This 12–month comprehensive program, taught in Arabic, equips participants with theoretical and practical skills to impact the evolving built environment.
It concludes with an expert-guided independent project addressing a specific challenge of their choice.
The Advanced Diploma is structured across four components:
Who Could Apply:
• Students and practitioners from disciplines related to the built environment such as–but not limited to: design, ecology, architecture, sociology, anthropology, economics, political science, and the arts.
• Scholars and early-career faculty and teaching assistants in public and private universities.
• Postgraduate students conducting research or practical work related to the built environment.
Tuition Fees: The 2025 Advanced Diploma Program, which includes the independent project is offered at a fee of EGP 40,000.
Payable in three installments. For more details check the Registration page.
This seminar critically examines the ethical and philosophical dimensions of practice in the built environment, moving across multiple scales- systems of power, belief, and identity. It interrogates the power dynamics, ideological frameworks, and cultural tensions that shape ethical decision-making and its implications for spatial design and management.
Addressing different conceptual frameworks and how ethics are derived and adopted individually and collectively, the seminar integrates critical readings, case studies, and participatory exercises-such as role-playing and reflective drawing-to engage participants in confronting real-world ethical dilemmas, analyzing their dimensions, and crafting frameworks for ethical decision-making.
This module explores imprints of the art(s) in shaping urban social-cultural landscapes. Participants will examine the power dynamics of the social and the political as they are narrated in realms and levels of the official, the subversive, the planned, the improvised, the individual, the collective, the imagined and the illusory. They will engage with the notion of public accessibility of art, while exploring charged pockets within the city that are not necessarily public or accessible. The module also investigates how artistic approaches and cultural interventions interpret placemaking policies and ambitions, as well as how they respond to city representation across various mediums and diverse cultural and contemporary curatorial practices.
MoreThis module examines how space actively structures human experience and asks what the built environment can teach us about how people organize social worlds, construct political projects, and plan for the future. Using theoretical orientations from cultural anthropology, geography, sociology, political science, and history, this module will investigate how social structures shape and are shaped by contemporary urban spaces.
MoreWith Africa and the Middle East as its focus, this module examines the history of the conservation and management of built heritage. Starting with a review of theories of architectural conservation, the module critiques policies and methods of heritage management and conservation from pre-modern times to the present, with a focus on heritage as a political construct that is embedded in wider issues such as colonialism, nationalism, globalization, development, sustainability and climate change.
MoreThis module explores urban environments through ecological and systems thinking, viewing cities as ecosystems with significant impacts on surrounding landscapes. It examines urban environmental histories and contemporary challenges like climate change, species extinction, loss of natural system complexity, and resource insecurities. The module also explores systems-based ecological design typologies for urban intervention, focusing on their implications for environmental quality and justice.
MoreThis Online workshop introduces participants to different approaches to the built environment in critical social sciences and humanities. The main objective is to give participants the tools to situate their own understanding of the built environment – shaped by different social and educational backgrounds – with wider parallel understandings in society. The workshop’s approach is based on experiential learning, rather than reading or design work, allowing participants to gain a grasp on basic critical thinking methods through walking, note-taking, photography, film, sound, and geotagging.
MoreThis workshop introduces co-production as a transformative approach in urban upgrading, offering an alternative to traditional top-down planning models. By focusing on collaborative partnerships between local communities and various stakeholders, the workshop demonstrates how co-production can foster more equitable, sustainable, and resilient urban spaces. Through a blend of theoretical exploration, practical applications, and hands-on exercises, participants will engage with methodological tools, co-planning practices, and research techniques. The workshop also addresses barriers and challenges in co-production, equipping participants with the skills to contribute to a fairer and more sustainable built environment.
MoreThe practicum is a two-month, hands-on internship placing diploma students in real-world projects led by our founding organizations (Megawra, 10 Tooba, Mansour for Architecture and Conservation). This experience offers in-depth professional exposure to justice-focused urban initiatives.
Participants will be matched to projects based on the alignment of their skills and interests with project needs, allowing them to apply their knowledge to grassroots urban practice alongside experienced professionals.
The final component of the program provides participants the opportunity to make an impact in their communities by developing their own initiatives. Throughout this process, participants receive ongoing guidance and feedback from our organization's mentors, ensuring support in all aspects of project design and implementation.
| Ethics and Philosophy of Practice (Seminar) | 10/02/2025 | 01/03/2025 |
| Independent Project | 01/11/2025 | 31/12/2025 |
| Arts in the City | 23/03/2026 | 23/05/2026 |
| The City through a Social Sciences Lens | 25/03/2026 | 23/05/2026 |
| Critical Thinking Methods in the Built Environment | 09/05/2026 | 27/06/2026 |
| Ecologies of Cities | 01/06/2026 | 01/08/2026 |
| Critical Approaches to Heritage | 01/06/2026 | 01/08/2026 |
| Participatory Research and Design | 11/07/2026 | 25/07/2026 |
| Practicum | 01/09/2026 | 30/11/2026 |