“To look at buildings you have to peel away the signage then reconstruct.” Mohamed Elshahed on tracing Cairo’s human experience, one building at a time.

The Lighthouse Conversations with Hashem Montasser

In this week’s episode we are transported to Cairo via Mexico City. Hashem chats with Mohamed Elshahed, curator, architectural historian and author of Cairo Since 1900: An Architectural Guide. Hashem and Mohamed expand on how Cairo, the architectural compendium of 220 buildings and sites, was put together. They also uncover the challenges and surprises Mohamed and his students encountered during the elaborate process, such as the lack of documentation and presence of women architects. An inspired conversation, Hashem also finds parallels between his own experiences living with family members in academia; Cairo; the POV of an artist's appropriations and how Instagram’s Cairobserver became a sleeper hit.

Links:

• Nadia Wassef on narrative structure and trafficking in nostalgia