17 Amin Zaki Street, Ard el-Golf,Behind the house of air forces, Heliopolis
1 Mayo Buildings, Autostrade, Madinat Nasr,
Cairo
Egypt
- Others
The Built Environment Collective is an Egyptian NGO that seeks to strengthen the sense of community between practitioners, academics and students of architecture and urbanism. This is through developing frameworks of support and exchange within the different generations and specialisations of this community in addition to fostering ties with related fields on national and international fronts. BEC is motivated by the conviction that the complexity of this field requires modes of learning and contemplation that go beyond the university setting. It believes that because the field of architecture and urbanism shapes the very space we live in, it should be inclusive and innovative in scope and mode of education and application. BEC operates through its space, MEGAWRA, a platform for debate on architecture and urbanism with a focus on it as art, theory, praxis and cultural heritage and its role in promoting sustainability and social responsibility in the built environment.
MEGAWRA has an architectural library with over 1000 books, open workspaces with wifi for students and young architects, a meeting room and workshop space available for booking and a lecture space that seats 40 people. It5 has a regular monthly lecture series, film and book club and offers at least one free monthly workshop to its members. It also initiates and administers projects that focus on interdisciplinary research, community outreach and awareness and capacity building. Examples include: What a Building Wants to Be, a documentary of a conversation between 5 architects about the design process, Whose Monument? a participatory design project on the monument-street interface in Islamic Cairo and Draw your Dream a graffiti project where residents of 6 streets draw 6 solutions for 6 urban problems as an innovative method for raising awareness and for fundraising.
We will participate in Network meetings and joint activities. We can also offer our space in Cairo to network members in projects of joint interest or for meetings. Furthermore, we have an active Facebook page with a current membership of 800, through which they can announce projects and events. We could also help with information and contacts in the field of architecture and urbanism.
ALF's interdisciplinary and humanistic approach to culture as a means for dialogue and exchange resonates with our approach to architecture and urbanism as an inclusive field that touches on and is affected by all modalities of life and culture. It will be a platform and resource for finding partners, exchange and education in the fields of cultural as well as a resource for fundraising. We are also interested in participating in training and exchange in the field of cultural management and administration.