RESIDENTIAL VILLA IN DIANI
This private luxury villa in Diani is just 200m from the Indian Ocean. The project involved a two-story main house, a DSQ, a gazebo, and a swimming pool. The project adopted coastal architecture, with Swahili-themed wall features, Lamu doors, coastal roof moldings, and white and brown painted walls to march the milky coral stone and sandy beaches.
01
Initial Construction Stage
The substructure in Diani is a hard coral stone. This necessitated the use of specialized local workers for excavation since the estate management prohibited using plant breakers. The hard rock substructure, however, has a great bearing capacity so, excavations were shallow, just 600mm deep, as in the picture. But, due to the manual excavations, the construction duration was quite elongated. Also, it was much more costly than the normal soil excavations.
02
Construction stage
This project employed the use of valuable and costly materials, namely
1) Swahili engraved mvule doors.
2) White polished terrazzo to the swimming pool.
3) Glass and mvule railing to the terraces.
4) Mvule wardrobes and cabinets.
5) Quartz worktops and vanity tops.
6) Ferrari tensile shade to the balconies.
7) Polished & matt Granito tiles.
8) Lamu door at the entrance.
9) Glass cabinets and mvule timber table top to the bar.
etc
.jpeg)
03
Financial history
The contract sum = 59,680,000
The final account = 62,000,000
The variations =
1) White polished terrazzo replaced mosaic tiles in the swimming pool.
2) Glass and mvule railing to replace masonry parapet walling.
3) Engraving to plaster and doors.
4) Mvule timber to cabinets and wardrobes for particleboards.
5) Introduction of a baby pool.
04
Project timelines
The commencement date was on 10th Dec 2022.
The contract completion date was on 20th October 2023.
The practical completion & handover date was on 30th June 2024.
​The reasons for the extension of time.
1) Manual hard rock excavation for all the substructures.
2) Delays arising from client's material & sample selection.
3) Tremendous redesigns, changes, and additions of features and elements.
