the 'sheltainer' housing project combines hope with humanity in cairo

UAE based architects mouaz abouzaid, bassel omara and ahmed hammad propose housing solutions to solve cairo‘s cemetery housing phenomenon for low income families using shipping containers. ‘sheltainer’ is a project which has a deep vision that targets an important human aspect, solving a problem specifically for low-income families, students and refugees with simple yet accurate design for better humanity using shipping containers.

all images courtesy of mouaz abouzaid

the concept is based on a micro-housing solution which targets the less fortunate. last year the design team focused on the micro-scale challenge by analyzing the simple human needs that can solve the crises in 3rd world countries. this year the project is taken to the next step with a new hope, looking at the big picture and shifting from micro to macro challenge. they choose to provide new hope for the people living amongst the dead in cairo and focus on egyptian life at cemeteries – where life and death are side by side.

the design focuses on a single house unit with all the necessary needs for a small family, combining it into one cluster that serves as a small neighborhood of 8 homes surrounding a green courtyard. the project aims to give cairo a new ‘lung’ that allows it to breathe and also provide a ‘human’ residence along with solving the traffic disaster that the capital has suffered from for long decades by establishing a new road network. overall, ‘sheltainer’ offers a flexible solution by redesigning the old market and optimizing the area by maintaining its current activities along with new open spaces, new activities, new homes and above all new hope.

project info:

project name: ‘sheltainer’

architects: mouaz abouzaid, bassel omara and ahmed hammad

location: cairo, egypt 

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: lynne myers | designboom