Earth Architecture in Rural Egypt: challenges of the context and the material

Abstract

The rural villages in Egypt has a long history and tradition for earth architecture. However, these villages have undergo many changes which resulted in the gradual disappearing of the earth architecture. Instead, the contemporary building materials are taking over the building industry. This have led to many environmental, economic and social problems. Earth, on the other hand, is a natural material, which has a very low impact on the environment, when compared to concrete and red brick. After many years of innovations and technologies in the field of earth construction, the material was developed technically and structurally to withstand the current building challenges. The study aims to identify the challenges for creating middle density rural villages in Egypt using earth as a building material. The expected result is the identification of the challenges that face Earth to be reused in the rural Egyptian context.

Keywords

• Rural Housing
• Population growth
• Vertical extension
• Earth construction techniques
• Egypt

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