The Ecofordable House Project
As part of the fruitful cooperation between October University for Modern Sciences and Arts (MSA), the Ministry of Housing, Utilities, and Urban Communities, and the Housing and Building National Research Center (HBRC), the university had the honor of welcoming a technical committee for an official inspection of The Ecofordable House — an eco-friendly, affordable housing project executed by the MSA Center of Earth on the university’s campus in 6th of October City.
The committee was headed by Eng. Hesham Darwish, Head of the Construction and External Relations Sector at the Ministry of Housing, Utilities, and Urban Communities, along with Prof. Dr. Ahmed El-Gabry, Dean of the Institute of Building Materials and Quality Control at HBRC. They were accompanied by a team of specialized engineers.
Eng. Hesham Darwish expressed his great admiration for the project’s architectural design, construction systems, artistic elements, and the use of natural, cost-efficient materials. He affirmed that this model is highly suitable for implementation in the Rural House Project in New Valley Governorate, which has already received approval from both the Board of Directors of the Social Fund for Development and the Council of Ministers. He emphasized that the design and applied systems align perfectly with the region’s climate, resources, and social lifestyle.
The project successfully met all Egyptian code requirements, according to the evaluations conducted by the Housing and Building National Research Center on the building’s structural safety, thermal and acoustic comfort, and overall construction quality — all supervised by Prof. Dr. Ahmed El-Gabry.
In addition, the compressed interlocking brick mixture — made from sandy soil, along with its production and treatment processes — was granted a patent by the Egyptian Patent Office at the Academy of Scientific Research and Technology in December 2020. Moreover, the project’s housing unit design was awarded First Prize for Innovation in the category of Green Urbanism and Creative Architecture at the 4th Cairo International Innovation Exhibition, organized by the Academy of Scientific Research and Technology.
