My wife and I recently returned from a tour of Egypt. Hence why this newsletter comes a little after the month has ended. However, I have something fun to share with all of my construction industry partners and friends and that is: timber stick framing really is a North American phenomenon.
One thing that stands out for me as we traveled across the country was how differently they build than we do here at home. In many other places timber is scarce and what timber can be found is prohibitively expensive. So it is-and has been for thousands of years-with Egypt. Even in the time of Pharaohs importing cedar from Lebanon was the mark of sophistication and wealth.
What you are instead bound to see today is concrete post and beam construction and walls built with brick infill. I have frequently seen this building type as I have traveled across Europe, South America, and now, Africa. What was different this time, was that I was struck by just how many buildings we saw being built this way in every city and village we passed. And all of them were in a state of mid-construction.
I was confused. How could so many building projects in so many different cities have failed and been left half completed? Or, even if a project did fail why did no one else step in to complete the build as can happen here when a developer runs out of money?
I asked our guide what might have caused this. What he told me is a beautiful tribute to long term planning and caring for the wellbeing of future generations. He said that it is common for families to build slowly over decades using what cash they may have been able to save up at that time, then resume construction later when more money is available. This leads to a cityscape of exposed brick infill, stairs open to the sky, and rebar reaching upwards into floors-as -yet-unbuilt. In these, we may see the abilities (or lack thereof) of the owner-builder manifest as a progression in time from the first floor – perhaps their first time laying brick – to the third or fourth floor where an owner’s experience and learning is expressed as more advanced brickwork that is finally laid level and may begin to play with pattern or color.
Our guide told us that he himself had just purchased land for his family, and was starting construction for his two young children. The plan is to build a floor for each of them so that in the future they will have somewhere to live as they reach adulthood and begin their own lives.
Thus, what appeared to be a depressing landscape of half complete buildings never reaching their potential is instead a hopeful long-term plan to ensure the comfort of future generations long before they need it. I was encouraged on learning the true purpose behind what I saw.
However, in spite of the hopeful nature of each of these never-done buildings, I appreciate that we build more quickly here at home and reach full realization of the plan within a more reasonable timeframe than one measured in decades.