Athar Lina Initiative: Recent Developments

Athar Lina: Recent Developments

A review of the work of Athar Lina and discussion of its transition from working on the building scale to the urban scale.

About Athar Lina

Al-Athar Lina (the Monument is Ours) is an integrated participatory initiative based in al-Khalifa in Historic Cairo that uses heritage conservation as a vehicle for development. Its premise is that the community conserve heritage when they benefit from it.

Run by BEC-Megawra in partnership with the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities, AL started with a 6 month participatory workshop to address modalities of community benefit and care of heritage sites in al-Khalifa (Jun-Dec 2012; funded by DEDI). Recommendations centred around: 1) identifying heritage nodes to conserve and rehabilitate for communal use; 2) children as prime targets for heritage awareness activities and; 3) urban scale projects linking heritage to economic and social benefit through upgrade of public space, tourist promotion and capacity building.

The heritage education component started in Feb 2013 in a local primary school then moved to al-Khalifa Community Centre (see below) in which a daily summer and after-hour winter school teaches children about their heritage free of charge. It is partially funded by a paid program for private schools and heritage education consultations.

Conservation activities commenced in Nov 2013 in the mausolea of al-Sayyida Ruqayya (1143), Ja’fari and ‘Atika (mid 12th C) (Nov 2014 – Oct 2015; funded by AFCP) and Shajar al-Durr (1250) (Nov 2013 – Dec 2015; funded by the ARCE with the Barakat Trust).

This was in addition to the rehabilitation of an early 20th C building (private donations) now housing al-Khalifa Community Centre and Megawra al-Khalifa and hosting a dual program of Athar Lina’s social activities (education, health, capacity building) and BEC-Megawra’s cultural program of public lectures, workshops, walks, competition and film screenings for architects and urbanists.

The tourist promotion program includes street art, mapping, storytelling and branding activities showcased in the annual event Spend the Day in Khalifa (Nov 2013, Dec, 2014, Jan 2016; funded by the British Council, UNESCO, crowdsourcing through Zoomaal).

Finally, the transition to the urban scale kicked off in June 2015 with an urban and social survey and waste management study that will adopt an integrated approach to improving the quality of life within Khalifa’s historic streets and homes. (funded by IIE).

The lecture will be on Arabic
About May al-Ibrashy
May al-Ibrashy is founder and chair of the Built Environment Collective, an Egyptian NGO and hub for architecture and urbanism that organizes a regular program of public talks and events in addition to research and community outreach projects in partnership with its consultation and implementation arm, Megawra (www.megawra.com) . She is director of al-Athar Lina, a participatory initiative integrating conservation and community development based in Historic Cairo (www.atharlina.com) and adjunct lecturer of architecture at the American University in Cairo. In addition to her practical work as an architect with more than 20 years of experience in architectural conservation and documentation. She holds a BSc in architecture from Ain Shams University and a PhD and MA in art, architecture and archaeology from the School of Oriental and African Studies, the University of London.