Under current conditions of climate change, environmental degradation, and disappearing biodiversity, a human-centered view of cities is becoming a growing problem. It negates the complex social, political, material, infrastructural connections and dependencies between social and ecological systems and thus increases the fragility of our settlement space.

In contrast, the conception of the territory as a complex system of resource cycles reveals interesting design possibilities at a wide range of scales. Peri-urban space in this context poses a major challenge but also highlights a wide range of possibilities for a socio-ecological sustainable urbanism.

This course focuses on the growing city of Cairo and its different peri-urban conditions, looking at planned and informal areas within the Cairo metropolis. The 5 chosen case studies from in and around Cairo allow us to address human and more-than-human actors of urban development as well as identify, map, and articulate socio-environmental dynamics, to understand the social and ecological interconnectedness of these areas and their potential to drive a cultural shift for the sustainable cities agenda.