Nabhan House Living Heritage Lab

Nabhan House Living Heritage Lab is a Bantu Technologies initiative to restore a deteriorating traditional Swahili-Arab house on Mchangani Street, Stone Town, Zanzibar, as a living model of climate-smart heritage architecture, traditional knowledge preservation, youth skills development, and sustainable settlements. The project will use traditional and low-carbon methods such as lime plaster, masonry repair, timber restoration, passive ventilation, shade improvement, rainwater harvesting, safe electrical reorganization, and low-energy lighting. Through family permission, community support, technical assessment, photo documentation, youth artisan training, school visits, homeowner clinics, and public open days, the house will become more than a restored building. It will become a public-benefit learning space showing that Zanzibar’s traditional houses are living climate technologies that can reduce heat, preserve heritage, create green jobs, and guide the future of sustainable coastal communities.