Our conversation with architect Mark Mwoka starts with the black building in Westlands that hosts the Park Inn by Radisson.
Mr Mwoka witnessed the progression of the building from sketches to a solid structure. He was an intern at Innovative Planning and Design Consultants Limited and was involved in its conceptualisation.
The brains behind the project were George Arabbu Ndege, the current president of the Architectural Association of Kenya, and another architect Mr Mwoka prefers to call JT.
‘I worked with both of them on that job, and the project taught me a lot about hospitality architecture,’ says Mr Mwoka.
‘I remember designing the taper on the roof with George Arabbu,’ he adds, noting that he also shared his ideas in the design of the façade (the front-facing glassy part).
The project was completed in 2016. Mr Mwoka recalls that even the colour of the structure, black, was a big point to ponder because buildings of such colour were not popular.
‘Getting that black façade was a very ambitious decision,’ he says. ‘But I think the architects executed it very well.’
The Park Inn building, a brief in our possession shows, was built to muffle outside noises through utilisation of synergy acoustic polyvinyl butyral (PVB) glass. The dark exterior parts of the building, it adds, comprise dark aluminium composite panels.
It is one of the buildings Mr Mwoka mentions when asked about his favourite projects.
Our interview with Mr Mwoka touches on many other issues, including his decision to switch from being employed (senior architect) at Boogertman and Partners Architects – a South African company that he describes as the biggest of its kind in Africa – to starting his own architectural firm at the age of 33.
We also discuss other buildings he has been involved in, his passion for green buildings, and what AI portends for the future of architecture.
Mr Mwoka introduces himself as the founder and principal architect of Lava Architecture, a Nairobi-based practice he describes as specialising in ‘value-driven and timeless architecture’.
The conviction he has now is that someone should construct a structure that occupants will be happy using. That way, he notes, a commercial building will bring back revenues seamlessly.
Mr Mwoka, who studied architecture at the University of Nairobi, sought more studies in green buildings after graduation. He became a Green Star accredited professional through the Green Building Council of South Africa, then went on to study for a certificate in property development and investment at the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business.
Before working with Boogertman (2018-2025), he was at Aspera Design Limited (2017-2018) after interning at the firm that designed the Park Inn structure. His decade-long engagement in architecture has shown him how to design buildings in hospitality, retail, commercial and the industrial sectors. He has also learnt a thing or two about master planning.
At Boogertman, he worked under architect Johann de Wet, who helped sharpen his understanding of commercially driven architecture and functional design.
The experience also gave him exposure to large clients and big budgets. He remembers being sent to Nigeria to meet a bank regarding a project.
‘I was a very young person. I was 26. I think that is what builds courage,’ he says.
Without courage, he notes, an architect won’t amount to much.
‘A client will not entrust you with Sh3 billion or Sh4 billion of their investment if you don’t have confidence [and] if they’re not confident in you,’ Mwoka says.
Furthermore, the results of an architect’s work are usually out there for everyone to see. ‘You can never hide it.’
By 2025, after what he calls the ‘seven-year corporate itch’, Mr Mwoka decided to leave employment and start Lava Architecture.
‘Throughout my life, I’d always wanted to build something myself,’ he says. ‘And I guess it resonates with being an architect because as an architect you also are building something, an idea, and then you see it becoming a concrete reality.’
A gap he saw in the field was that architects finish their engagement at the design stage.
‘A lot of architects are just designers. But for me, the passion I had and still have is value-driven architecture,’ he says. ‘When you’re done with the process of designing, do you wonder whether the building is still bringing in revenue as it should? That is a big gap that I noted in our market, because a lot of architects will design and then they will not follow through.’
By now, Mr Mwoka says, Lava has about seven projects in Kenya and is also working in Uganda and Zimbabwe.
‘Fortunately enough, I think I built a very good name when I was at Boogertman. When I left, basically I used that reputational value to get more clients. And we’ve grown,’ he says.
Among the first projects he designed on his own was a two-storey residence in Nairobi that occupies 738 square metres.
‘The main purpose of the project was to create an ultramodern, minimalistic residence, that would encompass functionality and comfort for the owners and be a representative of the modern luxury lifestyle,’ says a brief seen by BDLife.
It adds that the house was constructed using concrete, wood and gabion walling as the main materials.
Mwoka’s education and hands-on experience have given him numerous lessons, one of them being that architecture should never be about the expert imposing their ideas. Rather, he notes, any construction should be a collaboration shaped by clients, engineers, quantity surveyors, consultants, regulations, future tenants and the site itself.
Increasingly, Mr Mwoka says, that collaboration begins before land is even bought. A client may arrive with a brief and a parcel in mind, and an architect’s first task may be to test whether the site can carry the ambition.
‘More and more, we’re finding most of our clients even come to us before purchasing [land],’ he says. ‘If they have a brief in mind, then we can advise from the onset.’
The guiding question to him is always: ‘What does success for this client look like?’
If success is a building that makes a statement, he notes, the architect must interpret that desire. If it is a property that earns income smoothly, the design must respond to occupancy, maintenance, operating costs and tenant satisfaction. If it is both, Mr Mwoka says, the work becomes the art of balancing ambition and discipline.
‘The form of a building should never be arbitrary,’ Mr Mwoka says. ‘It should be a natural outcome of its purpose, its place and its final occupants.’
He is wary of form for form’s sake. He explains that a client may arrive with a ‘crazy’ symbol in mind, like a calabash-shaped building, but the architect’s work is not to copy the object literally.
‘Beautiful forms are not created by adding complexity,’ he says. ‘They emerge from solving the problems with clarity and some intention.’
That is where his language shifts from artistry to investment protection.
‘An architect’s greatest responsibility is not drawing but protecting clients’ investment,’ says Mr Mwoka. ‘Sometimes we usually say that the architect’s job is to protect the client from themselves.’
Budget control, to him, begins with the earliest design decision: the orientation, the structural grid, the material choice, the construction method, among other considerations.
‘We tend to work very closely with quantity surveyors from the onset of the project,’ he says, describing the practice as ‘value engineering’.
Value engineering, he argues, should not become a polite term for cutting quality but about ‘finding smarter ways to achieve the same outcome through better planning, material selection, and construction methodologies’.
The same logic informs his view of green buildings. He acknowledges that environmentally conscious buildings can cost more at the beginning, but he wants developers to think long-term.
‘Buildings have a 25- to 50-year life cycle,’ he says, noting that green buildings bring returns faster because they lower the operating costs.
Asked to name the best green buildings he has seen in Nairobi, he mentions the Britam Tower in Kilimani and the Skanem Industrial Park in Tilisi as some of the highlights.
‘Britam Tower is a very good green building. In terms of design, it incorporated a lot of natural ventilation [and] passive ventilation,’ he says, adding that the Qwetu student residence projects also perform well on that score.
A green design, in his view, should make the building breathe, cool and light itself as much as possible.
‘If you design it well, you don’t have to use air conditioning because you’ve oriented your building to where the wind is coming from,’ he says. ‘In terms of light, you don’t have to use artificial lighting [during the day].’
Across the region, he sees developers becoming more attentive to performance. The fashionable building, he argues, is no longer the one that scores well on aesthetics only.
‘Success of a building now is measured by occupancy, operational efficiency and the return on investment; not just completion,’ he says. ‘Today’s developers are far more focused on life cycle value.’
That shift is taking place in an age when technology has changed how buildings are conceptualised. Mr Mwoka never used the old ammonia-based printing methods that older architects remember, but he has inherited a profession transformed by simulation and building information modelling (BIM).
‘We no longer just design buildings. We also simulate how they perform before they are even built,’ he says.
Digital tools now allow architects to test energy use, costs, sustainability and constructability early enough to change the outcome. BIM, he adds, allows consultants to work from a shared digital model, reducing errors and improving coordination.
Looking ahead, he says, buildings will become more connected, intelligent and data-driven, using sensors and automation to optimise energy use and improve comfort.
‘Technology hasn’t changed the purpose; it’s just changed what’s possible,’ notes Mr Mwoka. ‘At the heart of it, architecture is still about people.’
Artificial intelligence is the newest topic of discussion in architecture technology. Mr Mwoka does not dismiss it, but neither does he accept the argument that it will make architects irrelevant.
‘AI can’t and won’t replace architects,’ he says. ‘However, architects who embrace AI will have a significant advantage over those who don’t.’
His approach to AI is to use it to strengthen research, improve coordination and accelerate design exploration, not to remove the human from the core.
‘AI can generate options. Architects create vision,’ he says.
Perhaps that is why travel remains one of his most important sources of inspiration. Seeing new places helps open his mind and he tries to visit a new country every year. The latest was Sweden.
‘I like Sweden,’ he says. ‘Stockholm has very good architecture.’
Mr Mwoka’s portfolio includes some of the projects he did in his seven years at Boogertman, which include the Westlands Square that he also names among his favourites.
‘We worked with the client from start to finish, and the clients were open to many ideas. They basically made the work of the architect much easier,’ he says.
At Boogertman, he was also involved in the designing of the 12-storey Qwetu hostels in Nairobi’s Chiromo; the nine-storey Qwetu Aberdare Heights; the three-storey Davis and Shirtliff Engineering Centre in Tatu City; and the Basic shopping centre in Kileleshwa that covers 5,307 square metres; among many others.
‘I used to handle clients from the beginning of a project to the end of a project. So, that gave me exposure. I think being a senior architect in the biggest company in Africa gave me a lot of confidence,’ he says.
Now seeking to sprout in private practice, he has a number of mantras. One of them goes: ‘Architecture is not measured by how impressive it looks on the opening day, but the value it creates decades later.’