Amr Abotawila

Amr Abotawila (*1987, Cairo) is an Architect and Urban Researcher Graduated from the Architecture Department, Cairo University 2010, He is concerned with working with local communities. And he is one of the Founding members of The "Peoples Committee to defend Imbaba Land". He Worked in different Urban Researches/Projects Like being the research assistant in the book "Social Justice and the Built Environment ,, Map of Egypt" which is considered as a reference criticizing the current urban politics in Egypt, and also worked in "Maspero Parallel Participatory project" Which is currently the Formal Project to develop the area. And Finally, as the head of the Housing Rights unit in the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms. Amr has been working for two years on individual initiatives, Walking, Mapping and Documenting the City of Cairo. Like "Cairo Walks" which is a Blog/Walking initiative to discover different parallel narratives in the urban history of Cairo's Districts, and also "Dead Walls" which is a Project the he co-founded to document "Fading Hand-drawn Advertisments" on the walls of Cairo's Buildings. 

Master Thesis: Understanding Egyptian Social Housing Squatting Phenomenon Post January 2011.

Ana Baez Sarita

Ana (1986), studied Architecture in the Universidad Autonoma de Santo Domingo, located in her hometown the Dominican Republic. She also holds a master's degree in Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning from Utah State University. During her undergraduate studies she was involved in community development projects related to the informal, sugarcane settlements (bateyes) of her country. During her masters’ degree, she had the opportunity of working in both small and large scale projects in urban and environmental planning. Her master’s thesis was a tourism planning framework for the towns of Sosua and Puerto Plata, in the Dominican Republic, a project that was also part of the 2014 Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA) conference. After receiving her master’s degree, she worked in the slum redevelopment and revitalization project of La Barquita, a 2,000 families’ riverbank community of Santo Domingo. Ana is interested in gaining factual knowledge within the field of urbanism, furthermore, she wants to study the impact of rural exodus, and rapid urbanization in cities.

Master Thesis: Placemaking and the Social Production of Urban Places in Informality.

Bassel Alhaffar

Bassel Alhaffar (*1991-Damascus, Syria) obtained his bachelor degree in architecture from the Arab International University in June 2013. During his studies, he participated in many international and local workshops in Parametric Design. His graduation project was based on community participation to guide a new development for their village. After graduation he moved to Cairo, Egypt to work as an architect & urban designer at Assaf Consultancy Group for two and half years. He participated in many residential and administrative projects and was part of the urban design team for El-Marg Social Center with community participation. During this professional career, he participated in urban design, sustainable housing, and heritage conservation workshops, which exposed him to new design issues and approaches. He was a volunteer at JCI-Egypt, Syrian Researchers Initiative, and member at Toastmasters-Cairo, which enhanced his personal skills.

Master Thesis: Stimulating Private Sector for Urban Settlements Redevelopment in Syria- Case Study: Homs City.

Danny Khilla

Danny was born in 1992. Had his Bachelor’s degree from MSA University in Architecture in 2014. And went on to work for IDD Landscaping for 4 months before going back to academia as a teaching assistant in MSA University before joining the IUSD. Throughout his undergraduate years he developed an idea that architecture goes beyond being a commodity, it’s something that could change the whole way a community interacts, lives, and thinks. He took part in the summer course “Introduction to Sustainable Cities” at the University of Greenwich, where he learned to respect his surrounding context, and building and/or design accordingly. This new learned knowledge was developed upon after his participation in the 2013 workshop “Life in Utopia” held in Italy, in association with the University of Thessaly (Greece), A.U.TH. University (Greece), and Frederick University (Cyprus), to work out a design that respected the surrounding context, and keeping in harmony with its landscape. He was the main photographer for the conference held by BEE’iE’s Building Simulation Conference in 2013.

Master Thesis: The Kiosk and the Public Realm.

Dory Estrada

Dory Estrada achieved her B.S. in Environmental Science in 2013 from the University of Tampa in the USA. During her time as an undergraduate, she studied issues involved with Florida’s land and water policies, as well as green space analysis for the city of Tampa. From 2013-2015, she worked as a Project Coordinator with an environmental non-profit organization in Tampa, where she discovered a passion for sustainable gardening, community development, grant-writing and food justice. Her previous experience abroad in Costa Rica as an undergraduate and volunteering on an eco-farm ignited her interest in permaculture, and in the summer of 2015, Dory attended an intensive course to achieve her internationally-recognized Permaculture Design Certificate. In addition, Ms. Estrada has training in aquaponics design and maintenance. She worked as part of a sustainable agriculture-focused start-up for 1.5 years, where she developed an interest in social enterprise as a powerful tool for change in urban development. Dory sees regenerative landscape design though permaculture methods and whole-systems thinking as progressive solutions to solve urban challenges.

Master Thesis: Bolstering Socio-Ecological Resilience in Greater Cairo Region’s Peri-Urban Agriculture Pockets: Strategies for Local Economic Development and Improved Food Security.

Eva Sule

Eva Sule (*1988) comes from Estonia where she finished her architecture studies in 2012. She has 3 years of experience as a practising architect working on energy efficient competition designs and different stages of built projects at Behnisch Architekten in Stuttgart, Germany. For 11 years Eva has been involved in debating and invests her spare time teaching argumentation, public speaking and holistic thinking on global issues to high-school students all over Europe. She was the national coach for Team Germany in 2014, resulting in Germany’s best ever ranking in the World Schools Debating Championships. In 2015 Eva was volunteering in Argentina for TECHO, an NPO working on social integration, building emergency houses in slums and collecting data on the situation of habitants living in informal settlements. Her focus in urban planning regards the relations between civil initiatives and policy making in combating poverty and injustice, particularly in post-revolution states, and encouraging environment-conscious behaviour.

Master Thesis: Transferability of Civil Society Initiatives Examining the Process and Affecting Aspects of Transnational Transfers.

Maha Ahmed Fathy Basha

Maha Ahmed (*1990, Cairo) received her bachelor degree from Ain Shams University, Architecture department. She is ranked the 5th on class 2013 and nominated to be a teaching assistant in the same faculty the following year. In September 2014, she started her postgraduate studies in the building technology and Environmental Design. During her undergraduate studies, she had internships in ECG Company, the Arab contractors and other private firms. Directly after her graduation, she was employed by a private firm where she became responsible of a mixed use project in Cairo. In parallel, she was at ASU helping students & assisting professors in the "Energy Conscious" design studio. Furthermore, Maha was an architect in the design team at Dar Al-Handasah; she worked in two mega projects at "Al Dar": Al-Madinah expansion and Al-Mataf projects in KSA. Ms. Basha worked also as a teaching assistant at the German university in Cairo (GUC). Last but not least; she participated in the collaboration ASU (Cairo) / TUM (München) in "The desert wood" project.

Master Thesis: Community Resilience for Coastal Peripheral Areas Development in Nuweiba, South Sinai - Towards an Integrated Sustainable Development in Nuweiba, Sinai Peninsula.

Manuel Heckel

Manuel studied architecture and urban planning at the Universität Stuttgart and Politechnika Gda?ska, receiving his diploma degree in 2010. With his thesis he explored the systemic forces behind today’s production of urban spaces, their economic, environmental and social implications, as well as potential interventions and strategies for cities to facilitate a change towards a fundamental re-connection with nature, others and self. Discovering that the quality of any change greatly depends on the quality of awareness of the stakeholders, he wishes to link this topic into his future research. From 2009 to 2012, Manuel used his computer programming skills to develop and run a game-changing online platform for the Stuttgart 21 counter-movement. He gained inside-knowledge and first-hand experience of the movement as well as the handling of the project by the authorities, sparking his interest in participatory approaches and self-organised co-creating of cities. After his graduation Manuel worked at the Chair of International Urbanism at the Universität Stuttgart and for a Stuttgart-based IT company.

Master Thesis: Urban Growth in Greater Cairo Rent-Based and Rent-Seeking Uneven Geographical Development in Egypt’s Capital.

Mariem Brahmi

Mariem (1987, Tunis, Tunisia) received her Engineering diploma of Spaces planning Major Landscape Archtiecture and management at the Higher Agronomic Institut at Sousse, Tunisia. After graduation, she worked as a landscape Engineer in charge of a big housing project Marina Gammarth on behalf of a Consulting firm of Engineering and landscape management (SICAP). Since April, 2013 she was been a founding member and treasurer of the Tunisian Association of Landscape Archtitect and Engineers TALAE which is the official representive association of the IFLA in Tunisia. She has further conducted different National and international projects (Tunisia, Libya) as a Lanscape consultant in the landscape management with state companies. On the meantime she joined a specialized master in geomatic informations for sustainable developpment and environmental control at the Faculty of Letters Arts and Humanity-Manouba, Tunisia. She has been an NGO’S active member in différent field with multidisciplinary team ( National Consultancy Assembly ATIDE, TUN’act Association, etc.) Engineering final project : Study of a Landscape Charter for the Govenorates of Manoub, Tunisia.

Master Thesis: Water Bodies Within the Metropolitan Cities: Understanding the Urbanization Process Around Lakes and Lagoons ‘Shores in Greater Tunis, Towards Sustainability.

Marwa Tina

Marwa Tina (32) is Palestinian. She completed her BA in architectural design and her MA in Business Administration from Birzeit University in Palestine. She has a total of 10 years of experience. In 2010 she worked for UNESCO as an architect/Planner in Safeguarding the cultural heritage of Sabasitya, where she was part of a team to develop a management plan based o the data that was collected by the team. from 2011 till 2013 she worked in Sustainable architecture specifically; reviving earth architecture with UNESCO, where the technique of using earth architecture as an appropriate tool to improve the living conditions of the communities in the Jordan Valley, the project provided on-the job training for the communities in order to transfer this knowledge to them . From 2013-2015 she worked as a project manager for Emergency response to communities affected by house demolitions by the Israeli forces. Her diverse experience gave her the opportunity to work on different levels of engagement, from community to donor level.

Master Thesis: Spatial Control Repercussions on Social Dynamics - The Case of Palestine.