The award-winning project is an extraction of Abdullah Al Dabbous’s Masters thesis at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL. 

The project stresses the adaptability of Cairo’s unused urban spaces (e.g. spaces under motorway flyovers ) to meet the needs of street children and provide both learning and opportunities for advancement without uprooting them—in other words, by dealing with street children as positive economic assets rather than liabilities.

The self-constructed nature of the intervention away from governmental bureaucracy eases execution and guarantees 100% revenue for the targeted groups. Local recyclable materials utilised in Revolution 4.0 assures self-sufficiency of the project, while sequential execution integrates street children with the charitable companies involved e.g. ADAPT, the work of which is to provide local subsidized materials for informal construction and training for poor people.

Under the ring road in Mariotia, Phase 1 involves setting foundations for the intervention, and creating a culvert for the contaminated and exposed canal. 

Phase 2 will then involve cleaning and collecting recyclable local materials from surrounding farmlands (e.g. Straw-Bales). Construction waste from the informal settlements built on adjacent agricultural lands are recycled and used also in constructing low-cost houses for the poor by the poor street children themselves. 

Phase 3 consists of building a platform for observing construction, whereas Phase 4 includes establishing training workshops and learning platforms in preparation for the pursuit of sustainable opportunities on Phase 5; which includes a service and construction centre that are self-managed by street children.

Data Sheet

Conceptual

Area: 100 sqm

Location: Ring Road, Greater Cairo

Awards

The project is shortlisted in the World Architecture Festival 2017 taking place in November at Arena Berlin. Along with world-class firms, Revolution 4.0 is competing in the future projects category, as well as winning the Power and Justice category in the Inaugural World Architectural Festival award (WAFX). In addition, the project won the Landscape Architecture/ Outdoor designs category at the American Architecture Prize awards (AAP) and also received a special mention at the S.Arch International Awards in Hong Kong.