Making Space for Innovation: Audiovisual Collaborative Design Practices in Architectural Education in Cairo

Abstract

This article demonstrates an experiment in re-capacitating students of architecture to deploy their professional privileges to make space for members of the community who may not otherwise be seen or heard. The study deploys audiovisual collaborative design practices such as listening, visual representation and ‘imagining together’ in facilitating three collaborative design cases in two locations in Cairo: at Dar El-Sameya orphanage and Maq’ad Sultan Qaitbey historic religious complex, as part of a creativity enhancement module conducted at Newgiza University. Data were gathered from participant observations on site, in addition to students’ group presentations during parallel feedback session presentations at the university, and individual reflections submitted by the end of the course. The results demonstrate the different conditions that contributed to the outcomes of the creativity enhancement module and show how it provided the students, especially those who study in a private university, the unique opportunity to engage with and learn about other lived realities in the diverse city of Cairo. The study encourages a re-evaluation of knowledge co-production in universities to better reflect societal diversity and cultivate approaches that place people at the centre.