| Massing Build Up |
| Sustainability |
Mouaz Abouzaid, Bassel Omara and Ahmed Hammad, architects based in the United Arab Emirates, designed a modular housing project made of shipping containers for Cairo, Egypt. Nicknamed "Sheltainer", the project aims to help meet the demand for low-income housing for students and refugees. The proposal structures the daily life of its residents around single family units capable of meeting all the needs of a small family.
Sheltainer seeks to serve refugees, exiles, students, and low-income families through standard 6-meter containers, associated with smaller, 3-meter, and larger, 12-meter units employed in the structures. Individual residential units are combined into a cluster, forming a small set of 8 houses around a courtyard. The units can be adapted to different environments. The team initially highlighted two countries that could receive the project: Syria, where more than half of the population was displaced, and South Sudan, where the refugee population increased from 854,100 to over 1.4 million during the second half. 2016. The team rethought the project for Egypt, looking for a way to help solve that country's housing problem.
“Home is not a place, it is a feeling. People are connected to their homeland. Growing up in an environment with family and friends fuels people's souls with a promising future. But being forced to leave home due to hunger, the economy or even politics creates insecurity. Twenty people are displaced by the minute, and providing a stable community that can handle these problems and rapid change becomes an imminent challenge", the architects say.
Massing Build Up
Sustainability
Sheltainer - Modular Shipping Container Housing Project, Cairo, Egypt