Mapei around the World / 12/12/2025

The beating heart of Egypt’s new capital

Cutting-edge solutions and ongoing support for the new Central Business District, Egypt’s new commercial and financial hub

Egypt’s new Central Business District in the New Administrative Capital is a landmark urban project featuring 20 skyscrapers, including the 385.5-m Iconic Tower, set to become the country’s financial and commercial hub. Since 2020 Mapei Egypt has been supporting the construction with cutting-edge materials, technical expertise, and on-site training. Its comprehensive systems for ceramic tile installation, substrate waterproofing, and resin flooring ensure durability, safety, and high performance in one of Egypt’s most ambitious developments.

A vast project located about 50 kilometres east of Cairo, in the heart of the New Administrative Capital, is set to reshape Egypt’s skyline and mark a turning point in the country’s urban development strategy: the Central Business District (CBD). With its 20 skyscrapers devoted to commercial, administrative, residential and hospitality functions, the CBD is emerging as the country’s new commercial and financial hub and the economic and symbolic centre of the New Administrative Capital, officially inaugurated as the seat of the Egyptian government on 2 April 2024 by President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi.

Covering an area of more than 80 hectares, the Central Business District includes infrastructure works, landscaped open spaces and buildings designed to meet LEED certification standards, with which the government intends to attract foreign investors.

At the centre of the district stands the Iconic Tower, Africa’s tallest skyscraper at 385.5 m. A symbol of Egypt’s ambitions, it accommodates offices, hotels, retail areas and panoramic spaces covering a total of 241,000 m² and is surrounded by 12 office towers, 5 luxury residential complexes and 2 five-star hotels.

About 50 kilometres east of Cairo, the Central Business District (CBD) of the Administrative Capital is under construction.

Global collaboration on a giant project

The construction of the Central Business District was commissioned by the Egyptian Ministry of Housing, Utilities and Urban Communities together with the New Urban Communities Authority (NUCA), the government agency in charge of urban planning and development. The contract was awarded to Chinese construction giant China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC), with a 3 billion US dollar agreement signed by President el-Sisi himself. A number of Egyptian and foreign companies contributed to the project, including Mapei Egypt, which supplied innovative building materials capable of meeting the technical challenges of such a monumental undertaking.

Mapei is contributing to the new district with solutions for installing ceramic tiles and stone as well as for laying resin floorings.

Mapei Egypt: expertise, continuous support and a global vision

Between 2020 and 2025, Mapei Egypt provided support during every stage of construction of the Central Business District, supplying chemical products for the building industry together with constant technical assistance and training for construction companies and contractors on site.

The scale of this involvement reflects the Group’s goal of contributing to Egypt’s strategic projects and positioning itself as a reliable long-term partner offering expertise and local knowledge as well as products that comply with international standards.

The solutions proposed by Mapei Egypt were used in many of the buildings in the Central Business District: not just in the Iconic Tower itself but also in many of the surrounding towers (C01-C08, C11, C12, D01-D05) and in outdoor areas.

Safe and reliable installation of ceramic tiles, marble and mosaic

For the façades of towers C01-C08, C11 and C12, large ceramic tiles were installed using Keraflex Maxi S1 Zero*, a cementitious adhesive with extended open time and no vertical slip. The same adhesive was also chosen to install marble slabs on many of the interior walls in the Iconic Tower and other buildings in the district, as well as for the mosaics in the outdoor swimming pools of towers D01 and D05.

The joints between ceramic tiles and marble slabs on façades and walls were grouted with Keracolor FF and Ultracolor Plus* high-performance cementitious mortars, while Kerapoxy acid-resistant epoxy grout was used to seal the joints in the swimming pool and some interior wet areas. Kerapoxy Easy Design decorative grout was used for grouting the joints between surfaces in the landscaped outdoor areas.

Cementitious and polyurea-based membranes for waterproofing

Mapelastic Smart highly flexible cementitious membrane was used to waterproof substrates in wet interior spaces, architectural foundations, swimming pools and outdoor areas with water features, while the Purtop 1000 pure polyurea-based membrane was chosen for external surfaces and planters requiring high levels of durability, chemical resistance and deformability.

Resin flooring for the car parks

Resin flooring was laid in the Iconic Tower’s car parks and service areas to ensure durability, mechanical and chemical resistance, and high aesthetic quality of the finished surfaces. This was done using Mapefloor Parking System WD**, a multi-layered, UV-stable, seamless, flexible polyurethane-based coating system for carparks.

A complete Mapei system ensured the creation of durable, resistant and seamless resin floors in the parking areas of the Iconic Tower.

Solutions for resilient floors and repairs

As part of the Central Business District development, two crescent-shaped twin towers rising 55 metres are set to open as the Fairmont Cairo New Capital City, a 259-room luxury hotel. Mapei Egypt contributed a complete system of solutions for substrate preparation and the installation of wooden and textile floor coverings, including Primer G, Ultraplan Eco, Ultraplan Contract, Ultraplan Maxi, Ultrabond V4SP, Ultrabond 375, Ultrabond Eco Fix, and Ultrabond P909 2K. For structural repairs and anchoring, products such as Mapegrout TX 60, Mapefix EP50, and Mapefix EP100 were used. These technologies delivered long-lasting durability, comfort, and high performance across the hotel’s interior spacetions.

Project information

Iconic Tower, towers C01-C08, C11, C12, D01-D05, Fairmont Cairo New Capital City, outdoor areas, Central Business District, New Administrative Capital, Egypt

Owner: Administrative Capital for Urban Development (ACUD)

Project manager: Dar Al-Handasah

Design: Perkins & Will

Main contractor: China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC)

Waterproofing and ceramic installation contractors: SIAC Construction, El Hazek Construction

Period of construction: 2019 - ongoing

Period of the Mapei intervention: 2020 - ongoing

Mapei coordinators: Fatma El Zahraa Karrouch, Mona Ahmed, Nihal Rekaby, Hisham Saad, Maged Malak, Ahmed El Saeed, Ahmed Hesham and Mohamed Abuelkassem, Mapei Egypt