HOUSING NETWORKS & SUBCENTRALITIES: THE SELF-PERPETUATING OCCUPATION OF SPACE

Masters Final Project and recipient of a 2021 MFP Merit Award by Noor Abdelhamid in the UMN MArch program, studio taught by Jennifer Yoos

Informality grows within self-perpetuating networks; it spatially infiltrates inconsiderate city plans; it structurally increments over time; it economically challenges predetermined processes of construction; it politically stands against obstinate eviction plans; and it socially forms nodal communities that grow and protect its boundaries.

The case of Al-Warraq Island, located in Cairo, Egypt serves as a vulnerable site for an informal housing settlement threatened to be wiped out by a state-led redevelopment plan. Learning from informal settlements, this design effort proposed a spectrum of networks forming spatial and social boundaries for incremental housing using architectural elements of the stair, the balcony, and the path+bridge. Existing networks of transportation access, street patterns, and prayer acoustics influence the creation of multi-level subcentralities. These centralized housing settlements consist of networks of socially-driven paths+bridges, distributing provisional services along elevated levels and connecting spaces of economic activity, religious practice, educational gathering, and housing structure. Stairs become pit stops between levels, balconies become pockets of curiosity, paths become streams of relationships, and bridges become connectors of space.