ELGABALY ARCHITECTS for design and engineering consultancy plans to increase the volume of its work in the field of design and engineering consultancy in the Egyptian market during the forthcoming period with the support of the great experience it gained over 26 years, and its designs for pioneering projects in the new urban cities, including the Administrative Capital and El Alamein.

(REALTY CATALOGUE) met with Dr. Tamer El-Gabaly, Chairman of the Board of Directors of ELGABALY ARCHITECTS for Engineering Designs, and Professor of Architecture at the Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University, to talk about the projects operated by the Group. As well as its future work plan in light of the urban renaissance that Egypt is currently witnessing across the State, according to the vision and objectives of the New Republic.

Elgabaly Architects and Gebal Consultants operates business that amounts to EGP 12 billion, including EGP 7 billion in the New Administrative Capital.

During the interview, El-Gabaly reviewed the most notable projects implemented by the Group since its inception in 1990s to date, the most notably of which is its implementation of the Tivoli Dome Group in Egypt, the Presidential Palace in El Alamein, in addition to the projects it is currently operating in new urban cities.

1996

At the very outset, El-Gabaly said that “ELGABALY ARCHITECTS” Office was established in 1996, with four persons and was a sole proprietorship, and began its business in the projects of compounds (residential villas) in the cities of 6th of October, El-Obour, El-Shorouk. In addition to the company’s projects regarding residential buildings in high-end neighborhoods, including Nasr City, Sheikh Zayed, Maadi, El-Obour, and New Cairo.

2001

At the beginning of 2001, the Company moved to work in commercial buildings, specifically shopping centers, as the Company designed the Golf City Mall project in Obour City, which is the second branch of Carrefour in Egypt, and it is one of the regional mall designed in Egypt according to the European concept.

El-Gabaly also noted that the Company has implemented a number of other malls, including Florence Mall for Marseilia Investment and Real Estate Development, Porto Cairo Mall project in New Cairo and some projects of City Stars Properties Company.

Furthermore, the establishment of the Future University Project is one of the most notable projects implemented by the Company at the beginning of its work during 2001 and 2002, according to El-Gabaly.

2006

He also mentioned that the Company began expanding in administrative buildings, malls, and educational buildings in early 2006, thanks to the extensive goodwill it had gained for designing a typical building with the latest international trends.

He noted that the main objectives of the “ELGABALY ARCHITECTS” Group is to create new and advanced designs that keep pace with the Egyptian culture, not just for aesthetics and architectural sculpture. Therefore, every 5 years, the Company develops architectural concepts to reach human coexistence that mimics the culture of Egyptian society.

In addition, he said that the Company made a great development in its projects from 2006 to 2011, through its contribution to the establishment of projects in Hurghada and Sharm El Sheikh, including Porto Matrouh project, Porto Sharm project-Sharm El Sheikh. As well as the Porto Dead Sea project in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, as well as working with investors in Morocco and Cyprus.

The company has completed 10 educational projects throughout the past 20 years, such as “Malvern College Egypt” and “The Future University in Egypt”. Currently, the company is on its track to complete “Alpha School” in the New Administrative Capital.

2011

El-Gabaly continued that “ELGABALY ARCHITECTS” started from 2011 to 2016, working on projects for the Mimar Misr, buildings in Sheikh Zayed, and implemented the Tivoli Group in 2008, the first of which was the Tivoli Dome Heliopolis project, and it is the first innovative project implemented by the company in the world.

He continued, “The Company began to expand in this project and designed Tivoli in Zayed, Marina, Abu Dhabi and Jordan, and all these projects are small cities with an area starting from 600 square meters to 800 meters, and each project has a new idea and philosophy that mimics human development”.

The company is specialized in a wide range of categories such as Mixed-use, Urban, Retail, Administrative, Educational and Cultural projects. Most recently, the company has designed “Green Waves” on a 200,000 square meter site in Port Said, a mixed-use project which includes Retail and commercial spaces, offices, luxury apartments, medical center, and other facilities.

2016

He also pointed out that the company’s most notable projects, which it started after 2016, is the project to design the Presidential Compound in the city of El Alamein, which includes the Presidential Palace as a first phase, and then the Administrative Compound attached to the Palace. As this will be recorded in history that ELGABALY ARCHITECTS implemented a distinctive architectural value within a short time.

In this context, El-Gabaly paid tribute to the developmental thought that the Egyptian State began to adopt some years ago, saying, “The New Administrative Capital, El Alamein City, Suez Canal, and Al Salam City have put Egypt at the forefront of the most important architectural countries.”

He continued, “Prior to 2016, there was the experience of new cities, including 6th of October City, El-Obour, Al-Shorouk, Badr, and Sheikh Zayed. These cities started in the late 1980s and this process took about 20 years to be implemented.

ELGABALY: we are currently working on 8 projects in the New Administrative Capital, in which 6 of them are located in the financial and business district. Most notably, the new headquarters of Telecom Egypt.

He also noted that the entry of the State as a general developer led to the acceleration of the development process, and made it succeed in implementing giant projects such as the El Alamein Towers, Presidential Compound, the desalination plant, the Latin Quarter in New Alamein. As I expect the city of El Alamein to start the full operation next summer.

He mentioned that ELGABALY Group has (8) projects in the Administrative Capital designed with the latest theories, the most important of which is the Telecom Egypt headquarters project of the Ministry of Communications with a unique architectural style in the Financial and Business District and the building has eco-friendly design.

He said that the company’s investments volume for existing projects in the Administrative Capital including ministries, an educational and cultural complex and schools, starting from 2021 till the present, are estimated at EGP 12 billion, in addition to EGP 2.7 billion investments in Sheikh Zayed City, and EGP 2 billion in Ras Sidr.

He said that the company is currently working on designing a 4-star hotel and a tourist residential compound in New Alamein on an area of 30 acres.

He also noted that the Group is currently implementing the Business City or Business Complex projects with the major companies in the Middle East, i.e., “Smart Way” (an Emirati-Lebanese company), and it carries out an integrated design of the project to all final handover phases.

Elgabaly: We have completed projects all over the Middle East including Egypt, Jordan and Morocco. We are aiming to increase our projects in the Gulf Region by 2023.

In addition, the company is implementing the largest educational project in the Administrative Capital in partnership with international consulting firms offices, on an area of approximately 150 acres on the Suez Road called the Science Park. This project includes a local university and an international university, international schools and a cultural city that includes cultural centers, conference halls, exhibitions, and an opera house, according to El-Gabaly.

He continued, “The Company has implemented, during the past 20 years, 10 projects including international schools located in Nasr City, Heliopolis, Sheikh Zayed, 6th of October, and New Cairo, and we implemented and designed one of the largest international schools in Egypt, which is Malvern International School. Moreover, the Group is working on establishing an international school “Alpha School” on an area of 16,000 square meters.

He also stated that the Group is working on designing two sites for the Ministry of Housing and Construction in New Cairo, one of which is located on an area of 80 acres on the Ring Road, and its design is expected to be completed soon.

In a related context, he pointed out that the company acquired many real estate projects, including a project from the Urban Communities Authority on an area of 40 acres in Sheikh Zayed, in addition to a project in Ras Sudr on an area of 160 acres for the interest of Ghoneim Real Estate Development Company.

El-Gabaly confirmed that the company is currently completing the “Etapa Square” project in Sheikh Zayed City on an area of 60,000 square meters and 140,000 square meters of buildings, for the “City Edge” For Real Estate Development Company, and it is expected to be handed over within the next 3 months.

The company’s extensive expertise in Malls, Administrative and Educational projects gives Elgabaly Architects a competitive edge, diversifying the company’s portfolio and driving its business volume.

Furthermore, he added that the projects implemented by the company abroad represent about 5% of the total projects implemented by the company, while it exceeded 50% before 2011. However, the increase in the company’s business volume in Egypt led to the withdrawal of all work teams abroad to work internally.

He continued that the focus on acquiring projects in foreign countries is currently little, with the support of most foreign companies heading to Cairo, so the Group began working as designers and consultants, and this is due to the expansion strategy in light of the New Republic vision.

ELGABALY Company is characterized by the rapid hand-over of projects, within 3 weeks by developing a complete vision for the project, and after obtaining the approval, it directly begins the design. This is one of the development mechanisms in the thought of the government developer, and therefore the company did not find enough time for foreign projects in light of placing the State’s projects at the top of its priorities.

He pointed out that the company’s expansion strategy is currently based on a review of what has been achieved during the past two years in terms of development and the volume of development in relation to the cultural and social dimension of people, in addition to searching for the latest system abroad and its application in Egypt.

He pointed out that the Group has established in 2011 the GEBAL Engineering Consultancy Company, which is responsible for the engineering and executive sector for the ideas coming from ELGABALY ARCHITECTS.

He also mentioned that one of the objectives of the company’s strategy is to implement sustainability standards and the building enjoyment for a period of 20 to 25 years as well, and thus

The Chairman of “ELGABALY ARCHITECTS” said that the Group has diversified its clients over the past 25 years, the most important of which was dealing with government agencies, including the Ministry of Housing and Construction and the National Organization for Urban Harmony and the New Urban Communities Authority (NUCA) and the Ministry of Communications, Ministry of Education, In addition to being one of the consultants contributing to the buildings of the Presidency of the Republic, and the Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate (EGID) with its various engineering sectors.

As for the real estate development companies that the Group works with, El-Gabaly said that the most prominent of them are City Edge, City Stars, Al-Azzazi Group for Educational Services, Marseilia Real Estate Investment Company, Amer Group for Real Estate Investment, Jumeirah Real Estate Investment Company, Red Sea Real Estate Investment and Tourism Development Company, and Misr Investment and Tourism Development Company.

He explained that ELGABALY Group has (3) pillars of sustainability, the first pillar is based on the eco-friendly building and the second is to focus on the psychological, mental and cultural health of the users and to be able to enjoy everything in the building.

The third is that the design of the buildings should be digital, and the goal is for the building to be dynamic responsive, and the design changes according to the factors and influences of the environment around it through a design based on the determinants that we carry out through specialized software.

Regarding the most prestigious awards received by “ELGABALY ARCHITECTS”, the Chairman of the Board of Directors noted that it won the 1^st award with the entry of one of its projects in the Guinness World Records in 2008. As well as another award for implementing the project of the administrative headquarters of the Urban Communities Authority in Sheikh Zayed, which was a contest by the Ministry of Housing.

In addition, the Group has received the award for the implementation of the “Etapa Square” project, as well as the award for the implementation of the Presidential Palace project in El Alamein, and I was nominated for the State Appreciation Award from Ain Shams University for two years in a row.

Furthermore, El-Gabaly paid a tribute to the development pillars that Egypt is implementing during the current period, especially the road and bridge projects, because the first step in driving the economy is the factor of time.

He also stated that the new road network is the reason for the impressive performance of the new urban communities, the prompt development, and the presence of the express train is very important because it will contribute to changing concepts and therefore I can live in a city and work in another city like foreign countries.

He added that the State has opened up great job opportunities for the private sector, through projects that are implemented in all economic sectors, which represents a good aspect.

With respect to the economic changes that the Egyptian market has witnessed recently, El-Gabaly said, “It is important that the State searches for sources of funding to counter the dollar crisis, and the risk is required at this time, and this is a phase of performance and achievements, and not a profit.”

WHO WE ARE

We are an interdisciplinary group of various forward – thinking specialist such as urban planning architects, landscape designers and interior designers, Whose collaborative practice seeks to explore ways of enriching coexistence between humans and the built environment

PURPOSE

                 As humanitarian futurists, we are constantly decoding the ever – evolving Forms of contemporary life to navigator the future of co existence

VISION

To Glocally navigate the future of the built environment By fusing deep appreciation of local culture with cutting edge digital technology into one of a kind spatial experience that transcends humanity