Kenchic Inn, Nairobi

Kenchic Inns are a chain franchaise fast-food restaurants in Kenya. I snapped this store in Nairobi, obviously attracted by a flash of deco, from the back of a mini-van.

Of course, what I didn't notice at the time was the wonderful way the two vents from the extractor fans have been diguised on the facade. All they had to do was stand back and have a thnk about where they could be placed and then paint the metal vent the same colour as the building up to the roofline. An excellent solution that preserves the look of the original decoration.

Beneve Coffee House, Nairobi

This is another deco building in Nairobi, snapped from a minibus. The paintwork is very similiar to Sirona House and the Beneve Coffee House may even be part of the same block.

Simla House, Nairobi

Simla House is a very sinple square building in Nairobi, Kenya.

Even so it bears simple, elegant decoration. The name Simla House sits proudly in stylised letters, centred just below the roofline.

Either side of the name there are three short horizontal bands and then on the roofline itself four short vertical stripes, two each side of a longer stripe reaching down to the concrete shade over the upper storey of windows.

Skyline Business Institute, Nairobi

I snapped this photo of the Skyline Business Institute from my hotel window in Nairobi.

It is quite an interesting building. It is four storeys tall with horizontal bands of windows running the length of the building on each level. The windows appear to be metal-framed shaded by a concrete eyebrow.

At the right-hand end of the building there are a series of concrete ribs running vertically up the facade, almost certainly identifying an entrance.

The roofline consists of a simple parapet that curves with the building around the street corner. There is, however, an unusual break in the parapet towards the left-hand end of the building and what looks like a portion of a conventional pitched roof.

It would be great to know more, if anyone out there has any further details.

Sirona House, Nairobi

I didn't get the chance to see a lot of Art Deco in the short time I was in Nairobi but I did manage to snap this from the mini-bus as it whisked me through the mental traffic.

I can see it is called Sirona House and I know nothing else about it. I don't even know what street it is in but I felt like going a bit exotic for this blog and this is what I found. I love the seriousness of the stonework with the named etched above the door against the shocking blue colour and the simple white 'eyebrows' above the windows.

I am intrigued by the black wires snaking up from the stone urns on each side of the window. I assume they are cabling for lights, perhaps even neon but they look almost perfectly symetrical. If is as if that was taken into account to help preserve the beauty of the buildings facade.