| You are in:Home/Theses | |
Dr. Mohamed Ahmed Rezk Aly Al-Sherbiny :: Theses : |
|
| Title | Architecture and Urban Design of Waterfronts |
| Type | PhD |
| Supervisors | Manal Samir Abu El-Ela, Ibrahim Sharaf |
| Year | 2022 |
| Abstract | This research discusses the urban design of the waterfront, which means the lands adjacent to water bodies or water ways. Although many cities compete in the development of such areas, policies of waterfront development in Egypt suffer from some shortcomings. Because there are no sufficient regulations that control its urban development. Thus, this research seeks to develop a system of guidelines that ensure the efficiency of river front urban design, and achieve the best functional and visual benefit from their potentialities. To attain this objective, the research is divided into four parts. The first and the second parts contain the theoretical study, the third part contains the case study, and finally the fourth part contains the conclusion and the recommendations. The first part deals with the basic concepts of waterfront development. It explicates the potentialities of those regions, and explains their development methods in the past and modern eras, and compared between them. It detected that there are five approaches to develop such areas, the first is the urban approach, the second is the morphological, the third is the environmental, the fourth is the legislative and the fifth is the social development. The second part explains the principles of the urban design of waterfronts, at the level of spaces and structures. It indicates five design guidelines for waterfront spaces. The first identifies the most appropriate uses of those spaces. The Second principle is concerned with the ratio of public spaces among them (i.e. the area of public promenades, plazas and gardens). The third principle is concerned with the accessibility to the river from the town, at the level of both pedestrians and vehicles. The fourth principle pertains to the visibility of water along the river front spaces. Finally, the fifth principle is concerned with the efficiency of landscape elements to achieve the requirements of recreational activities. The design guidelines of waterfront buildings also contain five principles. The first one indicates the suitable uses of those buildings. The second is concerned with the character quality of waterfront collective facade. The third pertains to the homogeneity of its skyline. The fourth is concerned with its landmarks, and the quality of their form, location, height, exposure and symbolic meaning. Finally, the fifth pertains to permeability among buildings, and connectivity through the urban tissue. The third part deals with the applied study, which is an analysis of the Nile river front in Greater Cairo (from the 15th of May Bridge at the north, to Abbas Bridge at the south), according to the previous guidelines. The most important shortcoming that has been noted in the river front spaces is the lack of public spaces adjacent directly to the river, and their limited area, due to the spread of private uses along the Nile berm. Also the vehicles ways parallel to the river isolate it from the town, and threaten pedestrians and recreational activities along it. Also, high structures of the berm and tall fences of private uses block the river view from the public spaces in the bank. As for waterfront buildings, the most widespread problems are their negative character, lack of landmarks and weakness of its visual image. These disadvantages are resulted from visual pollution aspects, and inadequacy of urban legislations, especially associated with character and sky line. The fourth part contains the conclusion of the study, and it indicates the priorities and recommendations of Nile River front development, at the level of spaces, as well as the level of buildings, and the level of legislations. |
| Keywords | |
| University | Benha |
| Country | Egypt |
| Full Paper | - |
| Title | Towards a Scientific Model for Visual Reconstruction of Extinct Architectural Heritage |
| Type | PhD |
| Supervisors | Ali Hatem Gabr; Khaled Abdel-Hady; Ahmed Farid Hamzaa; Manal Abu El-Ela |
| Year | 2022 |
| Abstract | Despite the value of monuments and historic buildings, they are subject to be destroyed or totally vanished. Conservation projects can protect them from deterioration, but, according to Venice Charter, it's not acceptable to reconstruct a whole extinct monument. So, instead of reconstructing them physically, artists and researchers tend to visualize their thoughts about lost monuments in the form of paintings, graphics, physical models, digital models, 3D animated movies or virtual environments. Those reconstructions are usually made for cultural, touristic, educational, scientific, entertainment or conservational purposes. This field is generally called "Visual or Graphical Reconstruction of Lost Architectural Heritage" and in digital era "Virtual or Digital Reconstruction / Reconstitution". But the problem of these reconstructions is that they may be used - intentionally or unintentionally - to disseminate false interpretations or misconceptions about the lost heritage, due to lack of information, human mistakes, bias or prejudice, especially in digital revolution era. So the objective of this research is to create a theoretical model to make and evaluate such reconstructions on an objective basis, and indicate the reliability degree of each part of them. The dissertation is consisted of ten chapters. The 1st. Chapter deals with the basic concepts of lost architectural heritage and conservation strategies related to it. It explains the importance of visual reconstructions and shows some worldwide examples. It ends with a literature review. The 2nd. Chapter discusses the different types of information sources related to vanished monuments, such as: ruins, architectural remains, historical accounts, texts, old documents, photographs, paintings, drawings, historical inscriptions, engravings, coins, sculptures, ancient maps and archaeological survey. The 3rd. Chapter focuses on criticism and investigation of sources. There are two types of criticism: external and internal. External criticism attempts to determine the authenticity, validity, or trustworthiness of the source. Internal criticism tries to determine the accuracy and the best architectural interpretation of the information extracted from the source. The 4th. Chapter discusses how to compare and synthesize that information to make a primary reconstruction and indicate its data gap (the unknown parts which have no data). This gap can be completed by studying similar buildings of the same style and applying logical inference methods, such as deduction, induction and analogy. If this gap is still unknown after that, it should be abstracted or avoided in the final reconstruction, but imagination is unacceptable. The 5th. Chapter is concerned with building the suggested theoretical model and the criteria of evaluation, depending on results of the previous chapters. This model should be tested to check its efficiency, by applying it to reconstruct an extinct monument and assess its reliability degree. It is chosen to reconstruct the Madrasa of al-Salih Najm al-Din Ayyub, in Bayn al-Qasrayn region, at Islamic Cairo. The 6th. Chapter is the case study introduction. It contains the reasons for choosing this Madrasa and some basic data about it. The 7th. Chapter analyzes the architectural remains of it. The 8th. Chapter analyzes the other information sources, like historical accounts, photographs and old drawings. The 9th. Chapter focuses on comparison between sources, synthesis of information, specifying the data gap and attempts to complete it by logical inference. At the end of this chapter the final reconstruction is represented in the form of plans, elevations, sections, exteriors and interiors, with an analysis of reliability degree of each part. The 10th. Chapter includes the conclusion and recommendations about developing and utilizing the suggested model. |
| Keywords | Lost Architectural Heritage, Virtual Reconstruction, Madrasa of Al-Slaeheya in Al-Moez Street |
| University | Benha |
| Country | Egypt |
| Full Paper | - |
