DESCRIPTION
THE GRID
The 6th of October
city is a satellite city that is built in 1979 in order to cover the housing
demand of Cairo. It is located 17 km from the Great Pyramids of Giza and 32 km
from the city of Cairo and it consists of a desert city. The cultural context
and the site on the one hand impose challenges and difficulties, and on the
other hand they offer large opportunities for intervention development.
Egypt has been since ancient
times a country with a leading role in the development of sciences and
production of intellect. There is therefore plenty of inspiration that could
lead in the formation of an architectural project for the Science City. The
urban realm is characterized by introvert residential complexes, private
recreational and educational institutions and other local industries. The
multifunctional character of the site creates a real challenge as it is not
part of a specific historical context but it is a generic urban structure in
process, aiming to cover needs of the continuously increasing size of the city.
The site is exploited by private investments and lack of architectural harmony.
The privatization of the land and the lack of public facilities decrease the
urbanity of the wider context, namely the livingness of a city and continuous
flow of people. The design of the master plan should aim to provide a new pubic
democratic space that is flexible for future transformations, by being extrovert
and promoting the potentials of a continuous and vivid landscape.
On this context, the Science City acts as a node
and an incubator, by containing as its main ingredients the solid architecture expression
and the diverse landscape.
The building follows the organization
of a city based on a clear orthogonal grid that is prominent in the scheme but
not absolute, in order to create space for diversity in scale and function. The
city is the result of the composition of different metropolitan and
architectural elements such as the urban grid, the block, the street and the
landmark. Follows such principles of composition, the Science City introduces
the street as the connection between inside and outside. The accumulation of
different volumes that contain different program and the interconnection of
them with a path system that is expanded into the science park are the main
elements that consists both the master-plan and the building circulations of the
science city. The main path system is flexible and (re) defined by the three
phases that the building will follow. Moreover the idea of the city is enhanced
with the development of multifunctional floor plans that lead to a diversity of
solutions and to the generation of unexpected situations for the visitors. Blending
density, educational and recreational functions, exhibitions and landscape patterns,
the ground floor is an open laboratory of life, science, art and curiosity.
