Design a new housing development and retrofit a traditional building as a Study Center for locally and foreign-trained archeologists and preservation specialists. The property is located on the West riverfront bank of the river Nile, in the City of Luxor. The backdrop of the property is the historically significant Valley of the Kings and Queens.
The housing development and Study Center incorporates the construction of both new and traditional construction and planning methodologies. Doubling as a residential complex and a workshop facility, the Center’s design will address current efforts of government-sanctioned support for local ecologically viable infrastructure initiatives.
The Egyptian Solar Boat has a new trajectory. Far from symbolically transporting the deceased pharaoh to the heavens, the push for alternative energy sources through the implementation of solar power, has taken on a very real, terrestrial course.
The recent application of solar technology, to drive the electrical needs of an ever expanding population in both rural and urban areas, has been a rousing success. Newly tested hybrid, solar-thermal systems have provided clean local and commercial scale generation of electricity and hot water, without dependence on fossil fuels. In addition, viable alternatives are being sought to counteract the negative effect of large-scale hydro interventions; dams and sluices, which have altered the millennia-old ecological balance of the Nile valley.
