Makanuna Al-Khalifa: Implementation Workshop

Last February I had the pleasure to work with 13 adolescents from the al-Khalifa neighborhood during their mid-year vacation to implement some of their suggested designs for the outdoor furniture at al-Khalifa Park. Over the span of 5 days, we implemented a recycling bin for sorting waste and five lighting units. All the intervention designs were inspired by the sunshade we designed and implemented in the first workshop of Makanuna Al-Khalifa in September 2021. During this vacation, we upgraded it into a multi-use outdoor furniture unit (sunshade/lighting unit).

Al-khalifa Implementation Team:
Aya Mohamed Ahmed, Jana Ayman Mohamed, Rawan Magdy Shaban, Sama Ayman Mohamed, Ali Mohamed Ahmed, Ali Radwan Farouk, Fatma Alaa Al-Din Abas, Kamal El-Deen Hassan Kamal El-Deen, Mariam Abd El-Nasser Said, Malak Alaa Al-Din Abas, Menna Allah Hany Shehata and Hanna Ayman Mohamed

We did it together in partnership with my local partner Monica Michel Zacharia, an environmental architect and founder of the Eiid Studio; and in collaboration with Sayed Reda, a local carpenter from al-Khalifa neighbourhood. Other team members from to Athar Lina joined as well – Mohamed Mostafa (Conservator / Electrician), Nazeeh Ahmed (Craftsman/ Worker), as well as our volunteers Henry Spencer and Mariam Sayed.

In addition to that, we also worked on developing a mural design proposed for the wall behind the kids’ area in the park. Read “Al-Khalifa Wings” to explore more about the 1st augmented reality mural designed and implemented by al-Khalifa adolescents.

Makanuna Al-Khalifa is a series of participatory placemaking workshops with adolescents aged 13-18 in the neighborhood of al-Khalifa. It aims to empower adolescents 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. It consisted of two phases: the introductory and pilot phase (August – September 2021) followed by the 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 and use their organic waste to create natural compost for the park.

Makanuna Al-Khalifa is one of the two programs of “Makanuna: Re-thinking Spaces from a Youth Perspective”. An initiative aims to promulgate urban rights among youth by highlighting the value of social spaces through placemaking and place-based participatory interventions.