Nada Nafeh
Founder and Author, [in]Formal Pattern Language©, Egypt
Nada Nafeh
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Forum announcement media briefing February 2019 – Cairo, Egypt
Nada Nafeh, Junior Advisor at Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and winner of a LafargeHolcim Awards Next Generation prize (2017), said how proud she is to be the first representative from Egypt to be honored with a prize in the world’s most significant competition for sustainable design.
Last updated: August 27, 2024 Cairo, Egypt
She is an architectural designer, urban researcher and the founder of [in]formal Pattern Language©. The initiative proposes a holistic, replicable, open-source and transferable process and a manual to empower citizens in informal settlements to take ownership of their built environment and improve their socio-cultural and economical patterns with sustainable practices. The project mediates between bottom-up efforts and top-down expertise and engages community members, architecture students and experts.
She received a Holcim Foundation Awards 2017 Next Generation prize and subsequently a Holcim Research in Practice Grant in 2018 to replicate the [in]formal Pattern Language project in other informal areas in Cairo and/or around the globe and construct high impact sustainable prototypes on site with the community.
She was previously a Junior Advisor at Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), a German development agency based in Bonn, Germany and a Teaching Assistant in the Department of Architecture at the American University in Cairo (AUC), Egypt.
She received her Master of Architecture from the University of Waterloo, Canada. Her thesis [in]formal Pattern Language – a guide to Handmade Improvitecture© in Cairo was awarded with distinction and high commendation. She completed her Bachelor of Science in Architectural Engineering at AUC, Egypt.
She won a 2016 Alpha Rho Chi Medal for leadership and professional promise in architecture for planning and conducting geo-tagging and mapping workshops with architecture students and community members in informal settlements. She was also selected to participate in the design workshop organized by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) to contribute to the New Urban Agenda in 2017.
She was Program Coordinator of Learning at the 2013 Cairo Symposium, an international conference on informality, housing, transportation, public space and local governance. She also worked for the architectural and construction practice The Design Avenue in Cairo.
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Videos
Watch Nada Nafeh describe the holistic, replicable, open-source and transferable process of her work as part of the UVA School of Architecture and Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Michigan interview series.
Owning [up to] the Urban Speaker Series: Nada Nafeh
Watch Nada Nafeh describe the holistic, replicable, open-source and transferable process of her work as part of the UVA School of Architecture and Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Michigan interview series.
Owning [up to] the Urban Speaker Series: Nada Nafeh
The design processes for informal settlements in Cairo is sustainable because it takes a long-term and holistic perspective says Nada Nafeh of The American University in Cairo. Her project to improve the conditions of poverty-stricken and fast-growing informal neighborhoods won a Next Generation 3rd prize.
“A holistic approach for long-term adaptability” – Sustainable design by Nada Nafeh
The design processes for informal settlements in Cairo is sustainable because it takes a long-term and holistic perspective says Nada Nafeh of The American University in Cairo. Her project to improve the conditions of poverty-stricken and fast-growing informal neighborhoods won a Next Generation 3rd prize.