RETHINKING ARCHTECTURE AND TECHNOLOGY IN CAIRO

This paper focuses on the issue of technology in architecture within the Cairene context. The first cycle of the student s annual competition at Cairo University was centred on this issue. Reviewing that event, this paper addresses the importance of technology as a major challenge in a developing country like Egypt. How the technology challenge is perceived in the various architectural aspects and set in the cultural context are key issues at the core of the competition and the paper. Because it is the author s belief that many of the previous issues are not yet seriously discussed in the Egyptian architectural setting, the students competition seemed to provide an appropriate arena for initiation and attempting to seriously discuss the said issue and its implications. This paper comprises a number of sections; the first outlines the issue of technology and elaborates on the thesis of the competition. The second section focuses on the development of the thesis through the jury debate. The third section attempts to analyze the response of the students entries. Then a further development of the issues generated in the previous section is laid. Finally, the conclusion sums up the findings and highlights what can be learned from such an experiment.