Growing up when my parents would drive around Portugal, I would stare at houses from the car. I would notice the curtains, lighting features, balcony garden and outdoor creativity. I still have this habit and it doesn’t matter how many times I’ve seen a house, I still stare at it while walking or driving.
Houses has always fascinated me, I don’t have a particular inclination for a style of home but I’ve always been intrigued by old, rustic and abandon homes. Luckily Maadi being an old city of Cairo has many abandon and neglected villas. My imagination runs wild, thinking of who used to live there, how the house looks like inside and most importantly what is the story behind the abandonment of the house.
Lately, in the social media world, I came across a YouTube video talking about mud houses. I’ve known of mud houses before but took it lightly. After searching for many YouTube videos I discovered how sustainable these houses are. Not only are mud houses sustainable, affordable and easy to make but they are also good quality living. Mud houses breath, they keep you cool and warm and the houses are resilient. The oldest mud house has been recorded to be 1000 years old.Not to mention the satisfaction of building your own house while playing with mud..
I wanted to build a mud house so I quickly jumped on pinterest for some potential styles. Although I liked all the creative styles, if I were to build a mud house I would have a mixture of culture and modern lines. That is why you will see an array of mud house architecture in the following photos.
Mud houses have been around for centuries in many different cultures and countries. Some places in Africa the women are the ones that build the houses in their community. There is defiantly a sense of community building a mud house. Everyone partakes in the making these living spaces.
Today we call it Earth housing that’s the fancy name for century old traditions. It has become more and more clear that ancient societies have a real understanding of their environment. These traditions and knowledge that was pass on, have more value that one might think.
Andrea Blossom 
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