Located astride the Mediterranean Sea, Gaza’s only five star hotel is less a model of conspicuous consumption than it is a monument to the kind of normality that puts within reach at least a nibble of luxury.

Currently based in Amman, Abdelhamid recently talked to Brownbook about the hotel that was built in 2000. He told the magazine that people were skeptical about the project given that it was built just after the Oslo agreements.

“I will make Gaza the new Singapore,” you know, a horizon of skyscrapers,’ said Abdelhamid.

Facilities include wireless internet, a coffee shop and restaurant, as well as a bookshop that stocks important Middle Eastern titles that are unavailable elsewhere in Gaza. Of course, that didn’t happen but the hotel still stands proud. Mostly foreign journalists and a small selection of wealthy Gazan families congregate at the boutique hotel, especially just before sunset.

Although this kind of luxury is unattainable to the great majority of residents, both the initial construction project and the continued success of the hotel has benefitted the local community.

In addition to teaching workers how to make adobe bricks out of a sand and clay mixture that then bake in the sun, Abdelhamid worked with furniture craftsmen and women to design a great deal of the handcrafted furnishings that give the hotel its distinctive style.

‘I believe design can be used to honour, develop and enact principles of environmental, economic and cultural sustainability,’ he said.

Adobe construction is particularly well-suited to hot climates since the thick earthen walls help to regulate interior temperatures. It is a common construction material in other desert countries as well, including the southwestern part of the United States.

Also involved with Gaza’s green school project, which has received support from across the globe, Abdelhamid has become a powerful voice of sustainable design in the region.

Meanwhile, the iconic Aldeira Hotel continues to hover above the rubble – both physically and metaphorically – instilling a stubborn sense pride among a people long beleaguered by decades of stale politics.

Back in 2010, the manager of Al Deira, shared some of the hotel’s hardest stories with FT: The darkest moment for Gaza and the al-Deira hotel, he said, “was in the months before the Hamas takeover of the territory in June 2007. As Gaza descended into bloody lawlessness, criminal gangs began to kidnap foreign visitors.

Once again, the al-Deira’s guests had to stay away. “The kidnapping situation drove us nearly crazy. How could we run our business without foreigners?” Samir Skaik said. To make matters worse, gunmen from rival Palestinian factions threatened to close down the al-Deira should they ever find the property harbouring members of another faction.

More than once, the manager was forced into delicate negotiations with gangs of militant gunmen. Two factors helped Mr Skaik resolve such moments of crisis: a sunny disposition – “I am always smiling” – and a fierce determination not to get caught up in the many conflicts raging in Gaza.

“We never make problems with anyone,” Mr Skaik says.

As of Oct, 7, 2023 it is not known if the Al Deira Hotel is functioning.

::Al Deira Hotel

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Which is why the timing of Matali Crasset exciting new line of twelve unique and ecological furnishings crafted by Tunisian women is so impeccable. To be distributed exclusively by France’s Made in Design, these one-of-a-kind woven, handcrafted goods are made with the most responsible materials available by artisans who can really use the cash.

Crasset conceived the new line while working with Patrick Elouarghi and Philippe Chapelet of HI Life – the chain of ecological hotels that has a branch in southern Tunisia.

During that long collaboration, which resulted in a colorful boutique hotel in Nefta, the French designer conceived of the Palm Lab Project deisgned to promote the use of renewable palm.

Crasset’s latest round of textiles, light fixtures, and furniture is an offshoot of that original project and celebrates mostly local women who have perfected their respective crafts, though the image below reveals the absence of any such gendered assumptions.

In keeping with the most stringent ecological principles, locally-sourced sheep’s wool is used for weaving and apricot and palm wood are used for the steel. And the artisans are refreshingly liberal with the colors, patterns and shapes incorporated into each piece.

Specifically focused on preserving tradition and boosting the economy in a manner that is genuinely sustainable, the design project also reveals a host of embedded cultural clues – such as the importance of hospitality to even the poorest, underprivileged members of society.

Vibrant, groundbreaking, and sensitive, Crasset’s crafts are made even more spectacular by the meticulous photographs of Wassim Ghozlami.

:: Designboom

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Sometimes these terms are overused, as Brian pointed out with his interesting post on the “S” word, and sometimes they don’t paint a complete picture. Now there’s a new word floating around – locatat – that refers to building a habitat using materials sourced within a 100 mile radius. It’s like locavore but for builders and it has critics.

The birth of a word

Arch Daily writer Vanessa Quirk seems to have been the first person to coin the term locatat. Whether or not it will become widely used remains to be seen, but it is inspired by a unique initiative underway in Vancouver, Canada that we can all take inspiration from.

The Architecture Foundation of British Columbia recently launched the 100-Mile House design competition, which is premised on the notion that in the past, people built homes using local materials. Whether these homes were built from cedar or sod, carved out of caves or ice, the pre-industrial age mandated local innovation.

Now, any old Joe can walk into a hardware store, buy a pile of lumber that might have been shipped from halfway across the world, and build an un-conscious home. Globalization has made life convenient, which has turned the majority of us into shopping zombies who know very little about the source of the materials we use and their associated environmental impact.

Loca-build

The AFBC competition is inspired in part by the locavore movement, which encourages people to eat food that was produced within a 100 mile radius. Not only is this expected to reduce “food miles” or the carbon footprint associated with shipping food great distances so that it is possible to eat winter squash in the heat of summer, but it also supports community engagement and development.

Although critics of the locavore movement worry that supporting only local products and developments discourages innovation and deprives international producers of a profitable market, AFBC hopes that the challenge of building a house with materials sourced within 100 miles will spur ingenuity that can then be shared.

In the competition brief, AFBC says “It is hoped that necessity, as the mother of invention, will foster/ create prototypes that could be modified and the ideas exported to any geographic area.”

The winner of the 100MH will be announced on May 19, 2012. Stay tuned!

More on Local Architecture:

Earth-Friendly Vernacular Date Palm Architecture

World Famous Architects Admire Vernacular Moroccan Architecture

Iraqi Mud Architect Wins Prestigious Sustainability Award

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This new eco-resort in the Fayoum Oasis offers tourists and locals respite from Egypt’s ongoing chaos.

Without the steady influx of tourists and constant political trouble, Egyptians are wondering when their lives will ever return to normal. But the folks at El Mandara eco-resort in Fayoum promise that visitors to their new facility will experience the “real” Egypt and become re-acquainted with their inner selves. Sitting astride Lake Qarun in the Fayoum Oasis just one hour and fifteen minutes drive from Cairo, this tranquil eco-haven was built with environmentally-friendly building materials and pays deep respect to its incredible natural surroundings.

We learned about Egypt’s latest eco-lodge from Urban Peek, who are friendly with the owners.

They explain that “the mentality of the resort is to represent simplicity, connecting with the beauty of nature, and enjoying silence away from the fast pace of day-to-day city life.”

To this end, the resort, which was previously a series of rundown buildings, was renovated using local, sustainable building materials including mud bricks (a la Hassan Fathy) and palm fronds that provide shading from the relentless desert sun.

Room sizes in this private resort range from 29m2 to 100m2. There are seven suites and three rooms, all enclosed for maximum privacy, and each of them has wonderful views of the nearby lake.

The project grew up in a matter of months once a group of friends decided to convert deserted huts into an eco-friendly timeshare that doubles as affordable lodgings. Entertainment options are decidedly non-digital, according to Urban Peek. Instead, visitors have access to a pool table and an inviting lake, as well as numerous opportunities to lounge about and enjoy the peace and quiet.

More active travelers can visit the nearby Hawara archaeological site and Wadi Rayan – Egypt’s largest waterfalls. Or they can try their hand at fishing, flying kites, playing beach volley, or bird watching.

El Mandara serves up traditional Egyptian cuisine, including locally-sourced fish, feteer and 3asal – all in an incomparable environment that will make returning to the bustle of every day life pretty darn difficult.

Egypt may not be ready to embrace eco-tourism en masse, since the former method of trucking in bus loads of tourists proved too profitable to let it slide completely, but we have seen a very steady rise in more sustainable options for tourists who want to have a positive impact on the country. El Mandara – which means Guest House – is great for foreigners and locals too!

These images were taken from the El Mandara Facebook page; for more professional imagery, please visit Urban Peek’s sponsored post.

:: Urban Peek

More on Eco-Tourism in Egypt:

Is Troubled Egypt Ripe Enough for Eco-Tourism?

Romantic Desert Lodge in Egypt Offers Fresh Eggs and Sanity

Tourists Bust Egyptian Restaurants Serving Endangered Species

The post New El Mandara Eco-Haven Pops up in Fayoum, Egypt appeared first on Green Prophet.

While many architects look to concrete as a cheap building material, Guilhem Eustache chose natural materials used by local Berbers for hundreds of years. Looks good, don’t you think?

Morocco is a magical country full of exotic scents, argan oil, eco-Kasbahs, and challenging mountain trails, but capturing this essence in a building is no easy feat. Foster + Partners comes close with this gorgeous bank, but Guilhem Eustache has taken a more minimalist and traditional approach. Commissioned by a Belgian film producer to design a sustainable home on a massive plot just south of Marrakech, Eustache responded with simplicity, geometry, and locally-sourced natural materials that together ward off the hot summer sun. 

While many architects are looking to concrete for a cheap building material that provides good thermal massing, Eustache chose more sustainable materials commonly used in traditional Moroccan architecture. And why wouldn’t he? For hundreds of years local Berber people have relied on clay and tadelakt to keep them cool in the summer and warm in winter without creating undue environmental destruction.

Not only is this home sustainable, but it truly embodies everything that is so mysterious about the Arab world’s super star country (which unfortunately also has a dark side). The geometric cutouts not only allow natural lighting to penetrate the home, but also create interesting sight lines and shadow play that evoke images of the country’s ubiquitous market alleyways. The use of double walls helps to deflect excess solar gain.

Relative to its rather stark 2.5 hectare plot within viewing distance of the Atlas mountains, The Fobe House is quite small at 172 square feet. To offset this so that the house isn’t swallowed up by the surrounding land, Eustache scattered and framed the private residence, guard house, garage, and pool house on a central piece of the property, while the owners planted 23 olive trees, 10 palm trees, 450 eucalyptus trees, 200 mimosas, and 20 fruit trees. These not only populate the land, but also promote sustainable agriculture and create a carbon sink.

While many countries in the MENA region continue to struggle beneath the weight of dictators and military crackdowns, including a fresh wave in Egypt that has left nearly 2,000 people injured, Morocco is a shining beacon of green hope. Not only are green building and eco-tourism developments becoming more prevalent, but the country has also unveiled plans to develop a 500MW solar plant as part of the sterling Desertec initiative. Morocco’s mixture between old-world romanticism and new-world progress make this one of our favorite countries to visit.

:: Yatzer

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