18 Facts About Erica Mann

Erica Mann was an architect and town planner who lived and worked in Kenya for almost all her adult life, after fleeing her home in Romania during the Second World War.

Erica Mann made a significant contribution to the 1948 master plan for Nairobi and took a leading role in planning Mombasa and other parts of Kenya.

Erica Mann became interested in development projects seeking to improve living standards and was director of the "Women in Kibwezi" project, which was recognised at the United Nations Habitat II conference in 1996.

Erica Mann was born Erika Schoenbaum in Vienna in 1917 and grew up in Romania where she went to school in Bucharest before studying architecture at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris.

Erica Mann married her husband Igor Mann a few weeks after meeting him and falling in love.

Erica Mann was a Polish veterinarian who had had to leave his homeland when it was invaded by Nazi Germany.

Erica Mann applied to join it and worked on the 1948 master plan for the city.

Erica Mann was recognised as a talented and committed urban planner and became the senior planning and development officer for many major projects, in charge of researching and evidence gathering for strategic planning decisions.

Erica Mann was attracted by the ideas of the "Ekistics" movement which encouraged a holistic approach to planning harmonious human settlements.

Erica Mann was interested in traditional African house designs, repudiating any idea that they were "primitive", and wrote and lectured on the subject.

Erica Mann saw urban planning as "an ideal profession for a woman because it builds on her innate capacity for providing an orderly and aesthetic environment for herself, her family and the community in which she lives".

Erica Mann kept in touch with the ideas of architects and thinkers across the world and promoted the work of "ecological" and innovative architects in the magazines she founded: Build Kenya and Plan East Africa.

Erica Mann supported independence and was happy to work under President Kenyatta who believed in continuity and gradual administrative change.

Erica Mann went to many international conferences and lectures as a representative of postcolonial Kenya, and between 1964 and 1968 she was intermittently seconded to take charge of overseas trade exhibitions.

Erica Mann's interests broadened out to include sustainable development and human rights issues and she described herself as a socialist.

Erica Mann became known for her deep respect for the wisdom and knowledge of the indigenous peoples of Kenya, working for example to preserve the knowledge of healing botanicals held by many traditional healers.

Erica Mann accumulated one of the largest private collections of African art anywhere in East Africa.

Erica Mann was given the title of Architect Laureate in 2003.