Ezbet is a an integrated, academic-based community development project that provides the basic urban and social facilities in the informal area in Cairo. EZBET Project Vision:
Improve LIFE …together with the PLACE..
تطوير الانسان مع المكان
EZBET Project Mission:
"Upgrade the urban and social fabric without changing its logic, culture and identity"
EZBET project was initiated officially in 2013 based on three main pillars; promoting education, health and professional skills, which define our pillars for sustainable development. EZBET aims to develop and create a prototype model for a real sustainable community development to be the seed for more development projects in other informal settlement areas in Egypt. The project aims also to impact the local individuals intellectually and economically along impacting the whole Ezbet's built environment and infrastructure as well. The innovation of Ezbet Project lies within its care to engage three main stakeholders in all of its activities: (1) Multi-disciplinary Students, Professors, researchers and Academic Staff, (2) the Ezbet Residents who are the direct beneficiaries of the project and its future owners, and (3) all other organisational entities including the government and the local NGOs. The comprehensive approach of Ezbet project aims at allowing all stakeholders and beneficiaries sharing the power and the local resources on the site and working under partnership towards mutual outcomes for all parties. The broader aim of the project is to result with a successful sustainable community development prototype which can be the seed for similar developments in other informal settlement areas in Egypt. Ezbet Project Initiation:
The Ezbet Project has its roots in Städtebau Institut (SI), Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Stuttgart since 2011, when Ass. Dr. Manal El-Shahat as a team member at SI Institute initiated the idea of developing the informal area of Ezbet Abu Qarn through planning for a community centre that is operated and used by the Ezbet local community. The idea was then firstly implemented as a student project during the winter semester (WS 2011). In 2012 the collaborated work and results from the student project at the University of Stuttgart evoked the idea to start the "EZBET Project”, targeting real steps for sustainable community development in Ezbet Abu-Qarn to be carried out under the umbrella for research and academic institutions. The Ezbet project was formulated at the beginning of 2013 to be running under the academic umbrella of Ain Sham University-Faculty of Engineering- Urban planning & Design Department and Urban design Institute, Faculty of Architecture, University of Stuttgart. The informal area of “Ezbet Abu Qarn” served as a pilot project in the past 3 years. The pilot included workshops at ASU and University of Stuttgart, participatory assessments in the community and hands-on workshops with students and residents to realize interventions that are built on the real needs of the community. “Ezbet” Project has been awarded and received an Honorable Mention from the Social Environmental Economic Design (SEED) + designbuildXchange + Live Projects Network Awards 2017 for its intervention "Street Upgrading - Physical Intervention based on a Participatory Needs Assessment (PNA)" on the 26th of January, 2017. http://liveprojectsnetwork.org/project/street-upgrading/
http://liveprojectsnetwork.org/project/earthen-oven-project/
https://www.daad.eg/en/2017/04/25/ezbet-project-receiving-an-honorary-mention-from-seed/
Ezbet Project’s Sustainable Development pillars:
With the belief that sustainable community development can only be achieved in communities that have their basic services and facilities, and those productive effective communities are products of healthy, well-educated communities who afford their basic needs of homes (shelter) and food, Ezbet Project SD-pillars are:
- Health and hygienic care and awareness
- Educational Development
- Economic Development (Through the vocational training's and handicraft workshops)
This is evident through the Ezbet Project Slogan "Education, Health, Profession" which resembles the three main pillars of the project. The Ezbet Project includes different Urban Planning and Infrastructure strategies, which will affect and empower the whole system and assure its successes. The EZBET Project has managed to promote multi-discipline students from all over Egypt and Germany and bring all together on the site with the local community and build the trust between all parties. The Project is including a series of workshops engaging students, local labours, residents and expertise from Germany, Europe and Egypt to work in the project different phases. Gathering such a combination of different categories of stakeholders of the project is considered as a great achievement on its own, and will be an asset for Ezbet Project later on during the construction phase. Visit our website at:
- www.ezbetproject.com
- www.ezbet-competition.com (not active)
Facebook Fan page: https://www.facebook.com/EzbetProject
** EZBET (El-Ezba): The term refers to a limited residential community on agricultural land or on its edges. Ezbet differs from the village in terms of size, shape and number of inhabitants. The Ezbet urban structure is usually an unplanned (spontaneous) community structure. HR Contact No.: 0020 114 3944 360
Admin Ass. Contact No.: 0020 109 4379 134
For volunteering opportunities, please contact us via email on: hr.ezbet13@gmail.com
For general information, please contact us on : ezbetproject1@gmail.com & hr.ezbet13@gmail.com
