Interviews with Adel Badrawy

I graduated from the AAST - Arab Academy for Science and Technology - architecture department in 2008.

I worked in a design studio - ABIAT - right after graduation, then worked for RMC, a much larger multidisciplinary architecture firm. I gained much experience and exposure while working for these two incredible firms.

I then started my studio RAW - Rawasem Architecture Workshop - in 2015. And now we're an architectural firm of 25 architects and engineers.

I believe architecture is the art of creating shelters for human beings, and I have always wanted to do something good for humanity.

I chose to be a designer.

I design residential, administration, spiritual and so many types of buildings.

I would love to design more private residences.

Passion, passion, and passion!

Also loving nature as much as getting inspired by it.

Originality.

And I believe originality comes from the surrounding nature, background, and culture.

A good story, and the creativity of solving all aspects of the story.

Imagine a universe that is poorly designed! This is how essential investing in good design is!

Always turn to your roots, your surroundings, to nature.

Let those be the motive and inspiration.

Renzo Piano

Hassan Fathy

Norman Foster

David Chipperfield

Design is solving several problems each creatively.

I'm an architecture school graduate, I graduated from the RIBA accredited Arab Academy for science and technology university. I've always adored shapes and forming stuff with it as well as music and all that is related to art and building. I've always wanted to be involved in anything related to art and music. Collecting pieces together.

RAW -Rawasem Architecture Workshop- is an architecture design workshop founded by myself in 2015. It was created initially -and still- to experiment with different design methods according to every single project where every project designed by RAW is as unique as its case. RAW believes that every project has a key to approach.

Design is simply a group of problems that need to be solved respectively in an innovative way.

I believe private residences are my personal favorite projects as it directly touches and affects people's lives hopefully in a good way.

An apartment building.

I like using as natural materials as I could, like stone and wood.

When surrounded by nature.

The cultural aspect.

Hyped, and sometimes anxious.

When its existence has a better impact than before.

Functional, cultural, and aesthetic aspects.

It's a huge responsibility. An architect shapes the environment where people live in or around.

I think the design field is responding very well to the changes that are taking place, whether politically, environmentally or economically. The future of design is leaning more on technology and VR.

I'm mostly inspired by nature. It's the mother of all inspirations, and this answers the second question

Form follows function, form follows the concept. This approach is what makes a good design, to stick to your idea, and your purpose of design all the way to the final product.

I live in Egypt. My country's rich history through all the eras definitely affected my way of thinking regarding the design process and how I see things in general. The significant concepts and advanced technology in the pharaonic period and the efficiency of design in Islamic architecture, as well as the Coptic architecture, is what shaped my design mentality.

The pros of design in Egypt are the heritage and the moderate weather, but the cons are mainly the bureaucracy and the lack of awareness of arts in general.

My designs basically start with good listening skills, a fair amount of research, identifying the challenges, and working on each collectively and separately.

There has to be an idea to follow through all the stages of design. An idea that responds directly to the brief and the challenges created by the nature of the project and it's context.

As a team of course. I believe there isn't such thing called a solo architect. It's always a group of talented architects.

By email, abadrawy@rawasemaw.com

Or by phone, 00201069998041