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Pyramid Heights Compound Villa : Egyptian Property

Pyramid Heights Compound Villa, Giza, Egypt – design by Shahira H. Fahmy Architects

Egyptian House

Design: Shahira H. Fahmy Architects

Pyramid Heights Compound Villa – A Villa with Pyramids View

Design Concept

This concrete, steel and glass villa is located on a hill in a compound named “Pyramids Heights” overlooking the three Grand Pyramids of the Giza Plateau, Egypt.

The design model of this house is organized into two interweaving volumes, connecting in different points that become shared spaces. Formally, the spatial interplay of the interior creates four loosely defined quadrants of the house: the formal living space for social events located on the upper floor to secure a decent vista for such an incredible view; the indoor pool and related activities on the ground floor, the family room kitchen and bathroom on the ground floor to have a better connectivity with the garden, and finally the three bedrooms on the upper floor.

The volumes, one clinging to the ground facing the surrounding palm tree groves;
And the other detaching itself from the ground towards a better view of the pyramids while leaving room underneath for a covered terrace space and indoor pool.

A ramp connects the entrance lobby to the formal living space on the upper floor.
The bathroom, kitchen and family room are clustered in the right wing (horizontal axis) of the house on the ground floor, leaving the indoor pool and related activities on the left part (vertical axis) of the house. The resulting internal split generates its own brand of view-orientated efficiency.

Walls, floors and roofs are inseparable entities, through the volumetric transition from horizontal to vertical and vice versa, a continuous plate is formed combining the house’s different activities into one structure; work, social life, family life and individual time all find their place in this composition.

Shahira H. Fahmy Architects based in Mohandessin, Giza, Egypt

Pyramids Heights House – A Villa with Pyramids View – Extra Information

The site is in Giza overlooking the Giza plateau of the three famous pyramids; it has an altitude over 70 where the pyramids plateau is around 30. as well as It has an overview of the city.

The site used to be used for stone extracting; the earth is hard and rocky, the stones are white Egyptian stones they call it in Egypt pharaonic stone. (It is very popular because it is not costly and lot of people used to wall bearing and façades cladding).

The materials used in this house are three kinds: the white stone with a rough texture, the dehara past (it is a kind of past made from mixture of color pigments powder, straws and cement and others it is similar to how an adobe is done but without the heating process.) and wood (mostly from palm trees).

The facades will be covered by big slabs of white stone, coming from the ground level all the way up to the second floor.

The concrete slab sheets which are flowing around the house will be covered with this thin layer of the past. (This kind of finishing you can find it in all the Egyptian vernacular architecture because it is economical way to finish the façade.)
The third material is reuse of the leaves of the palm trees which have been used for a long time to make vegetables baskets for vegetables shipping from a place to the other. The leave has a core hard straight and with a length approximate of 120 cm. it is going to be in different parts of elevations creating screens for privacy and shading purposes. And it is also going to be used in the interiors in the false ceiling to cover mechanical ducts and interact it with the light.

The cost of the house is reasonable because it is based of the use of local materials and inexpensive ones. These materials mentioned above are mostly used in vernacular architecture and categorized for the poor people.