Heritage in the Street: Megawra | BEC’s Athar Lina Initiative in Historic Cairo

A groundbreaking initiative, Athar Lina, demonstrates that heritage can be a resource for community empowerment and sustainable urban development. Based in al-Khalifa, Historic Cairo, this participatory project, led by Megawra-Built Environment Collective, has successfully conserved six monuments from the 12th to 14th centuries while addressing critical challenges like groundwater rise. Its innovative Ground Water Research Project extracts and reuses water for community benefits such as irrigation, showcasing a practical solution to heritage site degradation. Beyond conservation, Athar Lina integrates heritage education, urban revitalization, and income-generation strategies through its Heritage Design Thinking School, proving that heritage can drive economic growth while preserving cultural legacy.

al-Ibrashy, M. (2021). Heritage in the Street: Megawra | BEC’s Athar Lina Initiative in Historic Cairo. The Journal of Public Space, (Vol. 6 n. 1), 241–256. https://doi.org/10.32891/jps.v6i1.1462