Rethinking the Concept of School Design: A Proposed Case Study in Upper Egypt

Document Type : Original Research

Authors

1 Architecture department, Faculty of engineering, Beni-Suef University, Beni-Suef, Egypt

2 Department of Architecture, Beni-Suef University

Abstract

Given the fact that Covid is still around, along with other airborne viruses, and the ever-growing population, public health became a priority in architectural design. As the COVID-19 pandemic upended the 2019–2020 school year, education systems scrambled to meet the needs of students and families with little available data on how schools’ closures may impact learning. With poor economic conditions and infrastructure, the crisis was greater in the rural areas. Therefore, this paper aims to highlight the role that architecture can play during the epidemics, serving poor societies and rural communities. This paper also attempts to provide a typology for designing educational buildings, in the rural places of Egypt, that it can afford a safe environment for children, during and after pandemics. This typology will be concluded from the illustration of two schools’ case studies; the first is a design example for the impoverished societies, and the second is a retrofit example during the pandemic. This paper also will illustrate a design example for a school proposal that targeted a poor society during pandemics. This suggested design, in Ezbit El safeh in Beni-Suef governate, entitled: Scaffold Educational Hub, is the 1st prize winner at Cairo Construction Hub sponsored by the prime minister of Egypt (2020). The design aimed to overcome the problem of school closure and the inability to access the internet. The concept of the suggested design depends on changing the routes of the educational buildings and create an educational building can stand and keep children safe.

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