Cluster

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CLUSTER hosted on July 9th, 2026, its 30th session of the CLUSTER Talks series titled: “Mapping Third Spaces in Samarkand Through a Cairo Lens” by architect Hana Sayed. The talk Reflected on an interdisciplinary mapping workshop in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, March 2026, this talk presented its process and outcome exploring the Soviet-era Sat-tepo microdistrict through the lens of “third spaces” between public and private life. Drawing on archival research, field visits and observation, interviews and visual documentation, it examined how everyday practices, commercialization, and spatial transformations shape urban environments and reveal broader questions about cities in the Global South within neoliberal policies.

Hana Sayed, an architect at CLUSTER, obtained her Bachelor’s Degree in Architectural Engineering from the German University in Cairo, with international academic experience in Berlin and Stuttgart. Her design approach is grounded in sustainability, cultural and contextual continuity, and user-centered spatial practices, seeking to merge material innovation with human-centered solutions within the built environment.

🚋TICCIH Webinar - Save the Date! 🚋
Historic Trams at Risk: Academic and Community Approaches from Alexandria and Kolkata - An Experience Exchange Webinar

Woven into daily routines and neighbourhood identities for generations, trams are more than just old vehicles running on tracks. Long a living part of the cities they move through, they carry with them the collective memories of the people who have relied on them, and when a tram line disappears, it is not just a mode of transport that is lost; it is a piece of a city's story that cannot easily be replaced. Historic tram systems around the world are facing serious threats like devaluation, neglect, replacement, and demolition. In Alexandria, Egypt, the City Transformations Lab at Alexandria University and Cluster Cairo Lab have already been exploring this through their Summer School, examining historic trams as living elements of urban geography and memory. In Kolkata, India, the stakes feel even more urgent as the Calcutta Tram Users Association is on the ground fighting to protect one of the world’s last remaining historic tram networks through powerful grassroots advocacy and community mobilisation.

That is exactly why we are bringing people together. This upcoming TICCIH Webinar connects voices from Egypt, India, Australia, and beyond for an open and honest conversation about what it takes to protect historic tram heritage. We will be hearing from Melbourne’s TramJatra solidarity initiative, special remarks from Fedecrail’s representative at the City of Gothenburg, and much more. This is a conversation for everyone: heritage professionals, researchers, transport enthusiasts, students, community organisers, or simply anyone who has ever looked out of a tram window and felt something. This webinar is supported by partners including ICOMOS India, Fedecrail, APHTRO, ANIH, and NUDISUR.

📌Format: Online Webinar · Date: 18 July · Time: 4 pm (IST) · Duration: 3 hours

‼️ Don’t forget to register in advance using the following link:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdQms8lxXL_yWKXq1-_MfsOlcYksQf-kNAJ0VwAJtkzNkvnog/viewform
Registered participants will receive the access details and programme information prior to the event.

ICOMOS India
Fedecrail
Asian Network of Industrial Heritage
Nudisur
CT Lab - City Transformations Lab
Cluster

اللغة العربية انظر أول تعليق
CLUSTER is pleased to announce the conclusion of the final four-day workshop, held from June 14th to 17th, on “Empowering the Informal City,” culminating a two-year research effort. CLUSTER organized the workshop in collaboration with : Practice for Architecure & Research in the Netherlands/Ireland, as well as .ooo : Practice for cultural transformation in the Netherlands. Supported by the Dutch Embassy in Egypt, this research-design-build workshop and upcoming exhibition conclude a multi-year collaborative project on the design and testing of various passive cooling devices; including a solar chimney, wind catcher, and evaporative cooling screen; as potential low-cost solutions for typical housing units within informal settlements in Cairo, in response to rising temperatures.

The workshop built upon devices that had been previously tested and researched over the past two years, aiming to enhance and adapt these methods for greater temperature reduction within two units in Ard al-Liwa. The first intervention improved a previously tested wind catcher, by incorporating evaporative cooling and plants through a shelving system to filter and cool incoming air into the studio. The second apartment tested a solar window canopy, utilizing pressure differentials to extract hot air, alongside a “sh**ha”-cone screen that applies evaporative cooling to incoming air, further building upon previously tested screens and devices.

In total, over the four-day workshop, the team tested: 1) a wooden wind catcher (previously encased in plastic), 2) cooling shelves with plants and terracotta, 3) an evaporative cooling screen using clay sh**ha cones 4) a solar window canopy, and 5) a solar chimney (tested in isolation).

The workshop took place at ALFABRIKA creative lab and makerspace in Ard al-Liwa, with the help of our team there as well as the local craftspeople.

CLUSTER hosted on May 15th, 2026, its 29th session of the CLUSTER Talks series titled: “Maadi, Garden Utopia: Desires of Seclusion in a Cairo Suburb” by assistant researcher Abigail Toomey. The talk traced Maadi’s formation alongside Ebenezer Howard’s “garden city” vision, exploring how the suburb was shaped by foreign influence and upper-class desires for seclusion. It highlighted how “greening” operated not only as a planning ideal, but as a social mechanism of exclusion, sustained by the labor of gardeners, servants, and workers who remained outside the community they upheld. Through Maadi’s history, the session reflected on the broader social and urban transformations that shaped modern Egypt.

Abigail Toomey is a recent Master’s graduate of the NYU Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies and the editor of Al Musafir magazine. Her work takes an interdisciplinary approach to questions of space, land sovereignty, and urban geography, with a focus on spatial politics in Cairo and the right to the city.

قام مختبر عمران القاهرة - كلستر في 15 مايو 2026 بتنظيم الجلسة التاسعة والعشرون من سلسلة برنامج "مناقشات كلستر" بعنوان "المعادي: المدينة الحدائقية الفاضلة ورغبات العزلة في أحد ضواحي القاهرة"، وقدمتها الباحثة أبيجل توماي. تناولت المحاضرة نشأة المعادي بالتوازي مع رؤية "إبنيزر هاورد" لمفهوم "المدينة الحدائقية" مستكشفة كيف تشكلت الضاحية تحت تأثير الجاليات الأجنبية وتطلعات الطبقات العليا نحو العزلة. كما سلطت الضوء على كيفية "التشجير" ليس فقط كفكرة تخطيطية، بل كآلية اجتماعية للإقصاء، استندت إلى عمل البستانيين والخدم والعمّال الذين ظلوا خارج المجتمع الذي ساهموا في استمراره. ومن خلال تاريخ المعادي، عكست الجلسة التحولات الاجتماعية والعمرانية الأوسع التي شكّلت مصر الحديثة.

حصلت آبيجيل توماي حديثًا على درجة الماجستير من مركز كيفوركيان لدراسات الشرق الأدنى بجامعة نيويورك، كما تشغل منصب محررة مجلة "المسافر". تتبنى توماي مقاربة متعددة التخصصات في تناول قضايا المكان وسيادة الأرض والجغرافيا الحضرية، مع تركيز خاص على السياسات المكانية في القاهرة ومفهوم الحق في المدينة.

للغة العربية انظر اول تعليق
CLUSTER is pleased to announce the conclusion of the pilot translation workshop of the first issue of Al Emara magazine.
Founded in 1939 by architect Sayed Karim, Majallat al Emara was a pioneering Egyptian architectural publication that played a central role in promoting modernism across the Middle East, while engaging political and social transformations in the middle of the twentieth century, including housing, urban expansion, and rural development as well as questions of visual and cultural identities.
This three-day pilot workshop forms part of a larger ongoing project dedicated to the translation of the full publication, alongside research into the historical context and architectural discourse shaping mid-20th-century Egypt, and reflections on contemporary architectural practice and urban policies. The workshop served as a testing ground for translation methodologies and the development of a collaborative framework for future phases.
Organized in collaboration with Leibniz University Hannover, AUC Rare Books and Special Collections Library, and Cairo University, the workshop brought together researchers, professionals and students over three days of collective inquiry. Discussions traced thematic shifts and emerging editorial structures within the translated material, while examining the magazine’s visual language—including architectural projects, advertisements, and photography—in relation to contemporaneous local and international publications.
The program also included a visit to the Villa of Sayed Karim in Maadi, preserved by the Karim family in its original condition.
CLUSTER extends its thanks to all partners and participants who contributed to making this workshop possible.