00:00A densely packed neighborhood, a team of architects, researchers, and a local craftsman, plus simple everyday building materials from the streets around them.
00:14What brings them together? They are in Ardalliwa, one of Cairo's most crowded informal housing developments and home to an estimated half a million people.
00:25The various experts have joined forces to find low-tech ways of beating the summer heat.
00:33Temperatures in Egypt's capital have been rising due to climate change. Heat waves now last longer and often peak at over 40 degrees, and in places like Ardalliwa it can feel even hotter.
00:47The way streets and buildings are designed really affects how you feel the heat, and with a population the size of Greater Cairo and the associated conditions, you can actually feel temperatures that are five to six degrees higher than what's officially recorded.
01:02Ahmed Mukhtar has been living and working here for years. Some time ago, the local craftsman and visual artist found his own way of staying cool in his rooftop premises.
01:15I started taking apart the conventionally built wooden ceiling. Then I began adding openings like ventilation gaps, placed in the direction of the wind. And it worked great. The temperature dropped considerably, and the atmosphere completely changed.
01:34But as buildings around him rose taller, the air stopped flowing, and the space became stifling again.
01:44Fortunately, Mukhtar is part of the cluster team, the group of architects and urban planners from Egypt and further afield.
01:52With financial support from partners and a Netherlands-based cultural program, they develop green and affordable solutions for combating heat stress, with one example being Mukhtar's studio.
02:07Electricity keeps getting more expensive, and most people simply can't afford to install an air conditioner.
02:13So there's definitely an important economic side to it, but there's also an environmental aspect.
02:21Mechanical solutions might give you better indoor comfort, but they also push more heat, pollution and CO2 outside.
02:30We've done through an initial analysis, even previous to the workshop, where we've walked through the neighborhood and analyzed all the, I guess, interventions people have made to cool and shade their housing,
02:42which a lot of it is done actually through textiles and canopies, etc.
02:47So, instead of eco and friendly technology, how about making the most of existing options?
02:54The Mashrabia, for example, is a wooden lattice screen that blocks direct sunlight while slowing the air flow.
03:01Traditionally, people would place clay jugs full of water next to it in order to cool the incoming breeze.
03:08The idea now is to update the concept with modern materials.
03:13We're designing screens that can be placed in front of balconies and windows and through incorporating also ceramics, which can be watered and then through evaporative cooling can help cool the units on the inside.
03:30As for the heat management in Ahmed Mukhtar's rooftop studio, the cluster team ended up choosing a design based on the solar chimney principle, a technique used in ancient times by Persian and Roman architects to create passive cooling.
03:48It works like a greenhouse. The sun heats the metal, the air inside warms up and stays trapped. Then it starts to rise and escape through the opening we made for it.
04:03This is where the experimental part of the undertaking begins. The team starts scouting local stores and workshops for materials that are both low-cost and low-key such as wood, old corrugated metal sheeting and plastic.
04:22All for a prototype. By the end, it has taken almost eight months from the initial idea to completion of the solar chimney until the moment arrives when the structure is hoisted up and installed in the artist's studio.
04:41It might not look perfect, but the point here is not form but function and an affordable solution.
04:49I hope this prototype will improve the overall climate of the space.
04:54Projects like this can be extremely effective. They offer real, lasting solutions.
05:01And the cultural mindset here is, don't waste time overthinking an idea that works. So the model could easily spread to other buildings or neighborhoods.
05:10One rooftop, one artist, one prototype built for a specific space, but probably transferable to many others like it.
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