Lo spazio domestico mediterraneo : una casa per il Cairo = Domestic space in the Mediterranean : a house for Cairo

The contemporary need to accommodate a great concentration of population and the use of industrially produced materials caused a progressive abandonment of building according to knowledge and congruence, using the local techniques and materials. Therefore this means a clear waiver to the awareness of their identity and their culture and to man's intelligence which has always kept its productive relationship with the natural forces and resources, a condition that has allowed men to build their own identity and aesthetic value. This research shows how the extraordinary cultural and architectural heritage about the experience of the houses in Cairo; and even though it has no the value of a real "handbook" explaining "how to do something", it contains all the information about the "environmental sustainability". In fact most of these houses, renovated in the last few years, represent now the "museum of themselves". The city of Cairo is located north of the city of al-Fustat, founded in 640 A.D. as a military camp. For the new foundation a strategic site was chosen in order to form an encampment widespread for four kilometers along the east bank of the river Nilo.

È compito difficile trattare in modo esauriente e in un breve saggio un argomento così vasto e complesso: la casa cairota e la sua tettonica, cioè gli elementi costruttivi e la sintassi della sua costruzione. Anzitutto perché le forme costruttive non vanno disgiunte dalla forma stessa della casa, così come si è costituita nei secoli; secondariamente perché le conoscenze tecniche ed i materiali utilizzati sempre sottostanno ad una concezione costruttiva dello spazio che, per quanto determinata da esigenze climatiche, culturali, sociali, dev’essere ricondotta ad un principio originario della costruzione, così come la casa ad un principio originario della sua forma.