“WUF12 was an excellent opportunity to showcase and share AUC’s innovation as well as its regional and global leadership in questions of urbanity and cities." 

Goubran led the AUC-hosted Voices from the City session with collaborators from England, Northern Ireland, Mexico and the United States. The event fused the lessons learned from AUC’s Zero-Carbon Future Heritage project with the work of community practitioners utilizing participatory processes for shaping public space, a practice known as placemaking, in the United States, Mexico and globally. 

“We were able to highlight the successful future-thinking methodology of our zero-carbon transnational project, which we worked on with Queen’s University Belfast and the University of Salford, and which was showcased at the Venice Biennale,” Goubran said. 

For Sara Amin, an architecture senior, the session was a springboard for her graduation project. “This was an incredibly inspiring experience that directly resonated with my dissertation on rethinking Egypt’s street environments to better serve community needs and foster sustainability,” she said. “The forum as a whole demonstrated how academic work, like my own, can translate into practical, impactful solutions on a global scale. It was a fantastic opportunity to witness firsthand how critical design thinking can shape urban spaces to meet the needs of future generations.”

Tamer El Gabaly ’21, a multidisciplinary designer and teaching assistant at AUC, also reflected on how “fascinating” the panel was. “The event was incredibly beneficial, as it provided an opportunity to share our work, engage in meaningful  discussions with global experts and reinforce the University’s role in shaping sustainable and inclusive urban futures.”

For El Gabaly, one of his key takeaways is that community participation should go beyond the consultation phase. “The community should be able to have bigger decision-making power when it comes to shaping its built environment,” he affirmed. “This way, cities can grow in ways that truly reflect what the community needs and values.”

Students also showcased their work at the forum. Yara Yousry, an architecture graduating senior and co-founder of the award-winning Bahtinet Project, presented her work in a number of panels. “I was honored to participate [in the event, which] provided an excellent platform for me as a student to discuss how AUC’s education has helped me make a meaningful, real-world impact,” Yousry said. “I shared how the foundation provided by AUC has allowed me to extend SDG concepts beyond campus projects and into global, on-the-ground action, particularly in collaboration with international organizations.”

“The event was incredibly beneficial, as it provided an opportunity to share our work, engage in meaningful  discussions with global experts and reinforce the University’s role in shaping sustainable and inclusive urban futures.”

Architecture senior Amina Khairy found the experience to be “transformative.” “I listened to inspiring presentations from leading voices in the field and contributed to a thought-provoking roundtable discussion with professionals and students from diverse backgrounds, all united in exploring how design can reshape urban spaces to foster community and resilience,” she said. “Discussing placemaking, in particular, resonated deeply with me as it highlighted how intentional design can bridge gaps and address shared urban challenges.”

Kanzy Nabil ’24, an architecture alumna who took part in several panels and the Habitat UNI Booth, shared similar sentiments: “[Through our work at AUC], we are contributing to the development and implementation of effective urban policies and strategies that promote sustainable development.”

Multidisciplinary Engagement 

Beyond architecture, the forum featured faculty and students from other disciplines, including business and graphic design.  

Ahmed Elsayed, associate professor in the School of Business and executive director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab Middle East and North Africa housed at AUC, discussed innovative development models. “Urban settings are complex in nature, and understanding what works best is pivotal to addressing the multidimensional challenges of cities, where issues like poverty and social services are interconnected and require precise data-driven solutions,” said Elsayed. “This is what we specialize in at J-PAL.” 

Bahia Shehab (MA ’09), professor of practice in graphic design, presented a talk at the panel titled, A Space for All, which examined the role of digital and physical public spaces as hubs for cultural expression, highlighting how art and culture can foster community connections.

Highlighting AUC student and alumni participation in the World Urban Forum, Goubran noted, "I was incredibly proud to see our students and alumni take the stage at WUF, the world's largest event of its kind. They are truly well-equipped to make a meaningful impact." 

How was your visit at AUC? What’s your impression of AUC researchers, students and faculty working on urban sustainability? 

This is the first time I visit AUC, and it has been a really good experience. This is a wonderful campus. The World Urban Campaign Assembly session was perfectly organized. There were a lot of people: students, professors and academic researchers who are interested in generating collaborations and synergies in topics in our field.

The 15-minute city is the urban revolution based on a happy proximity for offering services in a city.

You developed the 30-minute territory/15-minute city concept for urban living, a concept meant to reduce carbon emissions and promote local growth. How did the idea come about?

The 15-minute city is the urban revolution based on a happy proximity for offering services in a city. In 2010, I realized that the most strategic issue in cities will be climate change, and for a successful fight against it, we need to modify our mindset, transform our mobility and develop a more vibrant local economy for our neighborhoods. In 2015 Paris hosted COP 21 and we negotiated the Paris Agreement. In 2016, I proposed this concept for the first time to develop an urban revolution: proximity within the 15-minute city, 30-minute territory as the best vector for reconciling sustainability, to reduce our carbon footprint, and to foster our local economy and local employment while rebuilding social links in cities and neighborhoods. It’s about the transition from a decarbonized world toward a greener, thriving neighborhood for human-centered urbanism. 

Paris, Milan and Buenos Aires have already begun to embrace the model. Where else has the concept been translated into reality?

The 15-minute city concept was first embraced by the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, in 2019. The C40 Cities, the largest network of metropolises fighting against climate change, embraced this concept in 2020 — we had Buenos Aires, Montreal, Milan and other cities around the world in different continents. Given that the 15-minute city and the 30-minute territory work as a double framework, there is a very large possibility for customizing the particular condition of each city. Buenos Aires is totally different from Paris, which is totally different from Seoul. However, each of the three cities has developed this concept for generating its own transition pathway.

We’re in Cairo, a sprawling city where places are separated by vast distances. How does your framework apply in a city like Cairo?

Cairo is one of the most relevant metropolises in the world, and to customize this concept is totally possible since the 15-minute city functions regardless of the size or population density. The first element we need is for local, regional, or even national governments to consider the concept as a key point for generating a new urban road map. This is significant given that this concept is, above all, for common good cities and dweller-oriented urbanism. 

"We need to radically transform the neighborhood for fostering people who decide to abandon a car-centered life in favor of a human-centered social fabric."

The second point is that we need to discuss with the private sector (the stakeholders) an adaptation of the business model to create the proper real estate conditions for the 15-minute city. This can create more compact cities and change the business model in favor of multipurpose buildings and spaces to generate a new kind of neighborhood. We need to work with NGOs in developing an urban culture and creating a strong link to the cities and dwellers in order to continue to change the mindset of citizens. 

How do walkability and public transportation play a role in the concept?

Walkability and public transportation are pillars of mobility that are required to break away from car dependency, which is one of the largest difficulties for changing our paradigm in cities today. The automotive industry lobby is very present and powerful, and at the same time, the mindset of inhabitants is totally intertwined with this idea that having a car is important to being someone in a city; a car is not only a means for mobility in cities but a symbol of social status. It is also one of the most significant emitters of carbon emissions and fine particles that generate many diseases, as well as a source of obesity. Walkability can reduce these urban diseases, though we still need to convince people. We need to create a new human behavior to break away from this idea and transition to a city 100% for humans. Walkability and bikeability are two pillars in this transformation. 

How can we achieve that?

We need to create green infrastructure, green areas, water fountains, protected bike lanes and more services in proximity through local jobs, commerce, cinemas and theaters, and public spaces for cultural activities. We need to radically transform the neighborhood for fostering people who decide to abandon a car-centered life in favor of a human-centered social fabric.