May al-Ibrashy Impact Awards recipient

May al-Ibrashy is an Egyptian architect whose work centres on community engagement through heritage conservation, rehabilitation, preservation, and re-signification. She is the founder of the Megawra - Built Environment Collective (BEC), a twinship between an architectural firm and an NGO that engages with the built environment with a focus on theory, praxis, arts, and linking cultural heritage to sustainability and social responsibility.

Through her work she has managed to create a real difference for the, often marginalised, communities living in Cairo’s historic centre and has created an important counter-narrative to the current government’s focus on urban expansion and renewal, creating a new sense of hope and pride for the communities she works with.