THURSDAY 5 MARCH 2020Cooler, greener, cheaper
With temperatures rising, Egyptian architects are working on green
buildings that not only keep residents safe and cool but also cut carbon
emissions driving climate change
Heat-absorbing materials and cooling techniques are used on homes (Bahariya Oasis)
MENNA FAROUK
The desert buildings Atef Azzazy and his team of farm workers once lived and toiled in were hot in the
summer, cold in the winter and leaky enough they sometimes let snakes in, he remembers.
Three years ago, however, the team working in Bahariya Oasis, in Egypt’s Western Desert, got an upgrade:
well-insulated homes and work buildings designed to shed Egypt’s increasingly searing summer heat and
hold down climate-changing emissions.