Source: ecowatch.com
Published: October 11, 2016
Egypt’s first solar-powered village is up and running in the Bahariya Oasis.
KarmBuild‘s Tayebat Workers Village provides shelter for 350 people and was built with 90 percent local, natural materials including sandstone, which was used to construct the buildings.
KarmBuild is the “only company in Egypt to integrate solar energy technology into a building’s design” and it did it in a seamless way making the photovoltaic solar panels blend into the stone walls of the village. The panels also act as “thermal roof protection,” principal architect Karim Kafrawi told Inhabitat.
“The idea was to create an architectural character that would smoothly blend into the natural landscape so that from a distance, this rather large building would be discreet, almost invisible expect for the towering stone structures highlighted by the P.V. solar panels reflecting the sky and sun,” Kafrawi said.