CONCEPT SHARKS: DESIGN RUN - WORKSHOP REPORT by Nedaa H. Mahboub

CONCEPT SHARKS: DESIGN RUN | The Greek campus 10th/11th September

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DESIGN RUN'S SHARKS DESIGN TOUR- THE GREEK CAMPUS

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MOHAMMED AMIN

NADA OSSAMA

AMIRAH N AGIB

Mohamed Amin, M. Sc. of Architectural Education from the Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University is the founder and owner of Art Inn, a design studio that works in several fields within the design discipline. Art Inn has had contributions in all areas related to the field. It continually collaborates with other design studios, such as Ecumene and Handover, the Cairo based firms, to give workshops serving concepts in Architecture.

Mohamed was a guest speaker at TEDx Wadi El Rayan in Fayoum in March 2017, where he gave a presentation about Design Thinking. He is also former president of the Alexandria Toastmasters Club.

Nada Ossama is a 4th year student in Ain Shams university, faculty of engineering, urban planning and design department. she is an advocate of community-directed architecture and "reshaping" architecture education. She studied placemaking in CILAS and volunteered in organizing several local architecture workshops.

Amira Nagib, Graduated Interior Designer From Faculty of Fine Arts Alexandria University. A facilitator in design tour workshops.

Volunteered in several civil work activities; Fine Arts Student Union, one of the founders of AYG Fine Art team and became head of HR committee for the same team during her undergraduate study. Currently a freelance Interior Designer.

CONCEPT SHARKS: DESIGN RUN | The Greek campus 10th/11th September

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DESIGN RUN'S SHARKS DESIGN TOUR- THE GREEK CAMPUS

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YASMINE TAHER

HAGAR MOHAMED

Yasmine Taher, M.Sc. candidate, an architect at Art Inn & team coordinator at Design Tour, Participated in civil work (with Step up youth initiative & others) for 4 years.

Yasmine has a passion for teaching and knowledge transfer, worked as T.A. at Faculty of Fine Arts as well as her role in Design Tour.

Hagar Mohamed Safwat , B.Sc. of Architecture Engineering, Architecture Department, faculty of engineering, Alexandria University. She is an active person in different fields of coaching and leadership, she has been team coordinating during her participation in social and civil work for more than 10 years. She is working also in Volunteering filed in different NGOs for Literacy such as (Life Makers), and Responsible Volunteer at (Resala) for Charity works. Also she had many previous experiencing coaching kids and managing both marketing and media in many non-profit organizations.

SARAH GALAL Sarah Galal, a junior architecture student at Faculty of Fine Arts, Alexandria University. To gain more reallife experience, she attends in workshops and events related to her studies. She is a volunteer at Design Tour Initiative. Sarah effectively participates in organization and recently she held the role of facilitator. She loves to challenge herself by stepping outside of her comfort zone. Also, she is interested in the topic of Alexandria heritage conservation and joined many workshops relevant to it.

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CONCEPT SHARKS: DESIGN RUN- WORKSHOP REPORT

POWERED BY ART INN- 2017

DESIGN TOUR- THE GREEK CAMPUS

less depends on the users themselves.

Surprisingly, most of the architects do not make that effective conversations to get the most out of their designs! On the top of that, some of them do not even understand why do people hire architects and then tell them what to do?

10TH / 11TH OF SEPTEMPER.

After a series of previous workshops that were presented by the name of concept sharks; This version was the final one to show up! The workshop took place in the grEEK campus near to AL- Tahrir square for two Intensive days; where a group of eight participants learned how to get over the very basic design dilemma. Which is: How to design a concept!

About Design tour and Art Inn Design Tour is a program developed by Art Inn. It involves a series of workshops that help undergraduates, as well as freshly graduated architecture/arts major students, get a feel of the practical issues faced by designers. It trains them on the human-centered approach to design with emphasis on the need of the actual people living, dealing or using the required design. With a major part of the workshop dealing with actual scenarios of clients, participants face the issues shared by professionals on a daily basis in their quest to

get the best design solution to solve the problem-underhand.

Goals

and

benefits

to

gain

the workshop was targeting some aspects to highlight, including but not limited to: ❖

❖

❖

❖

Theoretical and historical explanation about the development of the design practice.

Acted out scenarios of cases where a client with specific needs requests a design.

Practical activities for participants to train on the various steps of design.

Practical overview of a designer’s actual workday and the challenges he/she faces.

Inspiration workshop

and

insights

of

the

What makes any design a great one, more or

Who does what? It is a debatable issue to distinguish the responsibilities between both edges, the user as well as the designer! These are what this workshop first inspirations came from. The workshop process has been designed to highlight a serious of strategies that Emphasizes designing with compassion.

During the upcoming pages, more details will be described about the instructors, the location and its historical background, the participants and the most crucial, the workshop process itself.

18/ 09/ 2017 Cairo, Egypt Nedaa H. Mahboub

CONCEPT SHARKS: DESIGN RUN | The Greek campus 10th/11th September

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ABOUT THE LOCATION DESIGN TOUR- THE GREEK CAMPUS

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- SOME EXTERNAL GATHERINGS FOR WORK'S SAKE. - COURTESY OF AMIRA NAGIB

The GrEEK CAMPUS is Cairo’s first technology and innovation park in the heart of Cairo, offering state-of-the-art office spaces for both startups as well as established multinational technology and media companies. With the rapidly growing ICT sector in Egypt, a technology park that allows aspiring tech start-ups to thrive and grow in a proper entrepreneurial ecosystem was essential. The concept and vision were crafted

by Ahmed El Alfi and Tarek Ali, Founders of TATP, the operating company of THE GrEEK CAMPUS. The project’s name was inspired from the historical Greek building that is part of the campus while playing on the word “GEEK”, a label for many tech-gurus and creative in the industry. THE GrEEK CAMPUS enjoys a unique and central location in the capital’s city center with different transportation means within-walking-distance.

A place for accidents of genius to happen.

The project consists of five office buildings, with a total space of 25,000 sqm offering open office spaces for rent ranging from 10 sqm to 1,400 sqm, able to accommodate companies of any size. The tenants also benefit from various supporting services within the complex; including 24/7 security, courier, meeting rooms and spaces, a printing center and food-court.

A center for all technology entrepreneurs The vision for the new CAMPUS extends to turning the complex into a center for all technology entrepreneurs, enthusiasts and creative people to meet their ideas and work together towards technology businesses and ideas. * -------------------------------------------------------*Reference:thegreekcampus.com/vision. *photo credit: Unknown,

CONCEPT SHARKS: DESIGN RUN | The Greek campus 10th/11th September

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HISTORICAL BRIEF DESIGN TOUR- THE GREEK CAMPUS

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- THE GREEK CAMPUS COURTYARD, MORNING SCENE. - COURTESY OF AMIRA NAGIB

Talaat Harb, the late Egyptian financial business magnate, set an example in starting the first Egyptian Bank and Insurance Company in 1920.Even so, Egyptian culture still stigmatizes failure and is plagued by terrible work ethic and a overriding socialist mentality.As founder of the Flat6Labs tech incubator, Mr. El-Alfi cherry picked winners and mentored them himself. But he soon realized he couldn’t grow the startups fast enough and needed to create an alternative ecosystem.

With this in mind, Mr. El-Alfi established a 25,000 square meter (270,000 sqf) campus of open office space in the heart of Cairo where tech startup companies could come together to collaborate. The campus operations alone have generated jobs for over 100 people, aside from the companies based there. Mr. ElAlfi expects the campus to be fully occupied

by November, hosting over 3,000 employees from hundreds of companies.

For many investors, such a huge project would represent a big risk, but Mr. El-Alfi is confident that Egypt’s tech talent and young entrepreneurs will soon be able to “play ball” with the giants of the tech world. “I have inside information. I’ve worked with these kids and I know what they’re capable of doing,” he said. The project’s name is a play on the words “Greek” and “Geek.” The campus that once was a school for Greek expatriates will now host “geeks” since Tahrir Alley Technology Park, founded by Mr. ElAlfi, leased the campus from the American University in Cairo.

The campus is open to all for rent, from bootstrapping startups to multinational technology and media companies. In addition, it is designed to host legal and accounting firms, incubators and venture capitalists along with other service providers needed to support the ecosystem.*

-------------------------------------------------------*Reference:thegreekcampus.com/vision. *photo credit: Unknown,

CONCEPT SHARKS: DESIGN RUN | The Greek campus 10th/11th September

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WORKSHOP 1ST DAY -

DESIGN TOUR- THE GREEK CAMPUS

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- OPEN DISCUSSIONS LEAD TO A BETTER UNDERSTANDING. - COURTESY OF AMIRA NAGIB

The sprint method of design in the first day was meant to go across the design process in a productive, compressed way and as fast as a sprint! The participants have learned how to produce a concept along with all the various activities.

Workshop-Outlines for the 1st Day:Introduced by Mohammed Amin's short talk, Amin, the workshop moderator, has given the participants a brief talk " Art as a bridge to man" that included: - Types of arts which are: Dramatic Arts: their shapes: music, drama, and dance. Visual arts applications as : drawing, painting, sculpture, and architecture.

- A breakdown of the term: Aesthetics, its theory, and practice and where the two of them meet! Moreover, to understand the relationship that brings the aspects of talent, environment, and users all together in one context when designing.

- Talent: To stimulate the dynamic mind process and lead toward a hidden talent.

- Environment: includes site, buildings, and History - User: to satisfy the user's needs and fulfill their requirements regarding the design.

- A quick overview of a design process has been given, through accumulative five steps: - 1- Empathize 2- Define 3- Ideate 4Prototype 5- Test.

-Design sprint: In light of that previous process, the participants have been divided into pairs of A's and B's as clients and designers, the designers have been assigned to suggest their clients a proposal of a public space that matches their client's answers.

Then to switch roles in another cycle.

-Into Urban: a presentation that has been given by Nada Ossama, a workshop facilitator, to distinguish between the space and the place conflict. The lecture has ended

by giving a set of criteria of what makes any space a public space. The charter of public space* described how any public space should be accessible by all for free, to enrich the social well-being, the diversity, cultural richness in addition to context's identity.

-Urban scavenger: was a practical exercise to search for various elements of the Greek campus public space.

- A second design sprint has been done, followed by a discussion to present three proposals of interventions regarding the campus.

- A final design sprint has been done after new team rotations activity; to be followed by a final discussion of different public spaces around the world and a closure.

-------------------------------------------------------*Reference: Charter of Public Space- UNHabitat *photo credit: Amira Nagib.

CONCEPT SHARKS: DESIGN RUN | The Greek campus 10th/11th September

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WORKSHOP-2ED DAY DESIGN

TOUR-

THE

GREEK

CAMPUS

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- INTERVIEWING USERS TO REVEAL THEIR NEEDS. - COURTESY OF AMIRA NAGIB

Workshop-Outlines for the 2nd Day: The second day started by an input lecture presented by Mohamed Amin that got more in details with what any concept is mainly about. How to avoid jumping into conclusions before developing a design concept, as it often results a poor design, or places focus on the product as opposed to the process. various aspects such as concept's features have been discussed, for example, to be: 1.

Artistic 2. Abstracted 3. Unique. concept forms can be sketches, models, and words. Then a five steps processes called “Conceptual 5” that includes: 1- Free Hand Sketches: Quick messy drawings.

Facilitate, don’t present.

2. Hand Constructed Model: “convey potential reality of complex threedimensional space more effectively” 3- Concept Words and Statements: Brainstorm words for example.

4- Concept Boards: Idea collage.

Minimum 2 original sketches.

5- Parti Diagram: Representing idea in its abstract form. Must fit both context form An open tour: during this group activity, a group tour of three groups has taken place on the campus in order to get more in touch with the different users of the public space and their perceptions about the campus.

Mapping needs and insights: - was a group activity work to classify all the different users of Greek's campus into categories and determine what the output would come through their various needs!

Pin-up: another presentation that has been given by Nada Ossama to elevate the participants' awareness of the public space via landscape design. Landscape elements toolkit is a checklist that includes some of the most common features of any landscape context such as types, paving, and borders.

1) Types: Curvilinear: in case of relaxation and soothing effect, Rectilinear: in case of organizational well- ordered atmosphere, and Nervous for some contemporary messy feelings.

2) Paving: the materials can play a massive role regarding the softness or the hardness of any texture. Also, the Direction of colors could encourage or discourage the user to walk in or to walk away from any place.

3) Borders: they can be made of so many things as water elements, greeneries and spot lights, etc.

The workshop has finally come to an end by some final proposals presented by three group teams. Regardless neither the shape nor the appearance of the suggested interventions; the participants were able to show their conceptual ideas as models by the end.

-----------------------------------------------------*photo credit: Amira Nagib.

CONCEPT SHARKS: DESIGN RUN | The Greek campus 10th/11th September

FEEDBACKS. DESIGN

TOUR-

THE

GREEK

6

CAMPUS

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--- TWO PARTICIPATIONS WERE SHARING THEIR IDEAS- COURTESY OF AMIRA NAGIB

"Despite the fact that they were two intense days, but we would have preferred to have an extra-day!"

- SALLY MOHAMMED "The place is just amazing, very rich and full of insights indeed! Moreover, the workshop's content especially the urban talks were piece of art to me! Would have been more participants if the fees were more reasonable!"

--YOUSSEF-OSSAMA

"The thing is I never had the chance to feel bored, we were too busy working to be! I agree that the urban talks have added a special value to the workshop content, I'd rather preferred that we didn’t start from the scratch regarding some of the activities in the previous-two-days."

- MARWAN MASOOR

"It's almost the 6th workshop to attend with you guys, I do like how you keep improving what you present every single time to let us get the most out of it, which we had some extra time to work on our interventions!"

- KAREEM H. ABD EL-AZIZ "The Greek campus is a perfect choice, I didn't feel like I'm heading to a university, very soothing yet impressive! I would have invited more of my friends only if the fees were more friendly" --OMAR-ADEL

"Happy that I got the chance to interact and apply what I have learned during the workshop period within a practical methodology not only through a theoretical part."

- DOAA ABDELHADY ELBASHAR