Shape Grammar as a Typology Defining Tool for Ancient Egyptian Funerary Monuments

This paper proposes a parametric shape grammar for ancient Egyptian funerary monuments. The corpus of monuments includes ten rock-cut structures, duly documented. They exhibit different grades of completion and preservation and possess variant archaeological documentation. The generation of a design following the proposed grammar depends both on formal and functional aspects. Metadata indicates the evidential value and numerical occurrence of rules in the generation of designs. The developed grammar can be used to reconstruct unfinished tombs, extend an existing one, or generate new designs according to the rules. It denotes the linear and symmetric structure characteristic of the monuments and reflects the chronological sequence of construction. The proposed grammar encodes the typology of the studied monuments and suggests that ancient Egyptian architecture may have implied a clear set of canons that may be made explicit by developing additional grammars for other building types.

Ancient Egyptian architecture

Architectural remains represent one of our main sources of information on ancient Egypt, and one of the first aspects of the ancient Egyptian civilization to have captured the attention of the earliest explorers. Since Egyptology was born, and while it developed as a discipline, the study of ancient Egyptian architecture evolved from initial cursory studies on portions of monuments emerging from the sand, to a wide spectrum of investigations, ranging from analyses of the chemical composition of building materials to the ancient mathematics lying at the basis of the ancient projects, and from the detailed study of specific buildings to the large-scale analysis of the relationship between architecture and landscape.

On Measuring Ancient Egyptian Architecture

This article discusses the meaning and function of the act of measuring ancient Egyptian architecture in the present-day context, in which the advent of digital culture has allowed the accumulation of extremely precise and accurate data. Our expectations on our modern measurements may lead us to select the ancient data through a filter that does not correspond to the ancient perspective, thus affecting the validity of the results. In order to disentangle past and current perspectives, it may be useful to discuss two aspects: the difference between ancient measures obtained from calculations and observations, and the meaning of precision and accuracy in modern and ancient times. A reconstruction of the planning and building process of ancient monuments is likely to take a successful path only if we are willing to look at the evidence from a slightly different perspective, in which numbers become part of a larger and more complex operation.

Contemporary architecture of Cairo (1990–2020): mutational plurality of “ISMS”, decolonialism, and cosmopolitanism

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to develop an analytical account on the contemporary architecture of Cairo with emphasis on the past three decades, from the early 1990s to the present. The paper critically analyses narratives of the plurality of “isms”, within architectural vocabulary and discourse, that resulted from the contextual particularities that shaped it. Design/methodology/approach Three lines of inquiry are envisioned as overarching aspects of architecture: the chronological, the interventional and the representational. These discussions are underpinned by the discourse of decolonialisation and cosmopolitanism, posited sequentially by Frantz Fanon in The Wretched of the Earth (1961), and Ulrich Beck in The Cosmopolitan Vision (2004). The analysis expands to interrogate these two notions as prelude for reflecting on representations of selected projects: The Smart Village (2001); the Great Egyptian Museum (2002), Al-Azhar Park (2005), American University in Cairo New Campus (2008/2009), and the New Administrative Capital (2018). Findings The investigation on the interventional and the representational levels via aspects of discursivity and contradictions highlights that decolonisation and cosmopolitanism are two inseparable facets in the architectural practice in Egypt’s 21st century. These indivisible notions are based on idiosyncratic core to human experience, which emerged from concurrent overturning historical and secular everyday life striving to suppress ideological supremacy. Research limitations/implications Further detailed examples can be developed to offer discerning elucidations relevant to both notions of cosmopolitanism and decolonialisation. Originality/value The paper offers novel theoretical analysis of Cairo’s most recent architecture. The reflection on the notions of decolonialisation and cosmopolitanism is a timely example of the complex cultural encounters that have shaped the Egyptian architecture, given the recent interventions by the “Modern State” that legitimised such notions.

Securing Niagara (1852–55)

The Niagara contract was a fitting judgment on John’s career to date, and the bridge itself was a triumph, eliciting praise and admiration from all over the globe, for both its handsome Egyptian architecture and the soundness of its design. It took four years to build and was the world’s first railroad suspension bridge, or at least the first successful one, fully demonstrating the strength and effectiveness of the suspension plan for heavy-going freight. It also compared very favorably with Robert Stephenson’s recently completed Britannia Tubular Bridge, the British engineer’s rival solution to the problem of long-span railroad bridges. A lifelong, committed abolitionist who wrote extensively about the evils of slavery, John also appreciated the impact his bridge had (somewhat incidentally) on the institution of slavery. Harriet Tubman (among others) used John’s bridge numerous times in the late 1850s to lead runaway slaves out of the United States and into British Canada.

The Impact of the Religious Dimension as Building, Urban Fabric and the Social Behavior of the Population

I knew architecture grew since the ages of prehistoric and was the goal of the appearance of architecture at first in order to meet the need and protection from surrounding risks, but with the evolution of architecture through the ages, and the concept of civilization that appeared with the development of architecture gave a special identity to architecture. like Mesopotamia in Iraqi architecture, Egyptian architecture shows African, Romanian Greek, and Islamic architecture. The Byzantine Empire which covered most regions of the world saw the emergence of a very Christian architecture in Italy and the Vatican Gothic factor was the development of this architecture. Prothera next to the religious and ideological thought and philosophy closer to the god of, this architecture was thought the mainstream has actually contributed to the development of architecture during the ages.In this study, we will study the Islamic building in the North Africa region, which spread in the 10th century and was founded by The Abadites who were Kharijites and spread in the north of the Algerian desert, specifically in the city of Ghardaia in Wadi M'zab. 550 km from Algiers. This city is designed for social life, and this city is an inspiration for urban planners today. This city has been described in the Book of Lights Mazab of the French Orientalist where he said that her charm attracts visitors to it in one of the pages of this book.This architecture was characterized by: an inherent system of architecture, a mixture of practical creativity, which was characterized by steadfastness so as to stay adapted and adapted to the difficult climate and nature of the region, and the maintenance of the neighborhood rights supported by a arsenal of ethical systems and customs expressed in the harem. Both inside the palace or at specific distances outside their walls ... Which is covered by a beautiful aesthetic touch and an almost unique architectural feature.Through this study we will explain how They were affected of the building and the urban fabric of the area and the inhabitants of Wadi M'zab affected the religious dimension, how did urban fabric Wade M'zab preserve his building authenticity in terms of the form and mix of art and creativity that appears in urban and Wadi M'zab.