The Classification of Mountainous Buildings

Abstract

The urbanization of Egypt is concentrated around the flat agricultural lands of the Nile Valley, which represent about 4% of Egypt's area, where the deserts represent the most of Egypt territory. Despite the richness of Egypt territory of high lands, like mountains, hills and plateaus, the contemporary Egyptian completed his preference for flat plains extended to the flat lands of the desert. The highlands and mountains provide great opportunities for construction and development in Egypt, especially for tourism sector. However, the scientific expertise is an important element to know how to build in mountainous areas, so the demand for the guidelines and the scientific foundations are substantial. The paper aims to classify the mountain buildings because the possibility of classifying will guide the designers to be able to construct in mountainous areas. The intersection between different types of Architectural classifications and definitions, and the merging of some mountain building classifications under other architectural classifications have led to the marginalization of the mountain Architecture. Therefore, these definitions will be clarified according to architects and experts studies. The buildings will be classified architecturally according to their relationship to the mountains. As the study on the architectural scale of the building, the classification will based upon the intersection with the mountain mass, which in circumstance is determined by many factors such as angle of inclination, rock nature, surrounding location, and building area. The research will highlight on how to deal with the mountainous areas as a place to settle and live with various limitations and conditions.