23 Sep 2013

British architect among Kenya terror victims

Tributes pour in for talented British architect Ross Langdon, killed along with his pregnant girlfriend in the Nairobi terror attack. His mother describes her loss as “immeasurable”.

Ross Langdon

Photograph from the Windgrove blog

London-based Mr Langdon, who also had Australian nationality, was gunned down alongside his heavily pregnant girlfriend Elif Yavuz, who had just completed her PhD at Harvard. They were expecting their first baby in a couple of weeks.

Malaria specialist Ms Yavuz worked in Kenya for the Gates Foundation, and had recently met the former US president Bill Clinton when he visited a health project she was associated with in Tanzania.

Mr Langdon’s family have asked for privacy, but his mother posted her own tribute on his Facebook page. “The loss is immeasurable, absurd and excruciating”, she wrote.

Mr Langdon, who was 33, studied at the University of Tasmania and the University of Sydney, eventually founding his own firm in 2008, Regional Associates. A statement on the company’s website said colleagues were deeply saddened by the tragic loss.

Tragic loss

“Profoundly talented and full of life, Ross enriched the lives of all of those around him. Ross’s leadership on projects throughout East Africa was inspirational, and he will be very, very sorely missed by us all”, it said.

The sculptor Peter Adams said he had known Ross Langdon for 20 years. Writing on his blog, he described him as “a colleague and friend who went out into the world as an architect doing wondrous things.. there was just no dark side to Ross.”

Mr Adams said the architect had designed an Aids hospital in Kenya, providing his services free of charge, and had been about to embark on a £10m museum project. Along with his girlfriend Elif, he said “Both had dedicated their lives to working for a peaceful world. Both had so much to offer.”

Last year Mr Langdon gave a talk to the non-profit TEDxKrakow foundation, part of the global conference and ideas organisation TED: a statement on its blog said his work had “left us with hope for humanity, it is impossible to make sense of this shocking and senseless and shocking loss of life”.

Four Britons killed

The Foreign Office has confirmed that four British nationals were among more than 60 people who were killed when terrorists stormed the Westgate mall shopping centre in Nairobi on Saturday, although none has been officially identified.

The terror group al-Shabaab threatened to kill all the remaining hostages as Kenyan security forces launched a final assault. Once they are able to begin searching the shopping complex, it is feared the final number of causalties could rise much higher.