Students Become Urban Planners for a Day in Connect Create Cairo 3D Exhibition and Workshop

The centrepiece of the Connect Create Cairo exhibition is an architectural-scale model of one of Cairo’s historic urban districts that contains Al-Azhar Park and the Cairo Citadel. The model also contains other historic buildings; however, many of the residential streets and neighbourhoods are purposely left empty. The blank spaces are where workshop participants added their own 3D printed buildings, drawing on Cairo’s historic past for inspiration while collaboratively exploring critical issues facing cities and urban spaces everywhere.

 

3D printing technology, which allows solid objects to be “printed” from a computer file, is ] increasingly recognised for its educational potential and is used at various universities, schools, museums, and libraries. It permits learners of all ages to tinker, experiment and collaborate to solve complex problems and issues. Indeed, students and educators who participated in the workshop were extremely engaged and enthusiastic, with Az-Zahraa Islamic Academy commending the “fabulous learning experience for the students.”