Urban Character: the tanneries wooden towers where they dry out the leather which gave a unique character to the site as shown in Figure (4).

Urban fabric: There is no main urban tissue that dominates the site, on the contrary there is a mixture between different urban tissues which gave flexibility to use it in the projects as shown in Figure (5).

Also in the solid and void map it showed how dense this zone is which cleared out the need for green open spaces as shown in Figure (6).

Figure 5

Figure 6

Main user groups were found to be : local residents- art school students- tourists, also the demographic studies shows that 40% from resident are males and 60% are females and 60% are children as shown in Figure (7).

Students also worked on identifying the real needs of the three main user groups (local community – tourist – local visitors) by interviewing them and observe their behavior in the real environment using some giving tools from lectures as behavior mapping and taking systematic photos and sketching and so some social problems were raised during the course and students survey that had to be solved by the projects, these problems were mainly as follows:

The location of the project falls within the boundaries of Historic Cairo which was set by the “National Organization for Urban Harmony” and so it falls under its building regulations as shown in Figure (8)

These regulations had a very important role in identifying the identity of buildings in these area and so the educators of the course were very concerned that students learn these regulations and try to apply as much of them as possible. Not all of these regulations apply to our project and so therefore main points were chosen, these regulations are to be explained in the coming paragraphs.



“Ahmed Shemisah’s” Project:

This project adopted most of the community needs through different levels: educational, recreational and financial levels, and succeeded to reflect them in the project’s components. In addition to respecting the surrounding urban fabric as it was also reflected in the morphology of the project.

Learn and work:

From the demographic studies done in the research phase, the students reached that there is a great percentage of the community under the age of 16 years and they were mostly uneducated, so he emphasized the value of learning through work. This can lead to a better education, which was reflected in the direct relation between the class rooms and the workshops to make sure that students can practice what they learn all the time, as shown in figure (9).

Gender separation:

Also from the social survey done, he adopted the idea of segregation between girls and boys classrooms, due to the community social and cultural habits, as shown in figure (9).

Playable Spaces:

As a result of the rarity of suitable play areas for the children in the local community this proposal intentionally made the project spaces more playful and children friendly.as shown in figure (10).

Social interaction space:

One of the crucial things for achieving and maintaining sustainable tourism development is to create a positive interaction between residents and foreign tourists. And that’s what this proposal tried to do by creating lively opened public spaces to encourage the interaction between tourists and local community, as shown in figure (11).

“Salma Omar’s” Project:

Empowering women:

Was her concept after the social survey and questionnaires done which showed the high percentage of working and family supporting women and since then the student adopted this concept by creating workshops and classrooms only for women besides providing a safe area for their kids to play nearby. She also made the 2 masses occupied by women in the plan oblique and different from the rest of masses, as shown if Figure (12).

The project tried to match its surrounding urban pattern as part of making the new project familiar to the local community and to encourage them to interact with the new project, as it shown in figure (13). As well as saving the old daily pedestrian routes that goes through the site, as part of respecting the community behaviors as shown in figure (14).

Figure 14

One of the major elements that shaped the visual identity of Sour “Magra El oyoun” area is the tanneries’ wooden towers since they are part of the tanneries industry process. As well as the wall of “Magra El oyoun” itself which posed a great challenge that faced this proposal as it tried to reflect the tanneries tower by adding wooden shading devices on the top of the buildings and meanwhile deals with the wall as a part of the interactive plaza as shown in figure (15).

“Amr Aly’s” Project:

In this proposal, the student tried to take advantage of the historical value of the wall of the “Magra El Oyoun”

,by linking most of the project’s components to the wall by creating an inner plaza facing the wall to achieve transparency and visibility between project visitors and the context to deepen the value of the wall for visitors, craftsmen and craft school students, as shown in Figure (16).

In addition to taking into account the architecture features of the area that came as a result of the prevailing craft activity in this area and the spread of tanneries which is characterized by wooden towers on the roofs of buildings, as shown in Figure (17).

“Ahmed Yousry’s” Project:

The concept came from the need of reviving the memory of the industry that was moved out of the area.

He accomplished his concept by making the museum centered in the heart of the project and represented in the regular form of the old section of the tanneries and elements connected with the leather industry, which shaped the urban character of the area. Figures (18) and (19).

Figure 19

This project was committed to the building regulations of historic Cairo to the extent that his concept was based on creating the same experience of historic Cairo’s streets and alleys and courts.

And so the masses were all built on the boundaries, no recesses left, and courts were the main open spaces that were used as plaza and as open spaces for workshops, as shown in Figure (20).

A questionnaire was given to the jurors to evaluate the projects and the following are the questions and results:

Q: To which extent has the selection of project’s topic reflected the site identity?

A: 100% % of the external jurors agreed that the selection of project’s topic reflected strongly the site identity Q: To which extent have the students’ projects reflected the urban fabric of the site through layout and plans? A: 100 % declared that it was strongly reflected

Q: To which extent have the students’ projects reflected the urban character of the site through elevations and building materials?

A: 100% agreed that it was moderately reflected

Q: To which extent have the students’ projects reflected the social identity of the site through their plans, functions and forms?

A: 50% agreed that it was moderately reflected-50% agreed that it was strongly reflected

Q: To which extent were the students’ projects committed to the building regulations of the site? A: 100% agreed that it was strongly reflected.