Building Resilient Cities: Collaborative Design for Refugee Women and Children with Local Communities in Berlin and Cairo
Format: Workshop // TU Berlin, GUC
Teaching team: Juliana Canedo, Ayham Dalal, Qusay Amer, Ashraf Osam, Nagat Seifeldin
As a cooperation between Habitat Unit – TU-Berlin and the Department of Architecture and Urban Design at the German University in Cairo (GUC), students from the fields of architecture, urban design, urban planning, land-scape architecture and other fields joined the hands-on design DAAD funded workshop Building Resilient Cities: collaborative Design for refugee women and children with local communities in Berlin and Cairo. From October to December, participants from both universities, actors from civil society, developed in collaboration with the local organizations Future Hopes Community Foundation, Ma-sahit Alhayy, Studio 39, 10 Tooba and BENN engaged with collaborative design, building, scientific inputs, debates, field trips and knowledge exchange.
During Phase 1, a 3-day online Symposium provided participants with deeper theoretical inputs and reflections related to the topics of refugees and migration, collaborative methods, ethical scientific principles, among others. The inputs were given by invited guests from different fields of studies and contexts, working on the topics of displacement and community participation. Besides, students from both universities engaged in hybrid group work to start developing a joint understanding of the problems.
In the second phase, participants developed collaborative design and build with Sundanese refugees, thinking together about possibilities of improving urban space and enhancing inclusiveness and resilience in a community school located in Boulaq Dakour, Cairo. Together with the students and local actors, design solutions were be developed, tested and built, as knowledge-based products where new scientific notions such as “Dual Design Strategy” and designing with refugees were explored.
The third phase happened in Berlin and started with the visit and participation of GUC students in 3 different Design Studios at TU Berlin. Afterwards, Dr. Ayham Dalal and his students presented the results of the workshop in an open lecture that had the presence of around 50 people. On the second day, students from GUC and TU Berlin visited the neighborhood of Marzahn and had an input from the BENN cooperation partner. Afterwards, the students engaged in a collaborative activity with children and women living in a refugee shelter in Marzahn. The 3rd and 4th days involved a visit to important places in Berlin, where GUC students could learn more about the local context. Overall, the Winter School seeked to intensify academic collaboration, especially in the field of Forced Migration, and to develop new tools for community design that could be applicable for both contexts, and eventually, raise awareness of the participants towards the need to design and build inclusive cities and neighborhoods for refugees and citizens alike.
Further info:
Video Workshop Cairo
Ebook
