El Gouna home | Amr Abdel Hadi
Tucked between a lagoon and ancient red mountains, this tranquil El Gouna home embraces soft arches, Nile-inspired water features and a serious dose of desert-oasis magic.
El Gouna, says architect Amr Abdel Hadi, is more than just a Red Sea resort. “Beneath its surface lies a deeply Egyptian character – in the colour of its houses, the ancient mountains rising behind it, and the slow warmth of life beside the water,” says the founder of A_STUDIO. Abdel Hadi designed this home as a continuation of that feeling. “You step inside, and Egypt deepens around you – warmer, more intimate, more original. The homeowners, a family of five, are not Egyptians, so when they come here, I wanted them to feel that they travelled to a new place, different from their normal European style.”
The family use the El Gouna home, which sits between a lagoon and the mountains, several times a year. Before they even step inside, the age-old traditions of Egypt are strongly felt. The first thing they encounter is an olive garden, which gives way to a linear water feature running along one side of the house. With weeping trees planted directly in the water, it recreates the banks of the Nile, and together with a series of square pools, forms a subtly modern composition against the contours of the lagoon. “As soon as you enter, you feel you are in an oasis, with date palms and a variety of desert plants,” says Abdel Hadi. “On one side of the outdoor seating area, a fountain cools the breeze before it arrives – the ancient Egyptian logic of the wind catcher, expressed as a single quiet gesture.”
Architecturally, the house is pared-down and contemporary, but as Abdel Hadi says, without a single hard corner or aggressive line. Doorways take the form of soft arches, influenced by local vernacular buildings; oak surfaces add artisanal warmth. Native plants found all over Egypt, such as eucalyptus and olive, are carried from the garden into the interior spaces. “The house flows like it was shaped from clay, and you move through it the way water moves: softly, continuously, from one space to the next,” explains the Egyptian architect. His designs are also often inspired by Scandinavian minimalism: here, this happened to be a core component of the client’s brief, so Abdel Hadi’s task was to unite two seemingly disparate styles – one native, one international.
They’re not as different as one might think, the designer suggests. “Both styles are about simplicity, a connection to nature, and craftsmanship, so they complement one another and give the interior a unique feeling – I’ve named it ‘Scandigyptian’,” he says. Almost everything in the house is made in local materials – alabaster pendant lights with an amber glow, pottery from Fayoum (“hand-thrown by artisans in one of Egypt’s oldest craft traditions”), terracotta planters unchanged for thousands of years, handmade kilim rugs, and original artworks by local artists.
The Scandinavian element comes through most strongly in the oak and canework details that extend throughout the home, and in its subtle colour palette, which mixes sand-washed beige porcelain floors and textured micro-cement walls with sage greens borrowed from plants, watery blues, and brass details inspired by ancient Egyptian decorative arts. Water is a key reference in the design. Thinking of how to interpret this element in a uniquely Egyptian way, Abdel Hadi settled upon the ancient hieroglyph for water, a zigzag or wavy line, which adorns many details in the house. You can see it in the open oak partitions that separate spaces, which are based on ventilation panels in old Egyptian homes, and in the ceilings of the living and dining rooms – the first featuring a delicate pattern carved into oak, the second an intricate creation in canework (much used in ancient Egyptian interiors). “I found these abstract brass pendant lights like felucca boats, so we installed them in a flowing pattern as if they are sailing on an upside-down sea,” adds Abdel Hadi.
Boat symbols also appear in the custom dining table, whose rounded edges make it appear to float, and in the lozenge-shaped sculptures hanging on the walls. Abdel Hadi paid tribute to the mountains with walls clad in raw Red Sea mountain rocks, and a slablike marble console in the entrance hall. “Materials were chosen with one thing in mind: to be as natural as possible, giving the owners a sense of belonging with nature,” he says. “Other examples are the curtains, which are made of linen, the main fabric used in ancient Egypt; the Egyptian marbles in the kitchens and bathrooms; and the oak coffee tables, which are inspired by ancient temple cartouches.”
Of course, much of this house is about enjoying the views, which can be done without moving from the large curved sofa in the double-height living room. The homeowners wanted a TV in this space, but without blocking the tall windows, so Abdel Hadi came up with an ingenious solution: a seven- metre-high oak TV screen, which moves from side to side depending on how the room is being used. “It has the same zigzag water symbol as the other elements in the house, as though it is cascading from the ceiling,” adds the designer. “Before I am an architect, I am an explorer and nature lover, and this project reflects my true philosophy in connecting with nature and history.” @amromag
- 转载自：AD(admiddleeast)
- 图片@AD(admiddleeast)
- 国家：美国
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- 翻译：序赞网
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