Notice of M.Arch. Thesis Defence (Winter 2015)

Magdalena Milosz

Of the thesis entitled: “Don’t Let Fear Take Over”: The Space and Memory of Indian Residential Schools

Abstract:

The Indian Residential School (IRS) system in Canada directly affected 150,000 Indigenous children who were taken to state-sponsored and church-run institutions to separate them from their families and cultures. During the century and a half leading up to around 1970, over 130 IRS were scattered throughout the country. The role of architecture in this genocidal system is a crucial, but overlooked aspect of its realization. In the first decades of the twentieth century, the Canadian government became increasingly involved in building and rebuilding the IRS, as a dedicated arm of the Department of Indian Affairs in Ottawa became a centrally controlled apparatus of architectural production. Passing from utopian space to evolving memory, the architectural remnants of the IRS system tell many stories, among those that need to be heard and acknowledged by contemporary Canadian society as part of its troubled relationship with Indigenous peoples.

Through archival research, documentation, narrative, and critical analysis, explorations of four former IRS sites configure this thesis, each providing a lens on the space and memory of this difficult and often traumatic past. Located in Ontario and Manitoba, they were designed, fully or in part, by the little-known R.G. (Roland Guerney) Orr, Chief Architect of Indian Affairs from 1921 to 1935. Mapping architecture to ideology, I examine the development of the Mohawk Institute in Brantford, Ontario in the legal and political contexts of Indigenous-Canadian relations. At the abandoned Birtle IRS in southwestern Manitoba, the institutional intricacies of this broad view come into focus through a critique of the architectural program and its intentions. Nearby, at the site of the demolished Brandon IRS, the heap of leftover debris calls forth questions of collective memory, explored through conventional representations and their transformations in the art of survivors and post-residential school Indigenous artists. I consider the archive and its role in bringing forth the future at the former Shingwauk Hall in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, now the site of Shingwauk Kinoomaage Gamig, an Anishinaabe post-secondary institution, and Algoma University. Finally, I return to the Woodland Cultural Centre, located next to the Mohawk Institute building and whose staff are currently reimagining the former IRS based on feedback from the community. Rather than resting on conclusions, this thesis probes these difficult histories as an opening up towards the future, propelled by the past but open to spaces of divergence. 
 

The examining committee is as follows:
 
Supervisor:                               Andrew Levitt, University of Waterloo

Committee Members:                 Robert Jan Van Pelt, University of Waterloo

                                                William Woodworth

External Reader:                        Paula Whitlow, Curator Woodland Cultural Centre 

       

The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place:  

Wednesday, January 7, 2015              10:00AM          Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

William Elsworthy

Of the thesis entitled: Energy and Matter : The design of a nature centre, tunnel and neutrino observatory

Abstract:

Neutrino physics proposes radical new conceptions of matter. Contemplating the extraordinary and mysterious nature of neutrinos in architectural terms, Energy and Matter considers the ideas and implications of this exciting field in three inter-linked design proposals—a nature centre, access tunnel, and neutrino observatory—that connect multiple disciplines in the natural sciences, engineering, and architectural theory. Working from a position that acknowledges the significance of technical concerns, this thesis proposes an architecture that readily engages with technology, construction, and building systems, as well as the specialized instruments used to detect neutrinos, while exploring the equivalence and fluidity of energy and matter, form and forces. This hybrid approach reasserts architecture’s role in the design of buildings for science, allowing these enormous collective projects to communicate their cultural significance as manifestations of our current understanding of the universe.
 

The examining committee is as follows:                     

Supervisor:

Committee Members:

Philip Beesley, University of Waterloo

Dereck Revington, University of Waterloo

Ryszard Sliwka, University of Waterloo

External Reader:

Dr. Neil Turok, Perimeter Institute


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows:


The committee has been approved as authorized by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The Defence Examination will take place: 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015                     2:00PM         Architecture Loft

A copy of the thesis is available for perusal in ARC 2106A.
 

Back to defences

Amr elBahrawy

Of the thesis entitled: A House of No Importance : The rise and fall of Nasr City’s middle class extended family houses

Abstract:

Since its urban boom around the mid 1980s, the Cairene residential district of Nasr City has been the hub for a unique housing phenomenon. It has seen middle class professionals appropriating its apartment building typologies into households for their extended families. Over the past ten years, however, many of those families have been aiming to relocate their households to the emerging suburban developments on Cairo’s periphery. This desire seems to be driven by nothing more than their aspiration for the simulacrums of luxury and social status associated with suburban living. Apart from superficial stylistic variations in architectural expression, the housing typologies in these suburbs offer the same functional arrangements as those in Nasr City; and as per their building bylaws they accommodate the co-existence of fewer extended family generations. These facts, coupled with the increased financial hardships involved in acquiring a new suburban dwelling, highlight the absurdity of the middle class professionals’ desire for such relocation. Not only does it deplete their monetary standing in an Egyptian society that now recognizes affluence as the only measure of social status, but it also debases the solidarity inherent in their characteristic intergenerational living. That is to say, it compromises the basis of the very social status they are aiming to preserve.

This thesis tracks the history of 11 El-Insha Street, an apartment building–extended family household in Nasr City, as well as the history of the street it stands on, over the span of 30 years. That narrative serves as the basis for a discussion of the evolution of the Egyptian middle class, Nasr City, and the apartment building – extended family house typology. Through an extensive analytical framework of demographic and urban data, the discourse of this thesis tracks the link between middle class professionals and that particular housing typology; its particular prevalence in Nasr City once upon time; and the current trend of its extinction as its inhabitants relocate to the suburbs.

 
The examining committee is as follows: