Category: Living Complex,Institutions
Region: Africa
Year: 2009
Location: EL CAIRO, EGYPT
FT2 Construction: 156,077 sq ft
FT2 Ground: 0 sq ft
Involved Areas: Architecture, Interior Design
Collaborators:
LEGORRETA®
Ricardo Legorreta
Víctor Legorreta
Miguel Almaraz
Adriana Ciklik
Carlos Vargas C.
Axel Espinosa
Miguel Ángel Aguilar
Patricia Siesler
Associate Architects:
Arquitecto Asociado: CHÁVEZ ARQUITECTOS Armando Chávez
Consultants:
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE: CAROL JOHNSON´S ASSOCIATES CRJA
Photographer:
Barry Iverson
The American University of Cairo, founded in 1919 in the heart of modern Cairo, is moving forward with plans to relocate their campus to New Cairo, a planned community currently under development located at east Cairo. The decision to relocate the university was the culmination of a process undertaken by the university in anticipation of its 100th anniversary. In 1997 the Administration and Board of Trustees unanimously adopted the recommendations of the Century Committee to relocate the university to a new site. While the university continues to make short-term strides in addressing overcrowding and the need for modernizations by upgrading building and infrastructure on the current campus, it is the long range vision, with the overriding educational needs identified by the Century Committee Report, that has clarified the need to establish a new campus and the relocations of the AUC. In 1997, the university purchased a 260-acre site in the center of New Cairo, approximately 23 miles east of the current campus, for the home of the new AUC. New Cairo is bounded to the west by the Cairo Ring Road, at the north by the Suez Road, and at the south by the Ain El Sokhna Road. Running east / west through the center of New Cairo is the City Center Road which will also accommodate an above-ground metro line linking the AUC with Cairo proper. The AUC site is in the heart of New Cairo where many opportunities to influence and shape the new city as well as enhance the Campus Center and Student Housing of the New Campus Development of the AUC exist. The Student Housing has been designed based on the concept of a village, where individual and community life takes place. Following this concept, we have divided the program in five areas: • Common Spaces, • Mens Wing, • Womens Wing, • Faculty Apartments, • Administration Facilities; building and Ground Service The complex is organized around a main plaza that works as a vestibule to the different areas. From this open space a colonnade leads to the Common Space: lounge, computing rooms, mens and womens control desk and the small group study rooms in a courtyard with a water feature. The Student Housing is proposed as separated units around a courtyard that helps to provide the building a sense of home. Each of these units has: The mens wing has four units around a private courtyard and there are six units for the womens wing which are accessed through a garden. In case of expansion of mens and womens wing, the layout has been arraigned in a way that one unit could turn either side by closing a door in the colonnade, giving the flexibility required. Faculty apartments are located at the plaza in order to give independence. This facility is composed by four units with two apartments each. Every unit has an individual courtyard and terrace. Through this solution is accomplished the required standardization. The administration and the building and ground services are also located in the entrance plaza and have connection with the tunnel service at the basement level. The exterior materials for housing will be primarily stucco and the entrance colonnade and faculty apartments covered with stone.
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