To Cairo with Amore

“The room was very dark and everything was rendered in white on white,” says Ferda Kolatan, Associate Professor of Practice in Architecture at PennDesign. “The models looked like small modernist houses.” He’s describing the project he and 12 students recently unveiled at the Venice Biennale of Architecture through a new partnership with the Egyptian Ministry of Culture.

“There was a level of preciousness,” he continues. “Everyone was allowed to take each piece into his hands, to look at them as if they were very precious design gems.” Called Five Speculations, the installation comprised about a third of the Egyptian Pavilion at the celebrated fair, which continues until November 27.

But the sparkling models weren’t parks-in-the-sky inspirations for gleaming skyscrapers or waterfront developments.

Instead, they were the culmination of a semester-long research/design studio, Real Fictions, that began when the students visited Cairo at the invitation of Egypt’s National Organization for Urban Harmony. 

“We were asked to come up with an architectural response to informal settlements,” Kolatan says. ”We addressed what we found — some of it expected, like houses that look like ruins, kids running around in torn clothing, trash everywhere, dogs and cats all over the place — in speculations that concentrated on the surprises, the architectural and cultural potentials.”

According to Egypt’s Ministry of Housing, between 60 and 70 percent of Cairo residents live in informal settlements, places with no building codes or zoning regulations, and little infrastructure in terms of electricity, water, streets, and garbage collection.

Rather than offer fixes, though, the group presented images, visions, opportunities, and possibilities that “rest within what we saw,” Kolatan continues. ”We wanted to acknowledge the reality and then combine it with little fictionalized hints and pushes in order to unearth different kinds of readings. I told my students to look closely so that other kinds of stories could unfold.”

From the beginning, the students felt that using quality materials and construction methods in the model making would impart gravitas on to a building-type (and lifestyle) often regarded as sub-standard. “When you treat a model of a ramshackle house like it’s a small work by Le Corbusier or something, suddenly different possibilities are showcased,” offers Kolatan.

“This wasn't ironical, but instead it reflected how we truly felt that these are very interesting and intricate little buildings,” he continues. “We felt they deserved a heightened realism rather than pure abstraction, which might be the typical approach.”

For example, he explains, the students noticed that many households in the settlements keep their farm animals on the roof, bringing food up and removing waste via a crane system to avoid going through their homes.

“We said, this is what they do, so let’s exaggerate those conditions and develop a new building type,” Kolahan says. “Rather than cleaning everything up and relocating the animals to the backyard, which is what would be expected, we imagined a building where the facade becomes defined by those hanging ropes.”

Another example of how settlement dwellers “work through their situations,” according to Kolatan, is the network of garbage collectors known as the Zabbaleen, who provide the service for free and then recycle what they reap for their own purposes.

In very organized fashion, kids normally handle the task of sorting through all of the trash as it’s unloaded from trucks. So, the group asked “what if we just gave them a very specific tool that will make their life better and what if we fictionalize how it will change the design of the house?” explains Kolatan.

The result is their Biennale “Conveyor House” speculation: a model of a house whose staircase has a conveyor belt instead of a hand rail, allowing the families to operate their businesses more smoothly. 

Kolatan, who has visited favelas in Brazil and informal settlements elsewhere, says that Cairo’s “particular distinction of rich and poor gave it a very unique energy. There’s immense activity and colors and ornaments. Unlike comparable areas elsewhere around the world, here I didn't see a lot of people that looked miserable. Everybody was sorting or playing some role in this unique economy. They weren’t bogged down by life.”

Kolatan's Egyptian partners in the project included Eng. Ibrahim Mehlib, Former Prime Minister and Presidential Advisor, and Dr. Laila Iskandar. Formerly Minister of State for Urban Renewal and Informal Settlements in Egypt, and Minister of State for Environmental Affairs, Dr. Iskandar served as students' guide to the settlements and introduced them to other architects. “She has been an activist for the betterment of informal settlements for decades and was running the Maspero competition,” explains Kolatan. The project was further supported by Architecture student Aly Abouzeid and his father, Medhat Abouzeid.