The
initiative
and
the
website
are
parts
of
her
thesis
entitled:
[in]formal
Pattern
Language
-
a
guide
to
Handmade
Improvitecture
in
Cairo. Inspired
by
Christopher
Alexander’s A
Pattern
Language and
through
the
case
study
of
Ard
El
Lewa,
the
thesis
proposes
a
process
and
an
[in]formal
Pattern
Language
Manual,
which
serves
as
a
guide
for
community
members,
designers,
planners
and
officials
to
improve
informal
settlements
in
Cairo
and
embed
productive
green
spaces,
sustainability,
communal
responsibility
and
ownership
in
the
resident‘s
daily
life.
[in]formal Pattern Language initiative invites experts, architecture students and community members in Ard El Lewa to take part in this on going project through a website, photography and mapping workshop with children in Ard El Lewa, exhibition and publication. Community members, architects and architecture students should collaboratively break down the complex physical reality of informal settlements and their urban narratives into patterns. Once a pattern is identified, it will then be analyzed and combined with a set of improvitecture tools and in-situ design solutions, which optimize it and allow for a more sustainable built-environment. This process should link people’s microscopic needs and narratives to complex environmental and urban concerns.
To discover, document and compile global patterns for the manual participants are encouraged to complete a Pattern Template and/or post geo-tagged images of their patterns, which will then appear on an interactive map on the website. A 5-day workshop invited 5 Architecture students from the American University in Cairo and 10 children from Ard El Lewa to produce local patterns and maps for their community while registering their stories and needs by using geo-tagged photography and cognitive mapping. On last day of the workshop a micro urban farm, donated by Schaduf, was installed on a rooftop and handed over to the community. The workshop ended with an exhibition in Ard El Lewa showcasing community-produced patterns, maps and photographs. The exhibition, also displays all pattern templates generated by experts and architecture students
Thesis Supervisor: Mona El Khafif, University of Waterloo
Thesis Committee: Adrian Blackwell, University of Waterloo
Magda
Mostafa,
The
American
University
in
Cairo