African Design Magazine November 2016 | Page 57

African project Tayebat Workers Village – Egypt e rises from the desert ya Oasis and powered by building-integrated solar panels, KarmBuild’s Tayebat is “the only company in Egypt to integrate solar technology into a building’s als ensures a gentle environmental footprint. choice, according to Kafrawi, who realised that it is sustainable in construction and has reduced the waste and cost of the project as well. “The idea was to create an architectural character that would smoothly blend into the natural landscape, so that from a distance, this rather large building appears discreet, almost invisible except for the towering stone structures highlighted by the P.V. solar panels reflecting the sky and sun,” says Kafrawi. Egyptian deserts can often be excluded and perceived as unusable land due to the difficulty of power and energy reaching it, and this integration project will be a great step towards providing shelter, but also a sustainable living situation for the inhabitants. Not only is the power generation environmentally friendly, but KarmBuild employed sustainable construction techniques, such as utilizing energy-reducing methods and africandesignmagazine.com 57