As an attempt to uplift Egypt’s economic prowess, the government of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has approved plans to construct a new capital for this North African country from scratch.
SOM is leading The Capital Cairo project, which will construct this planned new city eastward of the current capital Cairo, closer to the Red Sea, Gizmag reports.
The plan for a new capital was announced during an economic development conference, during which Egyptian Housing Minister Mostafa Madbouly said the project would take only five to seven years to complete.
Additionally, the economic summit where the project was announced attracted $12 billion in investment pledges from wealthy neighboring countries in the Gulf region.
CityMetric reports that the government hired a Dubai-based real estate investment firm, headed by Emirati Mohamed Alabbar, the man behind the Burj Khalifa, to raise funds for the project and build it.
While many media outlets see the move as a statement on President al-Sisi’s power and vision, one main argument for the project is to relieve incumbent capital Cairo from an ever-growing population and ridding it of its gridlock traffic.
"While we are at the earliest stages of design, the new city will be built on core principles that include places of education, economic opportunity, and quality of life for Egypt’s youthful population," Philip Enquist, Partner in Charge of Urban Design and Planning at SOM, told Gizmag. "The new city will be designed and built in harmony with nature as a showcase of environmentally sensitive development."
Related Stories
| May 11, 2014
Final call for entries: 2014 Giants 300 survey
BD+C's 2014 Giants 300 survey forms are due Wednesday, May 21. Survey results will be published in our July 2014 issue. The annual Giants 300 Report ranks the top AEC firms in commercial construction, by revenue.
| May 5, 2014
GSA Design Awards: 20 federal buildings honored as 'best of GSA'
Seattle's Federal Center South Building 1202 and the U.S. Courthouse in Austin are among the 2014 GSA Design Award winners.
| Apr 30, 2014
Visiting Beijing's massive Chaoyang Park Plaza will be like 'moving through a urban forest'
Construction work has begun on the 120,000-sm mixed-use development, which was envisioned by MAD architects as a modern, urban forest.
| Apr 29, 2014
Best of Canada: 12 projects nab nation's top architectural prize [slideshow]
The conversion of a Mies van der Rohe-designed gas station and North Vancouver City Hall are among the recently completed projects to win the 2014 Governor General's Medal in Architecture.
| Apr 29, 2014
USGBC launches real-time green building data dashboard
The online data visualization resource highlights green building data for each state and Washington, D.C.
| Apr 23, 2014
Mean and Green: Top 10 green building projects for 2014 [slideshow]
The American Institute of Architects' Committee on the Environment has selected the top ten examples of sustainable architecture and ecological design projects that protect and enhance the environment. Projects range from a project for Portland's homeless to public parks to a LEED Platinum campus center.
| Apr 16, 2014
Upgrading windows: repair, refurbish, or retrofit [AIA course]
Building Teams must focus on a number of key decisions in order to arrive at the optimal solution: repair the windows in place, remove and refurbish them, or opt for full replacement.
| Apr 15, 2014
12 award-winning structural steel buildings
Zaha Hadid's Broad Art Museum and One World Trade Center are among the projects honored by the American Institute of Steel Construction for excellence in structural steel design.
| Apr 9, 2014
Steel decks: 11 tips for their proper use | BD+C
Building Teams have been using steel decks with proven success for 75 years. Building Design+Construction consulted with technical experts from the Steel Deck Institute and the deck manufacturing industry for their advice on how best to use steel decking.
| Apr 2, 2014
8 tips for avoiding thermal bridges in window applications
Aligning thermal breaks and applying air barriers are among the top design and installation tricks recommended by building enclosure experts.
