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ARCH + INTERIOR DESIGN TRAINEE
& PROJECT MANAGER
Private Villa
New Cairo, Egypt
Flooring
After graduating from the BCD program at Dalhousie University, I moved to Cairo, Egypt to work on the design and furnishing of a private villa in New Cairo.
In addition to project managing the site, I was an architecture & interior design trainee under Nancy Farouk, a prominent freelance interior designer in Cairo who was the lead designer and engineer of the project.
This traditional wood flooring is popular across old homes in Cairo. Known in the region by it's french name Parquet, our clients requested wood floors across the entirety of the house. The goal was to differentiate formal and private spaces with varied wood type and designs.
We approached common-used living spaces with a classic Herringbone design using a mix of Norwegian and American wood sourced from Al-Sharabia in Cairo. As for bedrooms, we installed beech pine hardwood floors in straight and diagonal patterns to provide the illusion of a bigger space.
For this, we contracted a local wood-floor installer, known as Mohamed Parquet, who is keeping the craftsmanship and tradition alive. Together, we sampled wood dyes ranging between walnut brown to red-ish warm tones. All floors were hand dyed by Mohamed Parquet and his team.
REVIVING
Samia Gamal's
Bedroom
اعادة احياء
Purchased in Alexandria in 1982, this bedroom, consisting of a bed, dresser, 2 bedside tables, an armoire and a wardrobe, is named after Egypt's prominent belly dancer Samia Gamal for the lavish swirling details of the brass and wood combined.
The original purchaser gifted our clients the bedroom set after his wife's passing. Our goal was to revitalize the pieces to fit our client's home without sacrificing the original wood bone. The challenge was to treat the wood from termite bugs, refurbish the brass and re-design the headboard.
Eng. Nancy Farouk's team consists of a Master Craftsman in furniture named Osta Fouad who designs, produces and refurbishes old furniture. We decided to remove the red satin padded in the original bed's headboard and replace it with a pressed cane webbing.
The surrounding space is decorated with a unique earthy pistachio colour, accentuated with a royal wallpaper and framed with french-inspired gypsum wall panels. The headboard was painted in brass to equally tone the room's aesthetics.
old
Alexandria
to New Cairo
Inspired by Alexandria, Egypt's old homes and grand-esque buildings, this door is an ode to our client's upbringing in Alexandria.
Drawn out intricately, every detail mimics a pattern picked up from different doors across old homes in Alexandria. The brass design features parallel lines to elongate the door while infusing a central focal point.
The brass is conceded into the wooden frame and structural wooden carvings provide further depth and shape to the door.
All doors of the villa are designed with an antique brass knob sourced from an old palace in Cairo. Eng. Nancy recreates their designs with local metalsmithers.
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