The scheme begins by identifying the residents’ requirements in a series of site visits, and using this brief to create a simple division on the new site between the public and private uses using a new green pedestrian friendly main road. From this simple starting point began the process of design that was built on studying the vernacular in its traditional form and in its informal form. Thus, by not discrediting the value of the architecture found in informal settlements and trying to marry this ‘style’, its construction techniques, and materials to the Egyptian vernacular architecture we were able to create a new design language that provides for sustainability, ease of construction, and aesthetic fulfillment for residents and passersby alike. On the macro scale the design tries to maximize the functionality of the site through the use of the roofs, street corners and other ‘wasted space’ to create opportunities for both private and public gathering in a ‘garden’ setting. As for the main aspect of the project, the residential units, these are treated as stacked ‘houses’ complete with their own outdoor courtyard, as opposed to simple blocks of flats. This is done to fulfill the intricate needs and requirements of the residents both cultural and functional.
TA’ET NOUR
TA’ET NOUR is a mixed use urban project on the outskirts of Assiut City, the capital of the Assiut governorate, located in Upper Egypt. The project is designed as a humanitarian response to the needs of the residents of an informal settlement near the village of Al Izziya, where the recently built high voltage power lines are causing the residents serious health hazards. As a result this proposal was presented in order to move the residents to a nearby plot of land far away from the power lines.
0.0 CONTENTS 1.0 Existing Site
P10
2.0 Masterplan
P18
3.0 Design Language
P28
4.0 Residential Buildings
P44
5.0 Service Buildings
P64
6.0 Site Urban Design
P90
ArchiLab
Design + Consultancy
ArchiLab is a small boutique design-led practice established by Hany M. Ibrahim in 1989. Throughout the three decades of its existence the practice has experimented in the different fields of design, delivering over four hundred projects in a variety of categories varying in function and scale, all over the world.
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Hany Ibrahim
Rana Khalil
Founding Partner
Partner
Mohamed Salah
Sherine Gabr
Mohamed Hassan
Senior Architect
Senior Architect
Architect
Enas Mahmoud
Sherry Badea
Architect
Junior Architect
Studio S+RK Studio S+RK is a London based collaborative of young design professionals working on expressing their design ideas through the participation in design competitions all around the world.
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Ramez Khalil
Simona Kuneva
Bram Winterford
Partner
Partner
CGI Artist
1.0 Existing Site This chapter lays down the foundations for the project by showcasing the needs of the local community and how the brief was formed based on several site visits. This introduction provides insight into the living conditions of the local community this project caters to, thus revealing the programmatic and conceptual basis for the scheme to be presented in the chapters ahead.
1.1 Existing Conditions The current location of the village is surrounded by high voltage power lines, as seen in the images above. This is unfortunately causing some of the residents serious health issues, and as a result, the proposal is to move the village to a nearby area that is sufficintly far away from the power lines.
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Sports
Animal Rearing
Housing
Agriculture
1.2 Existing Functions
1.3 Living Arrangement Due to the nature of the houses being informally built on government lands, they do not have access to electric and water supplies. Also, the families’ requirement for animal rearing, forces the use of the internal courtyard as an animal pen, this results in the poor hygienic conditions, as seeon above.
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1.4 Existing Residential Spatial Configuration
1.5.1 User Requirements
1.5 Project Brief
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Green
Sustainable
Pedestrian Friendly
Constructable
Standardised
Cost Effective
1.5.2 Design Requirements
2.0 Masterplan In this chapter the aim is to demonstrate the key design principles of the master plan. The design concept is displayed in a series of diagrams leading to the final urban massing and its functional distribution. Finally, the design features are portrayed in several illustrations explaining the scheme’s site response and its environmental strategy.
2.1 Masterplan Concept
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One of the defining concepts of the masterplan was spatial effeciency. The idea was that since the current homes were unlawfully built on agricultural land, reducing the urban sprawl caused by the large number of single family houses by combining them into multi-story housing blocks would decrease the impact of the development on the surrounding, therefore freeing up more land to be used for its original purpose agriculture.
Service Buildings
Crafts Building + Shops
Social Residential Buildings
Workshop
Health Club
Nursurey
Private Residential Buildings
Residential Buildings
2.2 Functional Zoning Based on the brief discussed in the previous chapter an initial site zoning was reached by splitting the site into private and service functions, in order to later on develop and subdivide into parcels, each of which was assigned one of the required functions.
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2.3 Masterplan Massing After the functional zoning was finalised, the urban massing was sculpted on the basis of the required area for each function and the most suitable footprint. This helped us in reaching the general shape and number of storeys required for each building.
2.4 Environmental Analysis One of the main aims of the design is to respond to the local climate, as a result, the higher buildings are placed on the south of the site to cast shadow unto the street, which in addition to an increased volume of green spaces and open spaces allowing for ventillation from the cool northern winds, provides for cooler more pedestrian friendly circulation.
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Thicker southfacing facades with extrusions dropping for dropping shade on the elevation, provide protection from the sun. Also, the green roofs help with the buildings’ environmental performance while providing the opportunity for the useres to enjoy more social leisure spaces.
2.6 Urban Massing
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3.0 Design Language Here the actual architectural expression used in the design process will be established and analyised to provide a basis for how the scheme’s overall aesthetic composition and unique character is achieved. This process begins with finding the most suitable precedents both locally and internationally in order to gain the necessary inspiration for this exercise.
3.3 Informal Architecture Rather than discrediting the architectural language of Egypt’s many informal settlements, we decided to use this project as an opportunity to learn from, and try to enhance, this seemingly ‘poor’ or ‘undesignd’ architectural expression as the main igredient of our now project aesthetic.
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3.4 Material Palette Based on the simple nature of informal settlements, the scheme’s main two materials are brick and concrete.
3.5 Informal Architectura Analysis The most common features of informal housing blocks are the brick and concrete materiality, the building’s simple exposed re-inforced concrete frame structure, and the uncapped columns popping out on the roofs.
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Other infromal building characteristics include overhangs into the street, roof usage through the building of pigeoneers for example, and the flexible pragmatic nature of these buildings that keep changing based on updated requirements or new circumstances.
3.1 Traditional Precedents The process of looking for an architectural language for the scheme began by looking at precedents that reference traditional Egyptian architecture both modern and ancient. The main sources of these were the medieval Islamic courtyard houses, in addition to the works of Hassan Fathy, mainly New Gourna.
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3.2 Contemporary Precedents Running in parallel, was our search for international precedents that provided the base for a contemporary interpretation of this traditional architecture in a way that fits with the brief and context of the project, examples of these precedents could be found above.
3.6.1 Screens From elaborate patterned mashrabiyas to simple facade opennings and perforations, screens have always played a part in local architecture. However, due to the nature of the project, a simpler more easily integrated option was to use a perforated brick wall.
3.6 Architectural Vocabulary Based on the precedent research that was conducted and the functionas and aims of the design the four design elements, specified above, were identified as the basic building blocks of our design language.
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3.6.2 Cornice/Capital + Colonnade In order to accommodate for more shelter in the roof garden a one storey high cornice/ capital is used, based on the proportions of a rectangular collonade.
3.6.3 Entrance Portals In order to emphasise a building’s main entrancesthese portal extrusions are used, sometimes in conjunction with a recess, to provide for a shaded pre-entrance waiting area.
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3.6.4 Vertical Deep Windows The use of narrow windows with deep reveals allow for indirect natural light and ventilation of the interior without exposure to direct sunlight.
3.7.1 Green Perimeter Walls Since perimeter walls and fences will have to be used in certain areas of the scheme for privacy and security reasons, they must have visual breaks, contain flower beds and greeanery, and be of sufficient height to aide with the shading and livability of the streetsape.
3.7 Design Parameters In order to create a more consistent design, a series of parameters, or rules, were created to help guide the design and aesthetic detailing process.
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3.7.2 Expressed Structure The concrete columns, beams, and slabs should be clearly expressed to provide vertical and horizontal breaks in the otherwise continuous brick facade.
3.7.3 Heirarchical Division Each building is to be split into three distinct portions, the base, the body, and the top/ capital, each with their own slightly varied architectural expression.
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3.7.4 Greenery & Shading Greenery and green spaces, as well as, extrusions and recesses are to be maximised in order to provide for shading and sun protection.
4.0 Residential Buildings The most important portion of the project is undoubtedly the residential buildings which will be examined in this chapter. The architectural conception of the housing blocks will be domstrated by presenting the design in a series of diagrams, drawings, and visualisations.
4.1 Design Concept Using the same basic starting point as the masterplan concept, the design of the residential buildings is based on the idea of the vertical stacking of several houses on top of each other to achieve a housing block, rather than a traditional apartment building where the floors of the building are divided into apartments.
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4.2 Sustainability Strategy The sustainable strategy of the residential buildings is completely based on the masterplan strategy and the design rules, where the south elevation has the least and smallest opennings, as well as, the protruding courtyards dropping shadow on the facade. Green roofs and maximised planting areas, as well as, larger north facing windows to allow for air ventilation using the cool northern breeze. Also, if possible, solar panels are to be used to provide clean renewable energy to the buildings.
4.3 The Courtyard A main desing feature of the residential buildings are the protruding perforated brick courtyards that provide an area for the rearing of the residents’ small animals, mainly birds, as a substitute to the existing animal rearing area they have in their homes.
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4.4 Perforated Brick Construction Diagram The diagram above showcases the construction of the perforated brick walls used in the courtyard spaces, as well as , the GF balconies. Vertical steel rods protruding from the slab are used as the main stracture, and the engineered bricks are simply slotted through them with metal brackets used in between each layer of brick to add more structural rigidity.
4.5 Ground Floor Plan
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4.6 Typical Floor Plan
Existing 4.7 Living Quarters Comparison
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Proposed
Bird Towers Roof Garden
Roof Allotments
4.8 Roof Usage The roof is envisioned to be a multi-purpose green public space that all the residents get to share for various functions. The diagram above showcases some oexamples of how the space could be utilised.
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4.8 Facade Design Evolution
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4.10 Elevation
4.11 Detailed Section In the drawing above, the potential construction detail of a typical section through the building is examined to provide for an idea of how the design is to be delivered.
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4.12 Overall Section
4.13 Perspective Views
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5.0 Servic Buildings This chapter will showcase the designs of all the service buildings providing communal leisure and child care services, as well as, workplace and job opportunities for the residents.
5.1 The Sports and Social Club This building provides for all the leisure activities required by the brief in a single self-contained location.
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5.1.1 Functional Distribution The diagram above explains the functions housed in the building which include a gym, a pool, football pitches, an indoor games room, a cafe/restaurant, and a rentable events space.
5.1.2 Ground Floor Plan
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5.1.3 First Floor Plan
5.1.4 Elevation
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5.1.5 Perspective Views
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5.1.5 Perspective Views
5.1.5 Perspective Views
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5.2 The Nursery Due to the lack of a daycare/preschool in the area, we propose tha addition of one on site in order to enable the parents a better opportunity to pursue a career in the factory, the crafts centre, or the retail shops.
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5.2.1 Floor Plans
5.2.2 Elevation
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5.2.3 Perspective
5.2.2 Elevation
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5.2.3 Perspective
5.3 The Workshop The workshop provides for the provision for light industrial functions to take place allowing for more job opportunities for the residents.
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5.3.1 Floor Plans
5.3.2 Elevation
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5.3.3 Perspectives
5.4 Ground Floor Plan These shops allow for a location where the products from the existing crafts centre, as well as, the workshop to be sold to the public.
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5.4.1 Perspective
6.0 Site Urban Design This final chapter consists of a curated set of drawings and visualisations that showcase the complete design at an urban scale, portraying the entire site and how the buildings constituting the scheme come together as a whole.S
6.1 Streetscape Axo
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In an effort to make the site more liveable and pedestrian friendly, the design proposes the use of wider pavements that allow for more street level greenery and provide the opportunity for temporary functions, such as Friday markets to take place. The use of simple fabric canopies draped across the site’s buildings, along with the aforementioned extensive greenery, provides for shading and shelter for the pedestrians, and cyclists below.
6.2 Ground Floor Site Axo
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6.3 Typical Floor Site Axo
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6.4 Roof Site Axo
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6.5 Site Section A-A
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6.6 Site Section B-B
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6.7 South Site Elevation
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6.8 South Site Elevation
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Perspective view looking unto the site from the site’s main entrance, overseeing the main road.
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Perspective from the end of the site looking towards the sit’s main entrance, overseeing the main road.
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View from the club pool looking towards the site.
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Dusk view between two residential units looking towards the nursery.
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