Cityscape Egypt announced the awards' winners during the gala dinner held at the Four Seasons Nile Plaza last night. Orascom Housing Communities (OHC) won an award for its flagship project Haram City (HC): Residential Project Award (Built). The award was received by Eng. Omar Elhitamy, OHC's Managing Director on behalf of the company. The ceremony brought together real estate market key players who participated in the Cityscape exhibition. The Residential Project Award (Built) recognizes OHC for its innovative strategy in bringing Haram City -a fully integrated township- to life. The company focuses on delivering high quality units and unique designs, by incorporating local heritage and lifestyle into its master plan. In order to ensure sustainability throughout every phase of it's towns' development, OHC is committed internally –to its employees- and externally –to its customers- incorporating social responsibility within its business model. The judge committee included: Mr. Salem Akram, Director of Construction Innovation & Development at the Charter Institute of Building; Professor Suha Ozkan, Founding Chairman of the World Architecture Community; Mr. Hisham Youssef, Events & Communications Director of AIA Middle East; and Mr. David Cockerton, Chairman of RICS. “We take pride in receiving this recognition acknowledging Haram City's success in addressing the increasing demand for affordable housing in Egypt. The most important ingredient to create a sustainable town is ensuring a community is established from the onset of the project's development. This entails providing the first residents with schools, clinics, retails stores, sporting facilities, houses of worship etc... and ultimately paving the way for job creation", commented Omar Elhitamy, OHC Managing Director. This award is the fourth and most recent acknowledgement for OHC's efforts in developing fully integrated cities. The company has previously been recognized locally, regionally and internationally where it walked off with a number of prestigious awards: the best Community Award by the Affordable Housing Development Summit Middle East held in Manama, Bahrain; the Best Affordable Developer category by the Overseas Property Professional (OPP) in London, UK; and the Best Affordable Housing Project In Egypt by Hassan Fathy Architectural Award.
