Tahayyuz is an alliance formed by three established entities in Cairo: Megawra-BEC, 10 Tooba, and Mansour for Architecture and Conservation. Over the years, these organizations have independently and collaboratively explored the connections between Cairo’s built environment and various disciplines, including arts, humanities, social sciences, human rights, and environmental sciences.

Motivated by the inadequacy of existing educational programs in preparing individuals for working with the built environment in a just, humane, innovative, and respectful manner, the Tahayyuz alliance was formed to develop a complementary pedagogical program. This program aims to transform their accumulated hands-on experience, practical skills, and knowledge into methodologies, fostering critical thinking through modalities of communication and exchange between disciplines. This program targets individuals across various stages of their careers, including:

• Early to mid-career practitioners in fields related to the built environment
• Academics and postgraduate students
• Students and fresh graduates of architecture, sociology, anthropology, economics, political science, the arts, and other disciplines that intersect with the built environment

Over the past two years, Tahayyuz has engaged in a range of activities to gain a deeper understanding of the needs and requirements for building an effective interdisciplinary educational program rooted in practice. These activities have included:

• Focus groups: Engaging with professionals and students from diverse fields to crystallize ideas and identify the deficits and gaps in formal educational models and how these challenges can be overcome through a complementary program.
• Internships: Hosting two internship programs for students and practitioners from various disciplines. These programs facilitated applied learning through working on real projects carried out by the three entities and were reinforced by collective lectures, workshops, and feedback discussions.
• Partnerships: Collaborating with international institutions, academics, and practitioners, including UNC Charlotte, on co-developing the educational program’s structure and content. These collaborations included focused workshops with the Tahayyuz team and lectures for the wider public.
• Public events: Organizing public talks and an international symposium to broaden the dialogues on issues core to Tahayyuz’s interests, such as ethics, methods, and interdisciplinary approaches. A key objective of such events is to expand the conversation beyond the local context of Egypt, particularly in Africa and the Middle East, as focus regions for South-South exchange.
• Tahayyuz blog: Launched to share ongoing thoughts, questions, and insights with the broader community and reignite the discourse around innovative approaches to contemporary issues in the realm of the built environment.

Based on these two years of intensive development, Tahayyuz has evolved into the Built-Environment Institute for Applied Studies in Africa and the Middle East (BIAS-AME). This initiative will offer a one-year, interdisciplinary educational program designed to equip individuals with the knowledge, skills, and values necessary to shape the built environment in a just and sustainable manner.