ALBA LUMINA

Cairo University, Faculty of Engineering Architecture Department.

Project idea

Alba Lumina proposes an experiential production and research center in Luxor that responds to the gradual disappearance of Egypt's alabaster craftsmanship. Although alabaster played a fundamental role in the construction of ancient Egyptian civilization, today the craft survives primarily through small workshops producing tourist souvenirs, while traditional carving knowledge continues to decline. The material has become disconnected from research, innovation, public engagement, and the architectural identity of the city itself.

Rather than treating alabaster as a commercial product, the project restores it as a cultural, educational, and architectural resource. It reconnects the complete lifecycle of the material, from quarry to finished artifact, through a public sequence of extraction, production, experimentation, exhibition, and tourism. Visitors experience the making of alabaster rather than simply purchasing it, while craftsmen gain access to dedicated research facilities, exhibition spaces, and new opportunities for innovation.

The project transforms alabaster into architecture through a family of illuminated towers that become contemporary landmarks overlooking Luxor. More than observation towers, they symbolize the rebirth of a fading craft while reconnecting visitors to the monuments of the West Bank that first established alabaster as one of Egypt's most celebrated materials.

Goals and Objectives
-Preserve and promote Luxor's endangered alabaster craftsmanship through production, education, and research.
-Reconnect the complete alabaster value chain within a single architectural destination.
-Transform production into a public cultural experience through workshops, demonstrations, and exhibitions.
-Introduce a Dust-to-Product circular economy that converts carving waste into new products and research materials.
-Create a landmark destination that strengthens cultural tourism while celebrating Luxor's material heritage.
-Establish illuminated alabaster towers as new civic monuments that reconnect contemporary craftsmanship with the city's ancient legacy.

Project description

The project consists of an integrated production, research, exhibition, and cultural complex located along Luxor's Nile waterfront. It is designed as a continuous visitor journey that follows the complete transformation of alabaster, from its geological origin beneath the earth to its role as a contemporary architectural landmark.

The experience begins within the Basement Quarry Experience, where visitors descend through immersive subterranean galleries inspired by Luxor's historic alabaster quarries. This sequence introduces the geological formation, extraction methods, and cultural history of the material before visitors gradually emerge into the production village above.

The ground level is organized around a central public spine connecting artisan workshops, research laboratories, carving studios, galleries, demonstration spaces, restaurants, retail areas, and public courtyards. Visitors are able to observe every stage of alabaster production, from rough stone cutting and carving to polishing, finishing, and exhibition, transforming traditional craftsmanship into a public educational experience.

A dedicated Dust-to-Product System establishes a circular material economy within the project. Instead of discarding alabaster dust generated during carving, the material is collected, processed, and transformed into experimental products, artistic pieces, educational prototypes, and new composite applications. The production process therefore generates almost no material waste while encouraging continuous material innovation.

The visitor journey concludes through the illuminated alabaster towers, where vertical exhibition spaces lead toward elevated Belvederes overlooking Luxor's western archaeological landscape. Carefully oriented viewing platforms frame the Valley of the Kings, the Valley of the Queens, and the Mortuary Temple of Seti I, reconnecting visitors with the monuments where alabaster first became part of Egypt's architectural identity. The project therefore completes a symbolic journey from raw stone beneath the earth to the monuments that immortalized it.

Main Components
-Basement Quarry Experience: Immersive underground galleries recreating the atmosphere of historic alabaster quarries.
-Artisan Production Zone: Traditional carving, polishing, finishing, and demonstration workshops.
-Research & Innovation Laboratories: Material testing, conservation research, and experimental alabaster applications.
-Dust-to-Product Facility: Circular production system converting carving dust into new architectural and artistic materials.
-Public Exhibition Galleries: Permanent and temporary exhibitions showcasing historical and contemporary alabaster works.
-Cultural Spine: Public boulevard connecting workshops, markets, restaurants, and outdoor gathering spaces.
-Illuminated Alabaster Towers: Vertical landmarks combining environmental performance, exhibition, circulation, and observation.
-Belvedere Platforms: Panoramic viewing terraces overlooking Luxor's West Bank monuments and Nile landscape.

Technical information

-The tower structural system consists of a primary steel frame of grade S355 square hollow section columns (200mm x 200mm x 12mm) at the four corners of each tower, connected by universal beam floor structures (250mm depth) carrying 200mm reinforced concrete floor slabs on permanent metal decking. This primary structure is entirely concealed within a 600mm double wall assembly that carries the building's alabaster cladding.
-The double wall assembly, reading from outside to inside, consists of: a 12mm transparent photovoltaic laminated glass outer layer providing complete UV protection for the alabaster behind it while generating supplementary electricity from absorbed UV and near-infrared radiation; a 20mm thermal buffer air gap; an alabaster cladding panel of variable thickness (80mm at the tower base reducing progressively to 40mm at the crown, increasing translucency with height); a 40mm ventilated rainscreen cavity exhausting solar heat gain at the tower crown, with non-combustible mineral wool firestops at every floor level; a fixing system of grade 316 stainless steel secret clibs and rails, non-penetrative through the stone face; 100mm non-combustible mineral wool insulation; a 100mm service zone containing the secondary steel subframe; the 200mm reinforced concrete structural wall; and a 20mm burnished lime plaster interior finish. Each alabaster panel receives a silane water-repellent consolidant treatment (25mm penetration depth) on its outer face and a 3mm GFRP fibre-reinforced epoxy backing on its inner face, increasing tensile strength by approximately 400% and impact resistance by approximately 300% without affecting the stone's appearance or translucency.
-The central core of each tower is a hollow shaft of 400mm thick pure alabaster walls, serving three integrated functions: thermal mass moderating internal temperature swings; a malqaf passive ventilation system, with a directional intake at the tower crown facing the prevailing north-northwest wind, descending through the hollow core to deliver tempered air at every floor level and to the basement production zone, with warm air exhausted through corner shaft voids in the double wall by natural stack effect; and a light-diffusing surface transmitting warm internal LED illumination through the stone, producing the tower's characteristic glow.
-The dust-to-product material system begins at sunken production plinths in the basement, each surrounded by an 80mm perimeter collection slot. Wet alabaster slurry generated during water-cooled cutting flows by gravity through subfloor channels (sloped at 1–2%) to a sedimentation basin, where it separates naturally by particle weight over two to four hours into coarse aggregate, medium dust, and fine powder, with clarified water recycled back into the production water supply. An adjacent furnace dries the settled material into sorted dust cakes, which are then transported manually by researchers ascending the same tower stair used by visitors to a material library in the research laboratories, where they are developed into structural composite alabaster panels (compressive strength approximately 45 MPa versus 25 MPa for natural alabaster; water absorption reduced from approximately 8% to 0.3%) sourced entirely from production waste, closing the material's lifecycle.