International Workshop Cairo

Empowering the Informal City - Climate Justice in Cairo's Self-Built Neighbourhoods

This four-day workshop, organised by the Independent School in collaboration with CLUSTER: Cairo Lab for Urban Studies, Training and Environmental Research (Egypt), AP+E: Practice for Architecture & Research (Netherlands/Ireland) and Loom: Practice for cultural transformation (Netherlands), built on the ongoing research project ‘Empowering the Informal City’ which explores community-driven, climate-adaptive solutions for Cairo’s informal neighbourhoods.

Locally referred to as Umm al-Dunya ('Mother of the World'), Cairo is one of the oldest, largest, fastest growing and hottest urban conglomerations on the planet. Its 23 million inhabitants largely live in illegally built informal neighbourhoods, which make up around 70% of the city. These neighbourhoods often lack basic services, and consist of a ‘compact housing typology, which are particularly vulnerable to the escalating climate crisis.

This workshop investigated solutions to improve indoor climate and energy performance in the existing typical housing units. Participants will design and built prototypes, as a starting point for broader discussions on climate adaptation and justice.

Activities took place at ALFABRIKA, a creative lab in Ard al-Liwa (Cairo) run by CLUSTER, fostering collaboration between designers and local craftspeople.

About Cluster
CLUSTER (Cairo Lab for Urban Studies, Training and Environmental Research) was co-founded by Omar Nagati in 2011 in Downtown Cairo (Egypt), as a platform for urban research, architecture, art, and design initiatives. Working in Cairo, Alexandria, Mansoura, Port Said, Amman, Beirut, Tunis and Tangier, CLUSTER aims at establishing a space for critical urban discourse and design practice, negotiating the blurred boundaries between formal/institutional regulations and everyday urban informality.

About Jeffrey Bolhuis
Jeffrey Bolhuis is an Architect and co-founder of AP+E an office for architecture and research based in Ireland and The Netherlands, that he founded with Laurence Lord. The practice is driven by a strong interest in the social and cultural value of architecture, working internationally on a wide range of public, cultural & educational projects as well as urban and regional development studies and research projects. Jeffrey is currently studio tutor at the Faculty of Architecture & Built Environment, TU Delft and researcher at the Rietveld Academy Amsterdam. He has been invited as a visiting critic by a number of institutions including the Dublin School of Architecture, The Berlage Centre and the Academies of Architecture in Amsterdam & Rotterdam as well as running workshops with the Hong Kong University. Prior to founding AP+E Jeffrey gained valuable experience whilst working in offices such as OMA (Rotterdam) FKLarchitects (Dublin) and Studioninedots (Amsterdam)

About René Boer
René Boer is an urban critic, curator and organizer in and beyond the fields of architecture, design, heritage and the arts. He is part of LOOM - Practice for Cultural Transformation, where together with Katía Truijen, Mark Minkjan, Michiel van Iersel and Radna Rumping, he facilitates conversations, conducts research, curates exhibitions and public programmes, publishes books, consults organisations and develops shared learning experiences. Rene is also part of Failed Architecture and has been involved in various urban social movements and art, architecture and design schools in Amsterdam and beyond.

Programme

Sunday 14 September
Morning: getting to know Cairo.  Afternoon: Orientation, introduction and presentations. First encounter with the neighbourhood.

Monday 15 September
Explanation of assignment and development of first design ideas. 

Tuesday 16 September
Teamwork: start designing and building different interventions. Brief recap of findings at the end of the day the day

Wednesday 17 September
Teamwork: Designing and building different interventions. Brief recap of findings at the end of the day the day

Thursday 18 September
Morning: Finalise production and building. Afternoon: Final presentation and conversation with different experts.  

This workshop is part of a larger project by CLUSTER, AP+E and LOOM called ‘Empowering the Informal City’ which is supported by the Creative Industries Fund NL