Summary

The vast Muslim cemeteries of Cairo, known as the “City of the Dead”, were always also meant to be a city for the living. Today, they stretch for more than eight kilometres, forming a unique urban and social environment, part of a World Heritage Site and home to approxmiately 1 million people.

Agnieszka Dobrowolska returns to Leighton House following her successful talk as part of London Craft Week 2018. Agnieszka will share more on ARCHiNOS Architecture’s restoration project in in the Sultan Qaitbey area of the cemetery, a project that combines historic preservation with cultural and social development components. She will discuss the difficulties of balancing conservation needs alongside the lives of the local community in Cairo. The work is funded primarily by the European Union with support from The Barakat Trust among others.

Agnieszka Dobrowolska trained as an architect and founded the Egyptian-registered practice ARCHINOS Architecture. She has extensive experience in architectural design for historic settings, particularly for adaptive reuse, museum displays and archaeological site presentation. Since 1996, she has directed architectural conservation projects in Egypt commissioned by foreign funding agencies and the Government of Egypt.

Leighton House Museum is delighted to be working in collaboration with The Barakat Trust on a series of talks for the Autumn.

The Barakat Trust, founded as a UK Charity in 1987, supports the study and preservation of Islamic heritage, architecture, archaeology, art and culture by funding students, academic research, publications, digitisation, conservation, conferences and other projects. 

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If you are unable to attend the event why not support the work of The Barakat Trust by making a donation by clicking here.