here - rb

15. Mostra
Internazionale
di Architettura
Partecipazioni Nazionali
REFRAMING BACK//IMPERATIVE CONFRONTATIONS
PADIGLIONE EGITTO / BIENNALE ARCHITETTURA 2016
PRESS RELEASE
REFRAMING BACK
IMPERATIVE CONFRONTATIONS
Under the Auspices of
Ministry of Culture
Arab Republic of Egypt
With the Support of
Egyptian Pavilion Reporting from the Front at the 2016 Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale of Architecture is an integral part of architectural culture. However,
this year’s cycle “Reporting from the Front” is more unique, It highlights the capacity and
potential of architecture’s role inside communities; “architecture makes the difference”, as
Aravena puts it.
REFRAMING BACK
IMPERATIVE
CONFRONTATIONS
Official Website
www.rb-ic.org
The Egyptian pavilion curated by Architect Ahmad Hilal with a team of Eslam Salem,
Gabriele Secchi, Luca Borlenghi and Mostafa Salem, seeks to reveal various successful
stories of architecture narrating the difficulties and challenges inside the Egyptian built
environment. The works inside the pavilion reveal how architecture is actively creating
change in communities. Nowhere are these confrontations more evident than in the urban
context, and nowhere more so than in Egyptian cities.
The exhibition’s goal is to re-frame and position in a global forum what we think are
examples of a successful architectural and urban conflict resolution where architects,
through their work, were the mediators of change, this mediation took the form of built
projects, or even research proposals that attempted to highlight existing problems.
The exhibition titled Reframing Back//Imperative Confrontations, responds directly to
this year’s biennale theme “Reporting from the Front” by displaying architectural projects
largely by grassroots initiatives, students and young architects. The works presented
can be broken down into two large categories – mapping investigations and (built-up
projects and experimental proposals). The mapping projects attempt to survey existing
conditions with applied analytical lenses, evident in their representational outputs. As with
recent mapping efforts in other contexts, here, representation is viewed as a tool to think
and present new information. It also entails the same potential shortcomings of mapping
exercises when data is poorly researched and could advance a skewed perspective, or
completely misinform. The exhibition contains a various investigations about the Egyptian
urban condition including sprawl, informal urbanism, desert vernacular architecture,
coastal cities, and 19th– and 20th-century heritage buildings which have been all part of
the parallel dynamics of growth in Egyptian context for the past half a century.
This pavilion is in no way a comprehensive survey of all initiatives and works that have
been produced during the last period in Egypt. it is, however, an attempt to introduce to a
large audience the work of those individuals and collectives, students and professionals,
who over the course of the past decade, have been searching for new operating models
in Egypt and engaging in architecture as a field of critical intellectual inquiry. The
works presented here demonstrates the interest of a wide range of actors - government,
universities, research centers, independent practitioners - in the Egyptian urban condition
marking the occasion to bring forth all these perspectives and approaches in one space
and to reflect on the nature of the knowledge produced in the past decade. It is at the same
time an opportunity to evaluate its potential for action and transformation.
Through an open call, many works have been selected to be exhibited from, among others,
the MAS Urban Design of ETH Zürich, School of Design of University of Pennsylvania,
Mittelmeerland of AA School of Architecture, Lund University, and MSA architecture
department, Baladilab, Cairobserver, CLUSTER, Community Design Collaborative, GUC
Architecture Department, (IN)formal Pattern Language, MADA Architecture Studio, Studio
Meem, Takween, Traslochi Emotivi, and Œcumene Studio.
REFRAMING BACK IMPERATIVE CONFRONTATIONS
REFRAMING BACK IMPERATIVE CONFRONTATIONS
REFRAMING BACK IMPERATIVE CONFRONTATIONS
VENUE
The 15th International Architecture Exhibition, titled REPORTING FROM THE FRONT
curated by Alejandro Aravena and organized by La Biennale di Venezia chaired by Paolo
Baratta will be open to the public from Saturday May 28th to Sunday November 27th 2016
at the Giardini and the Arsenale.
REFRAMING BACK IMPERATIVE CONFRONTATIONS
REFRAMING BACK IMPERATIVE CONFRONTATIONS
REFRAMING BACK IMPERATIVE CONFRONTATIONS
AHMAD HILAL
MAIN CURATOR
/COMMISSIONER
Ahmad Hilal is an Egyptian Architect (Born
in 1991 in Cairo), He is currently doing his
Master’s degree in Architectural Engineering
at Politecnico Di Milano as a GOLD
scholarship holder. He moved to PoliMi
just after finishing his double degree in
Architectural Engineering at MSA University
and Greenwich university of London with
Honours.
He is working as a freelance architect in
several architectural projects in Europe &
MEA region. His work focus on new spatial
concepts intensifying existing potentials
by integrated design methodologies
through architectural research by the aim
of merging pragmatic paradigms with
innovative design in multiple scales.
He was a member in EZBET project design
team, which is founded by AYB NGO, Ainshams University and Stuttgart University.
He is the co-founder of SEED activity group
and volunteered an associate in BEE’iE’s
Environmental NGO. Furthermore, he
competed in several national and international
competitions where he received several
awards. He participated in a number of
international workshops including Greenwich
summer school (sustainable cities), AA
(Architectural Association) Mittelmeerland
international visiting school, (Desert Cities)
at ETH Zurich as well as different series
of other events related to architecture and
sustainable development.
He was shortlisted to be part of the Advanced
School of Architecture at Politecnico di
Milano; it’s an advanced ​programme held
in parallel to the Masters studies. In 2015,
He joined OBR-Open Building Research as
a junior architect-intern, where he has been
enrolled in the design team in several ongoing
projects. And recently, he has been a teaching
assistant in Politecnico di Milano for the
Sustainable Multidisciplinary Design Studio
in Facoltà di Ingegneria Edile – Architettura.
REFRAMING BACK IMPERATIVE CONFRONTATIONS
TEAM
ESLAM SALEM
GABRIELE SECCHI
Eslam Salem is an Egyptian Architect (Born
in cairo,1992) had his ‘Bachelor Degree’ from
Modern Science and Arts (MSA) University
with a validation from Greenwich UniversityU.K- with Second Honours (1st Division).
Eslam is working as an Architect at ‘CDCAbdelhalim’ an Aga-khan award firm. He is
working in all design phases from conceptual
sketching to final presentations.
Born in 1991 in Bormio, Italy, GS is an
architecture student at Politecnico di Milano,
attending a double degree program in
Building Engineering & Architecture.
Eslam is also working in many projects in
Egypt as a freelance architect. During the
last three years, he participated in many
international competitions and workshops in
both Architectural and Urban scales. Lately
he was among ‘CDC-Abdelhalim’ team in
‘URBAN RE- PLANNING OF MASPERO
TRIANGLE’ as they were shortlisted after the
pre-qualification phase.
In 2015 he and his team was placed the 2nd
in ‘Urban Innovations Competition’ organised
by Cairo University (CU) + The American
University in Cairo (AUC) which was aiming
to make small scale interventions on the
urban scale in the 6th District in October
city in Cairo. He participated with his team
in the ‘INTERTNATIONAL COMPETITION OF
MASS HOUSING’ organised by UN-HABITAT
+ International Union of Architects (UIA) and
he was placed the 2nd at the national stage.
Then he Co-published a paper about his
wining proposal named ‘IBNI BETAK: NOT
JUST A BACKYARD’ in the ‘6th International
conference: RESPONSIVE URBANISM
IN INFORMAL AREAS’ organised by UNHABITAT + Cairo University (CU).
Eslam had practical experiences in different
architectural fields such as a Landscape
Architect at ‘IDD Landscaping’ (Egypt).
An Intern Architect at ‘Mahomud Riad
Architects’ (Egypt) where he participated
in an INTERNATIONAL BID organized
by ‘’Arquitectum.com’’ for Designing a
Residential Tower in Lima, Peru. And also he
was an Intern Architect at ‘Battle McCarthey
‘(UK).
He had the opportunity to be an exchange
student at Tsingua University of Beijing,
China. EPMA master program in addition
to his participation in the Urban Parametric
workshop at University of Hong Kong (HKU),
which let him know East Asia’s culture,
where he studied contemporary ways of how
developing countries deal with globalization
and foreign mentalities, and how the advanced
modernity affects and creates generational
gaps between the previous generation and
the present one. Moreover, He has been to
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid where
he studied about the human body: how
unconsciously it interacts with other objects
under different circumstances, from a closed
space to a crowded open plaza.
In 2015, he has been an intern at “Emmer
Pfenninger Partner AG”, Basel, Switzerland.
Getting to know the behind-the-scenes tasks
reinforced his sensibility for the coordination
of bigger projects: being confronted with and
experiencing such technical professionalism
regarding façades gave him solid basis for
real scale problems, specifically when it
comes to transforming executive drawings
into reality.
Recently, his work is focusing on studies
about the integration of the skeleton structure
in the architectural design process. As a part
of group master thesis, he is developing the
project of a public library located in London.
The goal is to combine equally: energy,
structure & architectural composition, and
to define critically the modern paradigm
of connecting structure methodology and
architectural design process.
REFRAMING BACK IMPERATIVE CONFRONTATIONS
LUCA BORLENGHI
MOSTAFA SALEM
Luca Borlenghi, born in 1992 in Piacenza,
Italy, is a senior undergraduate student at
Politecnico di Milano, attending the Double
degree program in Building Engineering &
Architecture.
Mostafa Salem, born in 1992 in Cairo, He
is an Architect who got his bachelor degree
in Architectural Engineering from MSA
University and the university of Greenwich
(Double Degree). After graduating he
worked as a teaching assistant specialized in
architecture design and 3d modeling courses.
At the same time he worked as a part-time
interior designer at Tebmar and Living Space
companies.
In 2010 he graduated from “Liceo Artistico
Bruno Cassinari”, a high school of art,
architecture and design, with the thesis
“Music in space, colors and words”, about
how music influenced different disciplines,
such as architecture, painting and poetry. He
studied piano at the Conservatory of Piacenza
“Giuseppe Nicolini” and at the Advanced
school of Music of Nunzio Rossi, where he
reached the specialization in Jazz, Blues and
Fusion music.
During his studies at Politecnico di Milano
he dealt with projects in different scales and
contexts, acquiring the ability to master both
complex organisms and small interventions
at the human scale. He made full use of
different building and structural technologies,
understanding their value as architectural
language. He also took part in many
international workshops and competitions
with great results. He worked as a free-lance
designer for several architectural practices
where he gained some valuable practical
experience in the construction industry.
Since the beginning of his career, he
developed a strong interest in architecture in
its broadest conception and his vocation for
interdisciplinary led him to a design approach
that takes into account several aspects that are
the results of the contamination from different
disciplines. A careful analysis and synthesis
of the reality that surrounds us led him to a
conception of space that is not only intended
from a dimensional or conceptual point of
view, but also from a perceptual, social and
relational perspective.
Mostafa always intended for reaching out
to diverse architecture designers-coming
from different design schools and cultural
backgrounds-while
attending
various
seminars and participating in considerable
workshops at different countries like England,
Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Egypt. In
addition, he have competed in several national
and international competitions since he was
a student where he have received several
awards, he won the 2nd place nationally and
3rd regionally and was from the 12 finalist
internationally in the Urban revitalization of
mass housing competition organized by the
UN-Habitat, consequently he received an
invitation to present his work at the World
urban forum held in Colombia.
Lately he participated in the international
competition of Maspero triangle re-planning
with CDC-Abdelhalim. Besides his research
interest in sustainable development and
integrated urbanism, he was a member in
different organizations, the AA school, The
Egyptian Society for Energy in Buildings
and Environmental Design Research, EZBET
project design team. Moreover in his extra
curriculum activities he was the co-founder
of BEECA (Breakthrough in Egyptian
Expertise Culture and Artistries) as well as
SEED (Sustainable Environmental Ecological
Design) activity group. Over and above
he volunteered in Lebaladna development
foundation as a project manager for the local
handicrafts in Egypt.
REFRAMING BACK IMPERATIVE CONFRONTATIONS
Collaborators
ETH Zürich
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich
Master of Advanced Studies
Urban Design
Prof. Dr. Marc Angélil
Department of Architecture
Prof. Dr. Marc Angélil, Charlotte Malterre-Barthes
(Director of Studies), and Something Fantastic (Julian
Schubert, Elena Schütz, and Leonard Streich) in
collaboration with local partners Cluster (Omar Nagati,
Beth Stryker). Students from MAS Urban Design
2014-2015: Patrick Abou Khalil, Zoi Alexandropoulou,
Bernardo Baillif de Sousa Falcao, Grigorios Dimitriadis,
Christine Fisher, Marilena Fotopoulou, Ameya Joshi,
Hee Chul Jung, Denise Kouniaki, Maria Kouvari, Tina
Lamprou, Alice Merche, Daniel Ostrowski, Elisavet
Papadopoulou, Shinji Terada, Francesco Tonnarelli,
Faye Vitou, Dimitra Zarri, Kathy Zerlauth. Students
from MAS Urban Design 2015-2016: Daniel Ariño
Espallargas, Aikaterini Christopoulou, Felipe Combeau
Oyarzún, Hugo Dos Reis Vieira Pinto , Ekkachan
Eiamananwattana, Guido Greco, Georgios Kaldis,
Georgios Lavantsiotis, Christina Lazou, Katarzyna
Pankowska, Gide Sleiman Haidar, Sofia Symeonidou,
Aknaw Taddese Yohannes, Maria Tsagka, Yuki Ueno,
Ana-Caterina Viguera Andreu, Olga Vougioukalaki, Yao
Ting Wu, Seunghee Yang
MSA University
Architecture Department
Prof. Omar Fawzy
Head of Department
Omar Elmelegy
Assistant Lecturer - EMB Workshop organizer
Ahmed El-Leithi, Abdelrahman El-Hiatmy, Hany
Mohsen, Mayar El-Sayed, Maryam Kamal, Salma ElRouby, Yehia Shawky Abouzaid
Abdelrahman Afia, Abdelrahman Alaa, Ahmed
Ashraf, Ahmed Elmelegy, Aliaa Mohamed Shokry,
Ehsan Aboushadi, Essam Mohsen, Eyad Tarek, Farah
Gendy, Islam Abou El Dardaa, Islam Ali Ibrahim,
Mai Esawy, Marwan Wafik El-Sayed, Mirna Khalifa,
Mohamed Abbas, Mohamed Anwar, Mostafa Soliman,
Mohamed Yasser Elsarif, Nariman Nashaat Shehab,
Nervana Morkus, Nour Abdelaziz Kamal, Nourhan
Abdelhamid, Radwa Hilal Ahmad, Rokaya Mohamed
Mostafa, Sarah Mouselhy, Sarah Aita, Yomna Khalifa,
Yossef Ahmed Bazan
Organized by Ministry of Culture
University of Pennsylvania
The School of Design
Graduate Architecture
Winka Dubbeldam
Department Chair
Instructor: Ferda Kolatan
Ass. Instructor: Michael Zimmerman
Fan Cao, Dunbee Choi, Joseph Giampetro, Heng Gu,
Yanghui Huang, Hyemi Kang, Grace Kim, Brett Lee,
Rachel Lee, Hadeel Mohammad, Chi Zhang, Xinju
Zhang
Egyptian Academy in Rome
Mohamed Makarem
Maria Adele Rogai
Laura Iudiciani
Fathy El-Farmawy
National Organization of Urban Harmony
Haby Hosny Mostafa
Fardows Mohamed Said
Emam Said Emam
Ramy Sabry
Ibrahim Yehia
Emam Mohamed
Osama Abdelazim
General Coordinator
Alaa Shakwier
Architectural Association
School of Architecture
Mittelmeerland
www.moc.gov.eg
www.accademiaegitto.org
www.urbanharmony.org
www.fineart.gov.eg
www.docp.gov.eg
Directors: Medine Altiok Stephanie Tunka
Ahmed Abdallah, Ahmed Abdelraouf, Abdelaziz Othman,
Hassan Dawood, Ghdaa Essam, Mounir Saad-Eldin,
Muhammad Nabee, Anas Hosney, Hesham Elsayed,
Lobna Ali, Mar Iam Alshiekh, Mariam Alembaby, Mazen
Elazab, Mirihan Gamal, Mohamed Haridy, Mostafa
Salim, Reham Said, Samar Gomaa, Omar El-Melegy,
Mohammed Mostafa, Mohammed Gehad, Abdelramen
Mohammed, Heba Hatem, Ahmed Hilal , Ayman
Ghali, Aziz Naguib, Bassant Essam, Marina Qaldas,
Mohamed Ossama, Mohamem Sallam, Noha Refaat,
Ragya El Masry, Salah Maged, Heidi Samir, Mostafa
Fathy, Raghda Sarhan, Stavros Papavassiliou, Yelta
Kom, Mohammed Fisal, Dodi Sultan, May Abdelhafez,
Reham Elneshawy, Hadeer Adel, Mohammed Eldegla
Modelmaking
Wael Khalil
Nermeen Hussein
Exhibition Preparations
TEBMAR interior decoration
Wael Fathy
Construction Supervision
Giorgia Andreatta
For their assistance in the graphical materials
publishing and printouts, we would like to thank
LITOQUICK
of Massimo Fracchioni, Piacenza
REFRAMING BACK IMPERATIVE CONFRONTATIONS
PRESS
CONTACTS
Padiglione Egitto, Giardini della Biennale
Sestiere Castello, 30122 Venezia
info@rb-ic.org
+39 333 842 1987
REFRAMING BACK IMPERATIVE CONFRONTATIONS
REFRAMING BACK
IMPERATIVE CONFRONTATIONS
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