The main goals of sustainability are to decrease energy usage and to decrease the maintenance work of the spaces. However, there are three kinds that are more specific: social, economical, and environmental. “Every project has its own circumstances with a specific climate that an architect has to be aware of. As an architect, I have to try to achieve all three: social, environmental, and economical sustainability.” Salah said.
Social sustainability should be age-appropriate and responds to everyone who is living and breathing in the space. Social sustainability has to do with the social relationships between people. One way of implementing it is to create a city that is walkable and not dependent on cars for transportation, Al Beltagy said.
Economical sustainability is correlated to cost-consciousness.
Economical sustainability directly correlates to the running cost of the materials. Imported materials cost more than local materials,
and using imported materials is not sustainable, Al
Beltagy said.
Environmental sustainability has to do with the location of the building in terms of the direction it’s facing (north, south, east, or west) and the relationship of it with the climate (wind, sun, humidity, and rain). The goal is to save energy, make people comfortable, use the natural light as much as possible, and use fabric that does not affect the environment, Al Beltagy said.
“An architect once gave me advice that the ground that I am standing on is the most sustainable ground to build from. He advised us to use the materials that are right below our feet. This material is more alive than the place you are living in,” Al Beltagy said. This is Al Beltagy’s design philosophy, and this is what makes his work unique.
There are many different variables, and to achieve a balance between them all is a difficult task. There are many stakeholders involved starting from who is building the space, to who is going to live there, and who is going to operate it. Every one of those people has a set of objectives to make the space sustainable, Al Beltagy said.
“Who builds it can implement constructability, who operates it can make it accessible and responding to the available trends and who lives in it wants a significant lifestyle and specific functions that achieve security. All of those needs are corresponding with the culture demands,” Adel said.
The changes in the market are influenced by the public’s needs.
For example, in the times of COVID19-, people are starting to recognize the importance of their living space. The outdoor space in a house must exist. This is a demand, Adel said. There is a surge in biophilic architecture due to the pandemic. “In general, one of our objectives is to preserve the health of our clients when designing any space,” Al Beltagy said. “The spaces now [during the pandemic] must have multiple functions. For example, one room could include a gym, a reading area, and a work area. For example, people want to utilize their outdoor space to get the same feeling they got when they sat outdoors at a restaurant.”
YBA’s latest project is the New Alamein towers in the North Coast.
In the beginning, the Ministry of Housing hired five architectural firms, including YBA, to present their ideas for the waterfront (approximately seven kilometers), and each firm will execute projects relating to the entire waterfront. All five offices presented their ideas. While YBA was presenting their waterfront ideas, they concluded that there was no landmark in the New Alamein City.
Then, they introduced the idea of building two towers at the entrance of the city.
“When we introduced our ideas of the New Alamein towers to Egypt’s Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, [at the time he was the minister of housing] he was impressed, and he presented the ideas to the president. It was something that they were not thinking about,” Al Beltagy said.
“We wanted to introduce a
whole new world in the North Coast. Something that has never been done before.” Al Beltagy’s ideas for the waterfront aligned with Madbouly’s ideas for the waterfront.
Then, they decided that they wanted more than two towers built on the waterfront area, and the towers would be the landmark of the city. Those towers would attract people to come to the city, make people want to buy units in the towers, and make people recognize that something big is happening in the city. YBA was also assigned to execute the commercial area.
The towers are the first to be executed on the waterfront, and the commercial area (160,000 meters of land of this size is the first in Egypt to be executed on the waterfront as well. YBA is executing (architectural landscape, interior, and urban work) eight of the 15 towers (each tower has 350 apartments), and other firms are working on the rest. Their goal was to change the perception that government development is only for people who earn an average income (a limited income to the idea that government development can create new landmarks that fit all criteria of people. “We were thinking of global ideas for the waterfront.
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