Al-Khalifa Wings

Adham al-Samanoody is a 16-year-old boy living in al-Khalifa neighbourhood. Through Makanuna Al-Khalifa, he came up with the idea of creating an interactive mural on one of the walls of al-Khalifa Park, featuring two open wings to celebrate the rich heritage of his neighbourhood located in Historic Cairo.

Makanuna Al-Khalifa is a series of participatory placemaking workshops with youth aged 13-18 in the neighbourhood of al-Khalifa. It aims to empower the youth of al-Khalifa to create innovative and sustainable solutions to their community’s problems. It also encourages them to take an active role in designing and influencing the open spaces surrounding them.

Makanuna Al-Khalifa consisted of two phases: the introductory and pilot phase (August – September 2021) followed by implementation phase (February and April 2022). Over these two phases around 20 youth worked together to up-cycle their solid waste to design outdoor furniture and interactive games at al-Khalifa Park in addition to using their organic waste to create natural compost for the park.

Adham sketched his ‘wings’ idea for the mural during the 1st phase of Makanuna Al-Khalifa; and, with the help of his collogue Aya Sobhy, they started to adjust the mural design, its size, and location in al-Khalifa Park. They presented the final design to Athar Lina’s core team and got constructive feedback on how they can develop it to be implemented in the park. At the end of this phase, the mural’s final design was also presented to the visitors of the park and the local community of al-khalifa during the closing event of Athar Lina Heritage Design Thinking School.

Adham’s design concept was to create customized wings that highlight the landmarks of al-Khalifa neighbourhood and present its stories and myths. The left-wing represents the buildings, depicting some of the neighbourhood’s most iconic landmarks: the spiral minaret of Ahmed Ibn Tulun Mosque (263-65 A.H./876-79 C.E.), Sabil Umm ‘Abbas (1867 AD – 1284 HD), and silhouettes of some residential buildings. The right-wing represents the community of al-Khalifa as well as some of its historical figures such as Sakna Pasha, Khedive Ismail and the Caliph.

During the second phase of Makanuna Al-Khalifa, while other participants were implementing some of their outdoor furniture ideas, Adham and Aya worked with architect/ visual artist Shama Elrasheed to develop the mural’s design. She gave them a couple of consecutive artistic sessions that focused on understanding the basic principles of murals design and graffiti art. They also got a chance to discuss and analyse Shama’s design proposals for developing al-Khalifa wings based on what they learned and understand through the sessions.

The mural’s design was developed again and edited by visual artist Agnes Michalczyk (The Mozza); she was inspired by the legends of al-Kritliyya house (Gayer-Anderson museum) and her experience in creating other interactive murals with Athar Lina in al-Khalifa neighbourhood.

During the second week of April 2022, Agnes worked with the youth of al-Khalifa for two consecutive days to implement the final design of “al-Khalifa Wings” on one of the walls of al-Khalifa Park in the kids’ area. Lately, Agnes added a new augmented-reality feature to the mural.

Al-Khalifa youth implementation team: Adham ElSamanody, Ali Radwan, Aya Mohamed, Fatma Alaa, Hassan Ali Hassen, Malak Alaa, Mariam Nasser and Omar Mohamed.

Use your smartphone to view the above photo of the mural through:

– Our filter on Athar Lina’s Instagram profile (https://www.instagram.com/athar_lina/)
Or
– Download the “Artivive” application, and then view the photo/ mural through it.

About Al-Khalifa Park:
An environmental and heritage park located in the heart of al-Khalifa, connecting it to Zaynhum Public Housing Project, its conceptualization and design are the outcome of Athar Lina’s Groundwater Research Project. It is a step towards social and economic development in the sectors of environment, health, education, employment, heritage awareness, tourism promotion and raising the standard of living in the area.
For more information:
https://atharlina.com/projects/khalifa-heritage-and-environmental-park/

About Al-Khalifa:
Al-Khalifa neighbourhood lies in the southern section of Historic Cairo close to the Citadel and immediately north of the Historic Southern Cemetery; it is known for its impressive, yet under-appreciated set of listed monuments dating from the 9th to the 19th century. Al-Khalifa has traditionally functioned both as a popular site of visitation and tourism and as a venue for crafts such as building crafts and metalwork. It houses a community that takes pride in its connection to its local heritage yet does not benefit from it as a potential socio-economic resource.
For more information:
https://khalifa.atharlina.com/