2.3.5. Villa "A" in 6th of October City

Architect Ramy El Dahan was one of Hassan Fathy's students. Continuing his mentor's legacy, he designed many public and residential buildings using elements of vernacular architecture. Among the buildings he designed is "Villa A" (See Figures 26 and 27) in El Thawra El Khadra, located next to El Sheikh Zayed on the 6th of October City. It was designed using a courtyard, vaults, and domes, and he used the windcatcher to provide cool natural ventilation for the whole villa. The windcatcher, located on the villa's ground floor, connects to the basement. This allows the air to circulate and drop more of its temperature. As seen in Figure 27, some of the air shafts are also embedded in the walls. The main function is to pull the air that has been circulating underground to cool down the basement (see Figure 26) to the ground and upper two floors. These shafts achieve this cooling using small openings in the walls of the rooms. Overall, this process helps cool down the air in most indoor spaces, and the villa's ability to operate successfully without mechanical air conditioning units is evidence of this method's success [38].

**Figure 26.** Villa A section showing the basement, in the red square, where the wind from the wind catcher is directed and cooled down.

**Figure 27.** (**a**) Windcatcher, and (**b**) air shaft.
