Revisiting and expanding upon Christopher Alexander’s “Pattern Language,” a method is being proposed to improve living conditions in Cairo’s informal settlements. Merging use patterns and architectural patterns in sustainable ways, a so-called “(in)formal pattern language” is proposed that takes its clues from the existing physical and cultural context. Rather than focusing on architecture’s final form per se, potential transformational procedures for its development are being identified, basically shifting the focus of the architect’s work from the “design of products” to the “design of processes.” The term “improvitecture” is herein introduced to identify an architecture based on both improvisation and improvement. Stakeholders are enticed to take charge of their environment via the deployment of straightforward “patterns” for improving their neighborhood.

The jury admired the intellectual freshness of the author’s analytical approach to Cairo’s poverty-stricken districts. Particularly valued was the notion of an “(in) formal pattern language” that could guide users in improving their environment, a “language” that would not only allow people to take ownership of their specific neighborhood, but one that could also be easily transferred to similar sites in Cairo. Of specific interest is the proposed relation between daily activities and the architectural framework that determines the spaces that people inhabit – the intersection, as it were, between habitus and habitat. While the emphasis on processes was greatly appreciated, the jury nonetheless would like to encourage the author to be equally inventive when engaging in the design of architecture, rather than relying on established prototypical architectural “patterns,” so to speak.