LANDSCAPE PRINCIPLES FOR SPACE DESIGN IN HARSH ENVIRONMENT: REVIEWING THE CASE OF EGYPT’S NEW TOWNS

The current situation in the Egyptian new town spaces is a critical and an accumulated
dilemma as there is no respect for the principles of a harsh environment. The spaces,
especially in the low‐income public housing have turned to be "a no‐man land" or neglected
areas. The main problem facing the designers of public spaces rehabilitation within lowincome
public housing projects, is that these spaces are mostly unlivable environments and
their design are not appropriate neither to the local environment of the town nor to the
behavior of their dwellers. This leads us to the main aim of this paper, which targets urban
designers, developers, and consultants to promote harmony, safety, activeness and
compatibility in the development to the environment, through the set of design guidelines,
principles for space generation levels, and standards regarding the landscape.
To achieve this aim, the paper consists of three parts. Part one, clarifies the theoretical basis
for space generation at the three levels of design, finalizing each level by the main principles
required for space generation with respect to a harsh environment. Part two, reviews lowincome
public housing project spaces in four new towns in Egypt, highlighting the problems
related to form generation especially the irrelevant landscape. The third part concludes the
paper's findings related to 'space generation process guidelines' for a contextual level, space
morphology level, and sensation and effects for users. Recommendations to achieve the
desired spaces in terms of users’ image, perception, senses to their spaces have been
suggested.