Usually representing spirits, ancestors or the primordial couple, these figures were placed in shrines and treated with great respect. Through a wide range of style, scale, belief and function the couples depicted share a timeless, serene equality necessary to the continuity of their societies.

El Gouna Hotel Resort / Michael Seagraves Architects

Architects: Michael Graves Architects
Location: Red Sea, Egypt
Project Year: 2007
Photographer: Michael Seagraves Architects

- 13 May 2015
- Edwin Seda
Africana , Contemporary African Directory , Modern Africana , Selected Works , Conservation Architecture , Resorts , Luxury , Hotels ,

Hassan Fathy would be proud standing on one side of the red sea and glaring into the yonder, eyes fixed on the red adobe architecture replication of his ideas into the El Gouna Hotel resort in Egypt’s hot and humid air. It is a oxymoron idea into architecture, using locally affordable materials and technology to create a luxurious environment for the well-heeled, trying to adopt a cultural and significantly pithy idea onto the Egyptian landscape.

El Gouna Hotel Resort / Michael Seagraves Architects

The luxurious Steigenberger Golf Resort expresses a mixture of modern architecture while respecting regional traditions, both styles of architecture and technology.

El Gouna Hotel Resort / Michael Seagraves Architects

It does well to adopt an Arabic feel to it, without leaning too heavily on any specific tenets, simply adopting the style and rolling with it into an up-to-date feel to the entire complex.

El Gouna Hotel Resort / Michael Seagraves Architects

The hotel grounds overlook the championship golf course, lagoons, pool and lush gardens. The distinctive interiors of the spa feature Turkish baths, mosaic-tile pools, within a series of vaulted spaces lit from above through clerestory windows. The restaurant and bar are located in an adjacent pyramid-shaped building offering awe-inspiring views of the golf course and the Red Sea.

El Gouna Hotel Resort / Michael Seagraves Architects

The careful combination of bright and dimmed hues of earth simply embellishes the design in light and the careful juxtaposition of incorrigible forms and shapes traverse across the complex like a spate of carefully throughout executions, a good attempt towards maintaining a degree of purity and saturation of control.

CLICK TO REVIEW LINKED STORY

Halawa House / Abdel Wahed El-Wakil
The Halawa House presupposes the notion of a contemporary idea within a setting that is way past its own time. Wahed El Wakil says the house is conspicuously different, both in design and materials, from what is normal in Agami. And that is no Sin. This house is an idea whose sole discretion l...

- © El Gouna-Steigenberger-Golf-Resort_Orascom-Deve...
- © El Gouna-Steigenberger-Golf-Resort_Orascom-Deve...
- © El Gouna-Steigenberger-Golf-Resort_Orascom-Deve...
- © El Gouna-Steigenberger-Golf-Resort_Orascom-Deve...
- © El Gouna-Steigenberger-Golf-Resort_Orascom-Deve...
- © El Gouna-Steigenberger-Golf-Resort_Orascom-Deve...
- © El Gouna-Steigenberger-Golf-Resort_Orascom-Deve...
- © El Gouna-Steigenberger-Golf-Resort_Orascom-Deve...
- © El Gouna-Steigenberger-Golf-Resort_Orascom-Deve...

SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS

If you want your own avatar and keep track of your discussions with the community, sign up to archiDATUM >>

SELECTED WORKS

- Namibia Offices For Mineworker’s Union / Wasserfall Munting Architects
- 17 Feb 2016
Positioned on the northern side of one of the major vehicular arteries into Katutura, the new head office of the Mine worker’s Union is l...
- Olifantsvlei Primary School / Studio 3
- 27 Jun 2016
The idea of a school has in the past been reduced to a dumping ground for children where in this bleak, uninspiring places, violence and ...
- The Craft School / University Build Collective
- 05 Sep 2016
The Craft School is an effort by Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Technical University of Munich, University of Au...

CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN DIRECTORY

- Revival Sunset Chapel / FATmaison
- 22 Jan 2016
The Revival Sunset Chapel in Libreville is perhaps Africa's Taj Mahal, built for a love that a Government Minister sort to bequeath as a ...
- Ubuntu Centre / Field Architecture
- 30 Jun 2016
The Ubuntu Center provides pediatric HIV testing and treatment, counseling, education, and community empowerment. The design is focused o...
- Lokko House / Lesley Lokko
- 11 Aug 2015
When Lesley Lokko isn't travelling between cities and continents, she likes to say she thinks about architecture. I have had a chance to ...