next for Landscape Architecture
Metropolis Magazine
Jun, 2020
press
Philly is making it easier to turn your block into a place for play this summer
WHYY
May, 2020
press
Studying Public Space, No Strings Attached
Landscape Architecture Magazine
Aug, 2019
press
9 Women Using Architecture to Change the World
Aug, 2019
press
Chelina Odbert selected as 2019 Knight Foundation Public Space Fellow
Knight Foundation
Jun, 2019
press
Great Public Spaces: Five Street Transformations
Project for Public Spaces
Mar, 2019
press
How to Design Playgrounds for the World’s Most Vulnerable Kids
CityLab
Mar, 2019
press
New program helps residents turn empty lots into community gathering spaces
LA Curbed
Dec, 2018
press
Chelina Odbert and Jennifer Toy, Kounkuey Design Initiative
Architect Magazine
May, 2018
press
Los Angeles Tests the Power of "Play Streets"
The New York Times
Apr, 2018
press
In Unused Space, Endless Potential
The Atlantic
Jan, 2018
press
To Build a Great Public Space, You Need More Than Good Design
Citylab.com
Mar, 2017
press
The Kind of Thinking Cities Need
The New York Times
Oct, 2016
press
KDI Kenya Country Director, Tatu Gatere, Invited to Speak at Habitat III on the World Stage
Press release
Oct, 2016
press
Next City Selects World Stage Speaker From Hundreds of Applicants
Next City
Sep, 2016
press
A Story to Encourage Storytelling: “We have a life in Kibera”
Situated Ecologies
Feb, 2016
press
Thinking Big by Designing Small
Next City
Jan, 2016
press
What Kenya's Biggest Slum Can Teach Us About Saving Cities From Floods
Ensia
Jan, 2016
press
North Shore: Projecting the Future
KCET Artbound
Nov, 2015
press
The Spirit of North Shore
KCET Artbound
Jun, 2015
press
Out of Desert Dust, a Miracle on a Shoestring
The New York Times
Jun, 2014
press
KDI Launches WATSAN Portal: Kibera
Press release
Feb, 2014
press
KDI Awarded Grant from The Rockefeller Foundation
Press release
Feb, 2013
press
Can Designers Improve Life in Non-Formal Cities?
Harvard Design Magazine
Apr, 2008
press
selected talks
Title
Date
Type
Equity in Climate Change Adaptation
World Water Week
Aug, 2019
selected talks
Fit to Scale: Community Engagement for Site, City, and Region
Creative Placemaking Leadership Summit
Jun, 2019
selected talks
Creating Agency: The Power of Community Organizing
Design Futures
May, 2019
selected talks
Design for Health
Nio Far Dakar Conference
Apr, 2019
selected talks
Women in Kibera: Climate Warriors
Hague Talks
Mar, 2019
selected talks
Ask, Listen, Collaborate, Repeat
Cusp Conference
Oct, 2018
selected talks
Crime and Fear in Public Spaces
KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Oct, 2018
selected talks
Acknowledgement to Action: From Identifying Systems of Oppression to Designing Community-led Interventions and Systems Change
Design Futures
May, 2018
selected talks
A Tale of Two Ponds
Architalx
Apr, 2018
selected talks
Afrika Design
Nairobi Design Week
Mar, 2018
selected talks
Urban Risk or Resilience? Opportunities for Improving Informal Settlements in Urban Africa
Wilson Center
Mar, 2018
selected talks
One 'Slum', Three Upgrades
Rift Valley Forum
Mar, 2018
selected talks
City-Citizen Collaboration in Contested Spaces
World Urban Forum
Mar, 2018
selected talks
The Salton Sea and the Nairobi Dam: A Parable of Two Ponds
The Water Center at KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Nov, 2017
selected talks
Dangerous Landscapes? Re-Thinking Environmental Risk in Low-Income Communities
Herrenhausen Conference
Nov, 2017
selected talks
Advocacy Through Design; Ecology, Design and Community at California's Salton Sea
ASLA Annual Meeting and Expo
Oct, 2017
selected talks
A Tale of Two Cities: Creating Productive Public Spaces in Nairobi and Coachella
University of Michigan SEAS
Oct, 2017
selected talks
The Role of Informal Actors as Service Providers in Urban Africa
SIPRI Stockholm Security Conference
Sep, 2017
selected talks
Urban Tinkering: Innovation in Nature-Based Solutions to Simultaneously Address Climate Change and Uncertainty, Improve Urban Health and Generate Multiple Other Benefits
7th International Conference on Sustainability Science
Aug, 2017
selected talks
Heterogeneity in flood and linked risks across neighbourhoods in Kibera, Nairobi
RGS-IBG Annual International Conference
Aug, 2017
selected talks
Community-Responsive Adaptaton: A Transformative Process for Environmental Remediation along the Informal Settlements of the Ngong River, Nairobi
Resilience 2017 Conference
Aug, 2017
selected talks
Community-Responsive Adaptation to Flooding
AEES 17th Annual Meeting
May, 2017
selected talks
Community-Responsive Adaptation to Flooding in Kibera, Nairobi
LUND University Center for Sustainability
Mar, 2017
selected talks
Implementing the New Urban Agenda: From Local to Global Sustainable Urban Development
Nordic Urban Ways
Dec, 2016
selected talks
By the People: Designing a Better America
National Endowment for the Arts
Oct, 2016
selected talks
Community Engagement and Tactical Urbanism
Greenbuild International Conference and Expo
Oct, 2016
selected talks
Nuestro Lugar & Productive Public Spaces
Next Generation Rural Creative Placemaking Summit
Oct, 2016
selected talks
Regional Planning Through Local Community Outreach
APA California Conference
Oct, 2016
selected talks
Be Heard
Habitat III - Next City: World Stage
Oct, 2016
selected talks
Providing Safe, Inclusive and Accessible Public Spaces
Habitat III - Next City
Oct, 2016
selected talks
Focus Africa: Informality and Urban Pattern
Mobilizing the Periphery
Jul, 2016
selected talks
Kibera Public Space Project: A Participatory Approach to Upgrading in Nairobi's Largest Slum
Future of Places III
Jul, 2015
selected talks
Placemaking at the Edge of the Salton Sea
Allied Media Conference
Jun, 2015
selected talks
Powerful: Women Leading Design Symposium
AIA Los Angeles
Feb, 2015
selected talks
WATSAN Portal: Kibera – Improving Access to Water and Sanitation in Nairobi’s Largest Slum
Columbia Center for Sustainable Urban Development
Jun, 2014
selected talks
Kibera Public Space Project: a Participatory Approach to Upgrading in Nairobi’s Largest Slum
University of Cambridge Echohouse Research Conference
Jan, 2014
selected talks
Sustainable Urban Alternatives through Productive Public Space
Ford Program Discussions on Development
Apr, 2012
selected talks
Global Innovations in Development and Housing
APA National Planning Conference
Apr, 2012
selected talks
Sustainable and Inclusive Cities: the Right to the City
Design with the Other 90%: Cities
Nov, 2011
selected talks
Landscape, Infrastructure and Urbanism in the Global South
TUM Metropolis Nonformal Symposium
Oct, 2011
selected talks
Emergent Cities: Navigating the MIDDLE
Next Eco-City: Emergent Urbanism Symposium
Apr, 2011
selected talks
The Right to the City - Bridging the Urban Divide
World Urban Forum 5
Mar, 2010
selected talks
Work Sessions in Kibera, Kenya
Harvard GSD Center for Technology and Environment
Nov, 2006
selected talks
videos
Title
Date
Type
Women in Kibera: Climate Warriors
Hague Talks
Feb, 2019
videos
Ask, Listen, Collaborate, Repeat
Cusp Conference
Oct, 2018
videos
#CityShapers: Ibrahim Maina
Public Space Network
Sep, 2018
videos
Resilience Building: Interview with Vera Bukachi
Urbanet
Apr, 2018
videos
Tatu at the UN: The Future of Nairobi
Vimeo
Sep, 2016
videos
The Spirit of North Shore
KCET Online
Jun, 2015
videos
We Have a Life in Kibera
Vimeo
May, 2015
videos
Meet KDI
Vimeo
Dec, 2013
videos