Egypt Built a Supertall Skyscraper in the Desert

you may have noticed that it's a good time to be a city planner it seems like hardly a month goes by without some fancy new renders being released of a grand new master plan in Saudi Arabia China or the US everybody seems to be having a go from the Vietnamese governments to Disney and now Egypt is getting in on the game with quite possibly the most ambitious new development yet this is its new administrative capital a city the size of Singapore that's being built from scratch in the desert the massive pneumotropolis will have Monumental architecture reminiscent of the Pharaohs Grand government buildings a huge new Finance Hub and housing for some 6 million people and there's no glitzy new city would be complete without a showpiece skyscraper the NAC is getting this the iconic Tower Africa's largest building but is it really this easy can anyone just drop a few billion dollars and get a new fully functioning City and why is Egypt so desperate for one that it's literally building a in the middle of this [Music] now we're used to covering the world's most impressive megastructures but there's one country that has more of a pedigree than others in recent times and until the Burj Khalifa the title of world's tallest building has been passed around with relative frequency but the Great Pyramid of Giza held it for four millennia now I know what you're thinking that's all ancient history but you'd be wrong Egypt is getting back into the mega project game and in a big way with that new administrative capital or NAC there are lots of reasons for building an entire New City from scratch Indonesia is constructing new santara to replace its current capital Jakarta which is quite literally sinking and South Korea is building a high-tech floating city to beat rising sea levels the NAC came about because of this Cairo has been plagued by overcrowding for decades and it's only getting worse congestion is now so bad that the place is literally grinding to a halt so in 2015 the government came up with the NAC as a solution it's being built in a 700 square kilometer stretch of desert which will one day incredibly be home to 6 million people after seven years of construction phase one is now nearing completion the entire Egyptian governments will move into a new Monumental government District there'll be new buildings for official Ministries the Egyptian Parliament and a sprawling presidential Palace all with references to pharonic architecture 10 residential zones will host housing ranging from apartment buildings to a luxury parisian-style neighborhood there's nourishment for the body and soul with a sports complex including a 90 000 C Stadium the new al-fatah al-ali mosque one of the largest in the world and the middle east's largest Cathedral the military which plays a huge part in Egyptian politics is represented here too not to be outdone by the Pentagon in Washington DC they're having their own polygon themed building created the octagon but this isn't just a showpiece capital for the governments it's all part of Egypt's 2030 strategy a long-term plan that's how to transform the country's economy to help with that the NAC also boasts a financial Hub where that very tall new tower is being built so how is all this possible in the middle of the desert well the Project's getting some help from the China State construction Engineering Corporation which is overseeing construction of the central business district 20 skyscrapers are being built here and one of the biggest issues the engineers faced was stopping them sinking into the soft desert a raft Foundation was first constructed for the iconic Tower it's a huge reinforced concrete slab which spreads the load of a building out over a wide area to support the weight of the 393 meter structure a whopping 18 500 cubic meters of concrete was poured making it the largest Foundation of its type in the Middle East Not only was the construction big it was also incredibly fast the foundation slab was poured in 38 hours nearly half the time originally expected thanks to a specially designed concrete pumping system which poured at a rate of 785 cubic meters each hour that speed was kept up as the building's superstructure began to take shape the whole concrete core shot up in 808 days and the steel framework Advanced at a rate of one floor every three days until all 78 stories were complete the project topped out in August 2022 and is expected to fully complete in early 2023 so will it work the overall cost of the project has never been publicly released but the price of moving government Ministries and the parliaments alone was estimated of 45 billion US dollars from Putrajaya in Malaysia to songdo in South Korea planned cities are often turned to as a way to drive economic growth but if they go wrong billions of dollars could end up being wasted on nothing Forest City in Malaysia is a useful cautionary Tale the 100 billion dollar developments was supposed to be a smart Eco City leading the world in new forms of Urban Development instead only a tiny fraction of the housing units was sold the products turned into one of the most controversial schemes in Malaysia's history and it contributed to the downfall of prime minister najib razak in 2018. so is Egypt's NAC worth the bet it's no coincidence that the Chinese State Engineering Company is helping to build this at a summit in 2016 China and Egypt signed a deal including the NAC in China's huge Belton road infrastructure project the move which could give its Central business district the opportunity to become an important hub there might also be a few more reasons why the Egyptian government wants to move remember this cairo's sprawling overcrowded streets have long been a center for popular demonstrations is the massive presence of security you know sort of hearing the voice of people talking to people and dealing with people's needs in this case the political Administration is moving from the coral to this new administrative capital the master plan of the new government quarter with its wide open spaces and long boulevards may be visually impressive but it's also seen by some as an effective way to prevent protests because the built-in environment basically is built in a way that the idea of controlling the urban environment is possible because of the more ordered and the more straight lines you have in your master planning of the Cities the more control you will be getting whereas in Cairo you can see how the city is formed and shaped with all these labyrinths Cairo may be congested and overcrowded but it does have a vibrant City Life it remains to be seen whether that can be replicated in a new custom-built sensor they are unfortunately trying to create a kind of contradictory image of the old Cairo the rich social and cultural interaction that happened in the streets that trying to create this image of a very unsafe Society on the other side whereas this side this is we have this amazing safe ordered and formal built environment that is made only for those who can afford it while the NAC may be a financial success it appears unlikely to benefit ordinary Egyptians the average cost of a house is likely to be 60 000 US Dollars that's 16 times the average household income in Egypt that is the main problem we don't know how much affordable housing schemes can be found in those largest villas for instance it is a good initiative because it will bring Investments but who will benefit from that there is of course a long ways ago before this ambitious plan is complete and it remains to be seen whether or not it can benefit those who need it the most but it's clear that Egypt's ability to build big is definitely back if you enjoyed this video and you want to get more from the definitive video channel for construction make sure you subscribed to the b1m [Music]

Channel: The B1M

Views: 1,311,661

Keywords: B1M, TheB1M, Construction, architecture, engineering, The B1M, Fred Mills, building, egypt, cairo, nac, new administrative capital, belt and road, iconic tower, central business district, regenertion, cities, overcrowding, arab spring, china, concrete, urban planning, africa, skyscraper, supertall skyscraper, luxury apartments, protests, politics

Id: rmJuBKxPnYk

Length: 9min 13sec (553 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 02 2022