In 2017, we launched a studio in Nairobi, the innovation capital of Africa. In 2018, kyu and IDEO.org fundraised to support the growth of Nairobi’s design scene and create opportunities for emerging designers. As part of the campaign, there was a raffle to win a one-week inspiration tour of Nairobi.

Alex Gallafent, a Design Director in IDEO NY, was the lucky raffle winner. And lucky for us, Alex was a BBC journalist in his past life. So naturally, we asked him to report back to us about his trip.

What was your first impression of the Nairobi studio?

Airflow, literally and metaphorically. More than any other studio I’ve spent time in at IDEO, IDEO.org’s Nairobi home is as much an outdoor environment as an indoor one: you’re in the open air much of the time, and that’s a fantastically energizing thing. Project spaces open onto a courtyard; buildings are perched atop grass; and upper levels draw you onto gorgeous balconies overlooking the wider community. And that’s the metaphorical airflow, the community. Village Creative is home not only to IDEO.org but to other leading lights of Nairobi’s independent creative and design community, and the flow among the residents is palpable. It strikes you as a place where friendships, work, and play mix and mingle naturally. (And for musicians, the fantastic recording studio at Supersonic Africa was unbelievable too, boasting as it does a rare and beautiful Neve mixing desk…)

Did you get a chance to get involved or learn about any of the IDEO.org projects from that studio?

I did. Two projects in particular, one around building financial empowerment and resilience for women in rural communities and the other focused on building new social norms around early childhood development and parenting. Both teams were enormously welcoming to me: it can be hard to stop what you’re doing and share with a visitor, but they couldn’t have been more generous. I was able to spend time in the field, observing design research activities, and also in the project spaces as they synthesized research into insights and prepared prototypes to test with people.

Outside of the studio, what places did you visit? Any highlights? We heard there might have been an encounter with a giraffe.

You’re right. But the less said about that the better.

It’s been three months since your visit, what’s something that will stick with you? Any recommendations for the next winner?

The thing that I hope will stick are the friendships and connections I made. It was a powerful opportunity to get exposed not only to IDEO.org’s work but also more closely to the people who are doing it. For example, I’m now chatting regularly with one of the project leads in Nairobi: there’s lots we can learn from each other, even if—especially because—our experiences and backgrounds are so different. What it means to be a designer in the world, and an ethical designer specifically, is changing—as it must. The more we’re able to learn from each other, and the more open we are to interrogating our assumptions and histories, the better we’ll be. Nairobi is only going to become a more central cultural hub in the world, and that includes design. The trip was a gift in so many ways; the next winner, like me, will be extraordinarily lucky.

Illustrations by Edwin Mwai