An Egyptian duo have decided to start their own designing project in a backyard; their project is thought to have the needed potential to put an end to Egypt’s housing problem.
Cargotecture is a new and innovative way of construction that principally relies on shipping containers in construction for their versatility.
Qubix is the first Egyptian company to adopt this technique and implement it in Egypt. The one-year-old company is founded by Karim Rafla and Youssef Farag.
Rafla told Egyptian Streets that the idea was ignited when he was studying Global Business Management in London. He was fishing for an interesting product to conduct a business study on.
Rafla started his research in the field of cargotecture and knew of an entire city that is based outside of London built of steel containers. He decided to take the train to outside London and visit the city.
“People are living in containers in this city, it was too good to be true. Cargotecture is a hybrid of construction and manufacturing ” Rafla said.
He went on to explain that living in containers have no disadvantages whatsoever.
Rafla continued, “Cargotecture has several advantages, it is cost-efficient, portable, construct efficient, prefabricated and safe altogether.”
The normal wall will be destructed if hit by a hammer. However, for these containers, they will only produce high sound.
According to Rafla, the final product is reached through three phases: Design, develop and deploy.
The first phase is the designing phase, also known as the consensual stage as they agree with the clients on the shape of the containers. They grasp the needs of the clients and know what the containers will be used for. The containers can be used as houses, hotels, hospitals or anything. They, then, start to design.
“The second phase is the development phase. They start to develop the infrastructure and provide thermal insulation, electric wiring, plumbing and sound insulation,” Rafla added.
During the second phase, they install air conditioners, lightning and the containers are double-layered to insulate humidity.
The final phase is that they deploy the final containers and hand them to their clients.
When Rafla came back to Egypt, Farag joined him and they started working on the project at Farag’s backyard. They have already delivered several orders and expanding. Rafla believes that this project can be implemented on a large scale in Egypt.
Rafla concluded by saying that people need to comprehend that cargotecture is faster, safer, stronger and needs zero on-site construction. Any building that may be destroyed in Egypt’s slums can be replaced within 48 hours by using this technique.
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