In a country like Egypt, with a rich art and architecture legacy spanning centuries and dynasties, this luxurious villa in Cairo marks a departure of cliched design codes and a confident stride towards a locally resonant contemporary decor style.
When designing a home for a family with an acute artistic eye, it is only natural to incorporate a trove of curiosities, tailor-made to reflect their rich inner worlds. But when it comes to bespoke design, few come close to the bold yet refined style of Cairo-based DB Architects. Its experimental approach involves layering materials to create a rich new visual language. This sumptuous DB Architects-designed home overlooking the pyramids of Giza is no exception.
The greatest design stories from AD Middle East, delivered to your inbox
“Our essence is really about uniqueness, bespokeness, and being different – we don’t repeat what we do,” says Helmi Soufrakis, co-founder and architect of the family-run practice. “Whether it’s a new build, a renovation or a heritage home, we often take a project and completely turn it on its head.”
This Artfully Layered Home in Cairo – Overlooking the Nile – Is a Modern Day Art Deco Fantasy
Set on a generous 3,1000 square-metre plot, the house is located in a compound featuring an assortment of villa prototypes; some smart thinking has resulted in a layered feel to the architecture, with an eclectic blend of materials and silhouettes. Take, for example, the concrete cladding reminiscent of woven baskets (“or animal skin”, as Soufrakis points out). The initial design featured an “interesting marble cladding”, but an impromptu trip with the client to Italy put these sharp concrete blocks on their radar, which, when twisted at a 90 or 100-degree angle, form dynamic shapes. “It not only gave us an interesting aesthetic for the finish of the house, but it also added to the U-value [heat transfer] and insulation value,” adds Soufrakis. “It was very complicated to do because we had to rework the elevations and the openings to make the concrete blocks level with all the windows, so we had to refortify the house. But it gave us a very interesting result.”
In the basement, the architects aimed to eliminate any feeling of being underground by creating myriad connections to the ground level. Strategic optical illusions have been achieved by integrating double-height spaces inside and designing a ramp that runs from the garden to the basement without losing views of the pool and the surrounding desert. “We tried to make a feature out of everything,” Soufrakis explains, “so the basement never feels like a basement.”
Similarly, the spectacular swimming pool is glass-walled to highlight the work of Egyptian ceramicist Mohamad Samir El Gindy: 25 metres of hand-cut tiles painted in blue and purple hues. Framed by terraces of sculptural cacti, the pool was designed at an angle to ensure that it can be seen from all areas of the house. “The property is L-shaped, so we opened up the part between the rectangular space and the extension so you have air and sun all around the house all the time,” says Soufrakis.
The outdoor design scheme also features dining and lounge spaces and two monumental yet delicate metal sculptures of flower-like forms by Viabizzuno, which faces the panorama of the pyramids. “We constantly try to create cinematic frames in our work,” Soufrakis continues. “Look at the contradiction between the heaviness of the pyramids and the lightness of the sculptures, for example. We are always trying to give that sense of contrast in what we do.”
Moving inside, visitors walk through barn-like Burmese teak double doors into an instantly impressive entrance hall. This is capped by a pyramidal skylight, its panes angled “to create the feeling of movement”. Here, one first encounters the homeowner’s robust collection of artworks, which adorn the home with the curatorial eye of a gallerist. Largely comprising works by Egyptian artists including Adel El Siwi, Fathi Afifi and George Bagoury, it is a celebration of the country’s creativity. “Egyptian art doesn’t get enough recognition, so it was great to be able to include so much of it in this project,” says DB Architects co-founder and interior designer Aynour Soufrakis, adding that the brief was to create a home that paid homage to its context.
“The client wanted a home that creatively mixed modern and traditional elements, including Oriental imagery and forms,” Aynour Soufrakis continues. “For example, we’ve used craft-inspired materials such as mother-of-pearl, which gives a sense of the Islamic period, and hand-knotted rugs from various Middle Eastern countries.”
In the dining room, Soufrakis reshaped the sense of flow by stripping it of wall cabinets (instead, storage has been suspended from the ceiling in an artistic arrangement), allowing for more seamless movement across the nine-square-metre space. The proportions were at first dizzying for the homeowners, who were later convinced that a sense of intimacy was possible. The most eye-catching element here is the alabaster dining table, bleached white from the traditional yellow and manufactured by Atelier Alain Ellouz according to Aynour Soufrakis’ design. It emits an uninterrupted glow, thanks to integrated lighting that is invisible to the eye.
The living room features a freestanding, multicoloured leather wall that has been handmade using nail studs, while an adjacent lower wall features curtain-like linen panels, hand-stitched in a classical style. A large locally made mirrored artwork enlarges the size of the room, while a Roll & Hill prototype chandelier, discovered during Salone Del Mobile in Milan, adds character to this luxurious villa in Cairo.
Perhaps most impressive of all is Soufrakis’ intuitive ability to combine contrasting materials in an experimental yet refined way. “I really love discovering new materials,” she says with a laugh. “Seeing a palette come to life is my favourite part of a design scheme.”
In the principal bedroom, the designer has fashioned a headboard using a concrete finish trimmed with velvet, which was specially made for her in Ireland. Overhead, three antique chandeliers, combined into one installation, hang from a ceiling featuring layers of gypsum. “It feels like you’re on a ship sailing across the water,” adds Soufrakis. The design is escapist and dreamlike. What could be better?
