Architecture—01 / 24
The Continuum House
Lakeview, New Cairo, Egypt/Private villa/2023/Alchemy Design Studio — MFA
Stacked, cantilevered volumes around a sunken pool court, a double-height void at the centre and a sculptural stair as its heart: a family house designed to stay connected across every level.
Featured in Architectural Digest Middle East ↗- Location
- Lakeview, New Cairo, Egypt
- Year
- 2023
- Sector
- Residential
- Scope
- Concept to IFC
- Status
- Completed, 2023
My contribution
- My role
- Senior Design Architect — design lead under the Design Director
- Responsibility
- Concept to IFC
Key contributions
- Led the design from concept through IFC under the design director
- Developed the vertical-connectivity concept, the double-height void and the stair as the centre of the plan
- Directed the material palette of limestone, textured mineral plaster and ribbed bronze-toned screens
- Coordinated structural, MEP, landscape and lighting consultants
- Reviewed technical and workshop drawings through construction
The project
The house was designed for a large family whose life revolves around gathering, so instead of a collection of rooms it was developed around a single idea: vertical connectivity. From the lower-ground entrance the gaze rises through a double-height void; every level stays visually connected, and light travels down through the house, changing through the day.
Outside, boxy volumes broken by terraces and pools take the eye upwards across limestone, textured plaster and ribbed bronze-toned metal screens that give rhythm, shade and privacy. After dark, concealed linear lighting traces the horizontal planes and uplighting washes the stone, so the house appears to glow from within. The stair — oak, travertine and bronze, lined in backlit honey onyx — is the visual heart of the plan.
Film — The Continuum House
“Vertical connectivity: every level stays visually connected.”
Process
Concept plans across three levels — a lower ground opening onto the sunken pool court, the ground floor gathered around the reception hall and terraces, and the bedrooms above — with the material board that set the palette.
DWG 01Ground floor — the angled wings open the living spaces towards separate outdoor rooms.
DWG 02Lower ground — the pool court gives the lower level its own outdoor centre.
DWG 03First floor — the bedroom wings preserve the openings between the main volumes.
DWG 04Material board — pale stone and grey surfaces are balanced by timber and warmer accents.
Colophon
- Location
- Lakeview, New Cairo, Egypt
- Year
- 2023
- Sector
- Residential
- Typology
- Private villa
- Scope
- Concept to IFC
- Status
- Completed, 2023
- Role
- Senior Design Architect — design lead under the Design Director
- Client
- Private owner
- Storeys
- LG + G + 1
- Programme
- Seven-bedroom family villa
- Materials
- Limestone, textured mineral plaster and ribbed bronze-toned metal screens; limestone and smoked oak floors; oak, travertine and bronze stair with backlit honey onyx
- Press
- Architectural Digest Middle East, July 2026
Press
Architectural Digest Middle East, July 2026 — “This Cairo Home Reinvents the Open-Plan Concept, Deconstructing Floors Instead of Walls” ↗ · Words Amy Bradford · Photography Nour El Refai
Images
Photography Nour El Refai · Architectural Digest Middle East
Film — The Continuum House reel