Living Pedestrian Bridge over the Nile by five Egyptian architects wins Rifat Chadirji Prize 2020

Living Pedestrian Bridge

Tamayouz Excellence Award has announced the winners of its Rifat Chadirji Prize 2020, an annual thematic prize for promotion and celebrating architecture in the Near East and North Africa, aims to introduce local challenges to the world and invite architects, designers and planners to submit their concepts.

It also aims to establish an uncompromising open source of ideas that tackle social issues through design. The first-place winner for the Rifat Chadirji Prize 2020 and the People’s Choice Award is a team of five from Cairo, Egypt: Ali Khaled Elewa, Mostafa Ahmed Zakaria, Sherif Khaled Abdelkhaleq, Hoda Essam Abdelmawla and Ebtisam Elgizawy designers of the

The main objective of the living bridge is to maximize pedestrian exposure to the Nile, via stitching the urban fabric of the two banks together. The form was generated as a result of two main paths. Firstly, an unobstructed linear path directly linking the Egyptian Museum with Cairo Tower. Secondly, a semi-elliptical path was generated to embrace the two opposite banks; the Cultural Nile Plaza and the Elevated Garden.

This path is meant to be pleasant, playful, and links successive attractions and socio-economic hubs. The paths incorporate together to create a single continuous leaning body blended into the land on both sides, offering panoramic views of the Cairo downtown, Nile, and the surrounding iconic attractions.

Moreover, the bridge is acting as an urban park with two concealed lower floor levels above the Nile, including recreational, commercial, cultural, administrative, and social spaces. The six flowing structural columns maximize the visual connectivity between the indoor and outdoor spaces, as well as the natural ventilation and lighting. Besides, the top layer consists of concrete tiles and grass, driven parametrically based on pedestrian flow.

For the sake of achieving the project objective, it is proposed to bury a 200 m stretch of road along the Nile River and build a park on top. Additionally, it is proposed to relocate the exit of the sixth of October Bridge. Accordingly, Cairo central downtown will be valued as a breathing sanctuary for people and will transform into pedestrian-friendly spaces. Source by the architects.

  • Location: Over the Nile River, Cairo, Egypt
  • Architects: Ali Khaled Elewa, Mostafa Ahmed Zakaria, Sherif Khaled Abdelkhaleq, Hoda Essam Abdelmawla and Ebtisam Elgizawy
  • Status: 1st prize winner – Tamayouz Excellence Award – The Rifat Chadirji Prize
  • Site area: 112000 m2
  • Built area: 47500 m2
  • Length: 200 meters
  • Year: 2020
  • Images: Courtesy of Ali Khaled Elewa

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