The precarious agricultural lands within greater Cairo have been steadily eroded by unplanned urban growth from informal settlements, which is an important part of the local economy. Sited in a half-transformed agricultural stripe in the peri-urban area of the great Cairo, this project proposes an urban farm/market typology that breaks the urban/agrarian fabric of the area and provides much-needed amenities for the community. The unfinished nature of the site also provokes a time-based response: how the building responds to the sparse fabric of the current state and when it’s fully formed ten years into the future.

This project recontextualises informal settlements in peri-urban Cairo by creating an urbanistic system that changes how the local context is perceived. Sampling the local vernacular red brick housing blocks, this project utilises an irregular grid network to create a plateau that covers the entirety of the site, thus halting further uncontrolled informal expansion. This system of space creates sheltered space as a market and an open plaza for the neighbourhood while reintroducing agriculture as the focal point of the community via farmhouses on top of the plateau.