Workshop
Ecologies of Cities
This module explores urban environments through ecological and systems thinking, viewing cities as ecosystems with significant impacts on surrounding landscapes. It examines urban environmental histories and contemporary challenges like climate change, species extinction, loss of natural system complexity, and resource insecurities. The module also explores systems-based ecological design typologies for urban intervention, focusing on their implications for environmental quality and justice.
Ability to understand and critique recent and contemporary efforts to create more “ecological” cities as demonstrated through critical responses to the approaches examined.
Ability to deploy creative and systems-thinking skills in speculating about the future ecologies of cities as demonstrated through the development of an urban ecological design project brief.
Ability to read a city – its history, development and current functioning – through an eco-systemic lens characterized by flows and processes. Course participants will be able to describe urban areas as ecosystems and speak to the ecological impacts of urbanization as demonstrated through background analysis on the case study city.
Ability to collaborate effectively through a process of active engagement, honing one’s own sensibilities, and bringing them to bear in a ‘atelier-style’ team setting as evidenced by participation in discussions and the quality of project-based assignments.
Instructors
Ahmed Tarek AlahwalAhmed Tarek Alahwal is an urban researcher specializing in urban environmental governance, urban water management, land rights, active mobility, and public space management. He is currently a PhD candidate and researcher at the University of Freiburg. Ahmed has previously worked with Cairo-based urban-focused organizations, including Megawra - Built Environment Collective, Tabdeel for Cycling Urbanism, and Trickool for Water Technologies. He earned his master’s degree in Urban Management and Development from the Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS) in Rotterdam and completed his bachelor’s degree in Architecture at Cairo University’s Faculty of Engineering.
Omar ElkousyOmar Elkousy is an urban planner and a lecturer assistant at the Faculty of Urban Planning at Cairo University. He has worked closely with local communities on multiple urban regeneration projects in various areas and countries, focusing on Africa, through his affiliation with organizations representing civil society, government, and research entities. Omar previously worked with Megawra - Built Environment Collective and participated in developing the conservation and management plan for the al-Khalifa area and implementing urban interventions such as al-Khalifa Park and the al-Khalifa Market. He received his M.Sc. in Urban Local Development from KU Leuven, Belgium, and completed his bachelor's degree in Urban and Regional Planning from Cairo University. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the Faculty of Urban Planning, researching the urban-landscape transformations of open spaces in Historic Cairo.