The Education Reform Projects is a competition held to design school typologies to to improve the quality of educational space in rural towns in Egypt. In this light, CDC's design process raised a design question of how can the typology of a school that is known to be formal, efficient and typical, be accommodated the needs and constrains of the different contexts it is placed in. Due to the variation of cultural backgrounds between the city and rural town communities, the design philosophy had been set on a group of principles that achieve the optimum building manner for an educational establishment in a rural society. This lead CDC to produce a guideline for the designing of schools, taking into consideration the optimum spatial organization, circulation, construction and environmental considerations for design. As an example, the environmental approach considered the inclusion of groups of open courts and wind catchers within the building mass, to maximize the fresh air circulation though the educational spaces. The maximization of using the northern façade to achieve the optimum natural lighting. As for the construction Approach, the selection of usage for local building techniques and materials (Load bearing walls – Stones), to optimize the community involvement, through making the local community builders be part of the construction process. The usage of familiar colors, textures and materials and suitable buildings heights to achieve the appropriateness of the building in the rural community. These design guidelines along with others provide criteria, requirements and recommendations for the design and construction of the schools of the ERP program.
