Sa El Hajar-Gharbia. Egyptian Topography

The city of Sâ el Hagàr insists on the site of ancient Saïs capital of Egypt during the 26th dynasty. The design experimentation is based on the relation between the evolution of the settlement and the specific geographical condition of the site with the aim of enhancing its peculiarities and tracing the identity of the place. In defining the transition between city and countryside, the intervention translates into the design of two parks. The Green Belt unfolds along the perimeter of Sâ el Hagàr and is conceived as a filter space, a limit for future expansions of the built environment, hypothesized with the pattern of a dense fabric borrowed from the experiments conducted by Hassan Fathy for New Gourna. The Green Spindle contributes to reinforcing the figure and establishes itself as a new space for agricultural and energy production. The design of the agricultural land is defined by parallel bands undergo a progressive reduction in width, recalling a geometric scheme developed by Paul Klee in Monument an der Grenze des Fruchtlandes, in 1929 returning from a trip to Egypt.