Cairo Lab for Urban Studies, Training, and Environmental Research – CLUSTER
Egypt
Architecture and Urbanism,Cultural Heritage,Design,Archiving
CLUSTER (Cairo Lab for Urban Studies, Training, and Environmental Research) was founded towards the end of 2011 at the tail end of the Arab Spring, as an attempt to participate in the fast-changing political, cultural, and urban landscapes. It establishes an independent urban design and research platform with a focus on urban informality and the role of creative initiatives in urban regeneration. CLUSTER’s activities include research and mapping, design interventions, training workshops, and knowledge dissemination programs including publications and online platforms. In 2019, CLUSTER founded ALFABRIKA Creative and Makerspace in the informal area of Ard al-Liwa as a hub to facilitate an exchange of knowledge between formally trained artists, designers, local craftspeople, and manufacturers. It is an extension of CLUSTER's interests in creative industries as well as activating the role of design in social and economic development.
Cairo Lab for Urban Studies, Training, and Environmental Research – CLUSTER
Egypt
Architecture and Urbanism,Cultural Heritage,Design,Archiving
CLUSTER (Cairo Lab for Urban Studies, Training, and Environmental Research) was founded towards the end of 2011 at the tail end of the Arab Spring, as an attempt to participate in the fast-changing political, cultural, and urban landscapes. It establishes an independent urban design and research platform with a focus on urban informality and the role of creative initiatives in urban regeneration. CLUSTER’s activities include research and mapping, design interventions, training workshops, and knowledge dissemination programs including publications and online platforms. In 2019, CLUSTER founded ALFABRIKA Creative and Makerspace in the informal area of Ard al-Liwa as a hub to facilitate an exchange of knowledge between formally trained artists, designers, local craftspeople, and manufacturers. It is an extension of CLUSTER's interests in creative industries as well as activating the role of design in social and economic development.
Grantee
Reclaiming Our Commons: A Proposal for Cultural Collaboration Across the Arab Region
2024
The Regional Expansion of the Public Inter-Library Online Technology (PILOT)
The proposed project to expand the Public Inter-Library Online Technology (PILOT) builds on an existing and growing bilingual platform for library collections and archives, which CLUSTER started in 2013 and housed in over 30 civil society organizations in 5 cities across the Middle East and North Africa region. It is situated within the political and cultural context of Egypt and the Arab region, where many public libraries are either closed to the public or have very limited collections and information systems. On the other hand, several civil society organizations have their own specialized collections of books, magazines, films, and archives, access to which remains restricted to their staff members and a small circle of experts in the artistic and cultural field. These collections often lack standardized cataloging systems, hindering the possibility of a wider network of knowledge exchange between libraries. PILOT is premised on rendering private, specialized, and closed library collections accessible to wider public audiences through a shared universal cataloging system, capitalizing on existing resources within each civil society organization towards a regional and inter-disciplinary space in common. The scope of the project includes expanding to new member libraries in Iraq, Libya, and Algeria by organizing training workshops for their staff in indexing and transliteration (romanization) systems and providing technical support that will ensure the sustainability of their growing collections. In parallel, the project proposes launching an online feature of PILOT after digitizing a small collection not bound by intellectual copyrights.