Dar Arafa Architecture is a design and build studio, established in 2006 by principal architect Waleed Arafa. Working from both Cairo and London, the center of our interests lay in tracing and reviving the Egyptian chains of transmission in the field of architecture and building guilds. We are concerned with how contemporary Egyptian architects can write a new original chapter without negating their rich and successful architectural heritage. We have a particular interest in Islamic architecture, a controversial term used to refer to a huge and apparently different array of buildings across the globe. We believe that our interest in the past can only be useful if it helps us contribute to the realignment and reorientation of contemporary architecture and building construction to a more sensitive and sustainable state; in-tune with our critical and impending energy and raw material crisis alongside our modern problems, necessities, and above all the world’s spiritual crisis.
Projects by DAR ARAFA ARCHITECTURE
