The Sultana project is a 1,700-square-meter (500 of which are terraces) entertainment destination located on the shores of the Nile in Cairo, Egypt. The project comprises of three restaurants, a central lounge, a bar as well as a roof terrace, all of which share one barge overlooking the Nile.

The structure floats and is anchored on the Nile shore while its morphology avoids to subscribe to the architecture of other existing barges on the river. We attempted to formulate a project that responds to the context’s specificity by working through its rapport to the quays. We implemented a series of braces that join a permeable inclined plan that allows patrons to either access different levels of the Sultana’s ascending plan or to reach the top to access the roof terrace overhanging the river.

The perimeter oriented towards the Nile lodges one of the longest bars in the world, spanning 75 to 80 meters long, at water level. The bar also faces a large window that frames the view of the shore. Careful attention is also given to all of the venues’ orientations.