Out of the 40 submissions from 11 countries received this year, three Egyptian women have been named among the finalists for Tamayouz Excellence Award 2019.
Deena El-Mahdy, Omniya Abdel Barr and Shahira Fahmy, who work in the architecture and construction fields are shortlisted for the 2019 Tamayouz Excellence Award, which champions the best in the Middle East, North Africa and beyond.
Nominated among the finalists for the Mohamed Makiya Prize for Architecture 2019, Deena El-Mahdy launched initiative to create sustainable human settlements through environmentally responsible and low-cost architecture, serving as a catalyst for social development. In addition to designing and building projects following the principles and techniques of earth construction, Deena is a lecturer of Architectural Engineering Department at the BUE. In 2015, she co-launched Cairo Heritage School, to the narrow the gap between governmental bodies, professionals and community members. She was also awarded for innovating sustainable building materials and projects, such as a salt-block building material.
Omniya Abdel Barr, the Barakat Trust Fellow at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, UK, is selected among the rising star finalist for the Women in Architecture and Construction 2019 Award. . Her work focuses on Egypt’s cultural heritage with a sub-focus on historic Cairo. She holds a PhD on Mamluk architectural history from Provence University, Aix-Marseille (2015). Appointed as the project manager of ‘Rescuing the Mamluk Minbars of Cairo’, Omniya also has actively sought to protect Egyptian art pieces from international auction sales and looting.
Shortlisted as a “Woman of Outstanding Achievement”, Shahira Fahmy is competing in the Woman of Outstanding Achievement category. She is a two-time recipient of Harvard University’s post-doc fellowship for her prescient work exploring the relationship between urbanism, governance and cyberspace. In addition to being creative researcher, Shahira was once hailed by Phaidon as one of the “architects building the Arab future”. Her projects include the masterplan of Andermatt Swiss Alps’ Ski Resort, phase II and III; the architecture of the Allegria Resort, a housing and residential project in Cairo; and the restoration of an experimental arts hall in New York.
It is worth mentioning that Tamayouz International Award aims to recognize the excellence in architectural design and academic efforts worldwide.
