Hello, I am Omar El-Sherbiny and this is Load Bearing Walls, the show about buildings and the people who make them. Today I want to take you to a village a little north of Luxor, where a family owns two houses that stand next to each other. The first was built in 1952 out of mud brick by a master mason, with vaulted roofs and thick walls. The second was built in 1998 out of reinforced concrete, because concrete was modern and the bank would lend for it. In the first house, at three in the afternoon in August, you can sit comfortably. In the second, you cannot. I spent a day in both, with a thermometer and the mason's grandson, who is trying to relearn his grandfather's craft from old photographs. We talk about vaults, heat, money and what we lost. You are listening on Witspeak Podcasts.