The Jewel of Cleopatra

The Jewel of Cleopatra is a pair of towers on the Alexandria coast road. The taller tower is wrapped in a golden diagonal grid of structure and glass, and the shorter tower beside it repeats the language at a lower height, forming a pair that reads as one composition from the sea and the street.

The concept is structure as ornament. A diagonal lattice, a diagrid, gives the façade its strength and its pattern, and at the base it opens into a tall pointed arch that marks the entrance.

The towers taper slightly towards their tops and end in a ring of slender fins that catch light and give the pair a delicate crown.

The towers stand among mid-rise apartment buildings along the seafront, with a wide palm-lined boulevard and sea defences in front. The entrance is a generous arched portal on the boulevard, with a tall glazed lobby that glows in the evening.

From the water, the pair appears as a gold and green shape against the pale city.

Behind the lattice, floors are fully glazed, with views to the sea and the city. The lobby is tall and open, and the arched portal frames a palm-lined entrance court.

Interiors are designed to be bright, with warm metals and natural stone as the main finishes.

Green-tinted glass, a golden diagrid of metal and stone, polished metal entrance arches and palms around the base form the palette. The lattice provides a measure of solar shading and gives the façade a texture that changes with the light.

The diagrid is both structure and sun-shade, reducing the need for extra frames and helping control solar gain. The proposal explores efficient glazing, sea-resistant materials and solar energy, subject to detailed assessment.

The Jewel of Cleopatra proposes a pair of landmarks for Alexandria whose pattern, silhouette and colour make them unmistakably of the city.

Structure that is also the image.

A façade that carries the building and the identity in the same line.