About

The Built Environment Observatory (BEO) is a web-based portal of open knowledge on Egypt’s built environment.

The BEO covers a range of urban issues with a focus on fair housing, spatial justice, and, access to basic infrastructure such as electricity and water.

We aim to support scholars, communities, civil society, development agencies and officials in their pursuit for the equitable development of the built environment, through the production of knowledge in the form of:

State of Housing series that offer in-depth analyses of the impact of legislation, policy, and, public spending, on housing and cities
Laws and legislation explainers and commentaries
Housing Statistics fact sheets and analysis of key data
Social Housing commentaries and analysis of projects and strategies
Commentaries on wider issues of housing and the city

Researchers

Project Director
Yahia Shawkat
Yahia Shawkat is a policy analyst and co-director and research coordinator of 10 Tooba, a research studio where he has developed social housing and spatially just policies and strategies. Yahia is the author of "Egypt’s Housing Crisis: The Shaping of Urban Space" (AUC Press, 2020), and wrote "Pacta Sunt Servanda? Exercising Possession in an Informalized Cairo" in Cairo Securitized (AUC Press 2024), while his articles have appeared in Al-Manassa, Mada Masr, TIMEP and others.
Contributing Researcher
MennatuAllah Hendawy
Is an urban researcher and a PhD candidate at the Technical University in Berlin
Contributing Researcher
Amira Khalil
Specialises in State Budget equality and access to government information, and is currently pursuing an M.Sc in Statistical Science at Leiden University
Contributing Researcher
Mohamed Gad
is a journalist, specializing in economic reporting, and former head of research at the Egyptian Center for Economic & Social Rights
BEO
Contributing Researcher
Salma Shukrallah
Salma Shukrallah is a journalist based in Cairo. She obtained an MA in Anthropology from the American University in Cairo (AUC) in 2010
Contributing Researcher
Omnia Khalil
is a PhD student in cultural anthropology program in the Graduate Center, City University of New York (CUNY) and Teacher Assistant in Hunter College in New York City. She is an urban researcher and a former co-founder of 10 Tooba.
Contributing Researcher
Ali Almoghazy
Has a research interest in human geography and settlemetns, and received his master's at the Technical University of Berlin Campus El Gouna
Senior Researcher
Ahmed Zaazaa
Is an architect, participatory planner and urban researcher, and co-founder of 10 Tooba
Contributing Researcher
Samir Shalabi
Urban researcher and journalist. Based in Alexandria, his research interests include transport, housing, urban history, informality, and the urban sensorium (i.e., experiences of the city, soundscapes, smellscapes etc.).
Contributing Researcher
Reem Cherif
An architect and urban researcher who holds an MSc in urban design and community development from Cairo University. Her research interests focus on gendered mobilities and spaces, multi-sensory spatial experiences, and visual ethnography.
Legal Research Director
Nadine Abdel Razek
Nadine is a social researcher interested in studying urban inequality, informality, and displacement, specifically from a legal sociology perspective. Her academic background includes an LLM in International and Comparative Law from the American University in Cairo and an Honours Bachelor of Arts from the University of Toronto, where she pursued a double major in Sociology and Political Science.
Contributing researcher
Hanaa Gad Mahmoud
Hanaa Gad is an architect and urban researcher, and a PhD candidate at Cairo University focusing on informal/unplanned/deprived areas and their issues.