Reading Response 5

Sheltainer is an architectural project designed to use shipping containers as the basis for micro homes in areas where refugees, students, and lower-income people need housing. The project is working to set up its first community in the graveyard district of Cairo, Egypt. In this part of the city, between half a million to one million people are living essentially homeless between the graves/tombs. Architects Mouaz Abouzaid, Bassel Omara and Ahmed Hammad from the UAE headed the project in order to combat this issue. The project uses three different sizes of shipping containers to create variable structures depending on the needs of its inhabitants. The structures will be built into small communities around courtyards that will also have a central tower. The central towers will also serve multiple purposes including protecting renewable sources of energy like solar panels and wind turbines, while also being a place where pigeon keepers can raise pigeons (a common occupation of the community’s inhabitants). The project will teach the people of this community how to build structures using the versatile shipping containers and work with them to design spaces that best serve their needs. Not only does the project help give this part of the city needed housing, but with the renewable sources of energy also have the goal of making the area sustainable, clean, and safe to live in. Furthermore, from an aesthetic perspective, the project helps create beautiful architecture that also ties in with the traditional architecture from Cairo. For example, the central towers are supposed to mirror the minarets commonly found throughout the rest of the city. Also, the project won the 2018 World Architecture Festival WAFX Ethics and Values category. Sheltainer serves a need in this community, and aims to bring its people closer together in the process of making the new housing.

Info and images found at: https://www.dezeen.com/2019/03/28/sheltainer-shipping-containers-cairo-micro-homes-architecture/ and https://www.archdaily.com/908837/uae-architects-design-shipping-container-housing-for-cairo