Read the place first
Every site already has a story: its light, its wind, its history and its neighbours. The design should continue it.
Selected work
All projects“I want to make buildings that feel inevitable: as if the site, the climate and the people had asked for them.”
More about me01 — Work
Projects
Studio projects, competition entries, self-initiated work and research, from 2023 to today.
02 — About
Hello, I'm Ali.
I'm an architecture student who starts every project with a walk on site and a sketchbook, and finishes it with a model you can hold in your hands.
My work sits where climate, reuse and craft meet. I'm interested in buildings that use less: less energy, less new material, less spectacle. And in how that restraint can still produce rooms that are generous and full of light.
In studio I move between scales, from an urban strategy down to a single timber joint, and I work with drawing, physical models and computational tools side by side. Outside university I enter competitions, take on small commissions and keep a running study of earth and timber construction.
- Based in
- Cairo, Egypt
- Studying
- B.Arch, Year 4
- Languages
- English, Arabic
- Focus
- Reuse, climate, craft
Experience
Recognition
Where I'm going
03 — Approach
How I think and work
Four convictions guide every project, and four steps carry it from the first site visit to the final model.
Design with the weather
Shade, mass and moving air before machines. Comfort should come from the building itself.
Care at every scale
From the city plan to the handrail. A good detail is where an idea becomes real.
Build less, better
The greenest building is often the one that already exists. Keep, repair, then add.
The process
- I
Listen
Site visits, mapping, climate data and precedent studies. Understanding before drawing.
- II
Imagine
Sketches, diagrams and quick massing models that test one clear idea.
- III
Resolve
Plans, sections and structure, refined digitally and by hand until they agree.
- IV
Craft
Material details, physical models and a presentation that tells the story simply.
Toolkit
Open to
- InternshipsArchitecture practices, summer 2027
- CompetitionsTeam entries and collaborations
- Small commissionsInteriors, pavilions, renovations
- Model makingPhysical models for studios and students
04 — Contact