Pergola in Agouza Children’s Park Giza, Egypt outdoor community arts space, New Northern Egyptian architecture images
Pergola in Agouza Children’s Park, Giza
4 November 2025
Design: CLUSTER with THISS Studio and Orient Productions
Location: Agouza Children’s Park, Giza, Cairo, northern Egypt
Pergola: design as a form of resistance
Photos by Georges & Samuel Mohsen – The GS Studio
Pergola in Agouza Children’s Park, Giza, Cairo, Egypt
CLUSTER (Cairo Lab for Urban Studies, Training and Environmental Research) in collaboration with THISS Studio and Orient Productions have completed an independent outdoor community arts space in Cairo, located in Giza’s Agouza Children’s Park, one of the city’s few remaining publicly accessible green spaces.
Titled Pergola and perched close to the Nile river front, the bright red, ten-metre tall structure offers a new beating heart for an emerging cultural scene in Cairo.
Inspired by public bandstands and similar sheltered spaces, Pergola addresses the increasing gentrification and commercialisation of Cairo’s public space and neighbourhood parks, offering an alternative approach to urban development anchored in art and cultural programmes. The project positions design as a tool of resistance and preservation as unchecked development, often in favour of foreign investment, is increasingly at odds with cultural preservation and community spaces.
Conceived as an extension of CLUSTER’s Along-the-Line project, a modular public installation in the same location, the project continues the organisation’s efforts to reclaim contested urban sites.
Pergola will open to the public on the 10th of October as part of a city-wide cultural arts programme. The structure enacts a form of activism through its dual ambition: to reclaim public space through community engagement while promoting sustainable construction practices.
Pergola’s dynamic, adaptable design allows it to easily transform between active and passive functions. Complete with lighting rigs and speakers, it will host performances, concerts, film screenings and community events, complete with a compact and secure backstage area for performers.
On days without programming the cantilevered canopy provides shaded seating, functioning much like the traditional bandstand, with the addition of removable swings to ensure all ages of the local community feel a sense of ownership of the structure. It could also potentially be used for community-organised events such as birthdays and graduation ceremonies.
Agouza park itself is an example of the city’s struggle for public space playing out. Located directly adjacent to the 6th of October Bridge, one of Cairo’s main highways, where over the past decade, the green space has been gradually encroached upon. Large billboards and advertisements have been erected in the park facing the highway, sparking growing anxiety that the park may vanish altogether.
Placed directly beside the heavily-trafficked bridge on the west bank of the Nile, the theatre’s location is inseparable from the project mission. Pergola was designed to be deliberately conspicuous amongst the vast noise of hoardings. Its vivid, fire-engine red form towers at 10 metres high, easily grabbing the attention of the many vehicles that pass along Cairo’s arterial road.
Aside from its steel frame, Pergola is built almost exclusively from recycled plastic waste collected from the Nile and construction sites sourced by three pioneering Egyptian suppliers for plastic reuse: TileGreen, Reblox and VeryNile. The project is a direct response to Cairo’s acute waste mismanagement problem, it demonstrates viable large-scale material reuse in construction and brings the lifecycle of building materials into architectural conversation in the region.
As an outdoor theatre, Pergola will host a six month programme of free events curated by Orient Productions, built around the theme of sustainability. The programme is designed to engage the park’s existing community of children and families, strengthening their connection to the space, while also attracting new audiences beyond the park’s immediate neighbourhood. Through folklore music concerts, contemporary dance performances, clown shows, film screenings and more, Pergola will showcase local contemporary arts in all their forms. Framed by sustainability, the programme invites audiences to reflect on our place in an ever-changing world, consider how heritage informs the present, and critically examine the city and the ways we experience it.
CLUSTER previously collaborated with THISS Studio on a project in Karachi and enlisted the London architects to join the Pergola team, knowing they shared a clear agenda for sustainable design. Drawing on THISS Studio’s international design experience, including public realm projects such as PoliNations in Birmingham, and CLUSTER’s embedded local knowledge, the design emerged from a fluid exchange between the two practices.
The process began with a week-long workshop in Cairo, overseen by CLUSTER, that brought together community groups, students, local designers and park stakeholders. Through co-design, model-building and public consultations, the project’s direction was collectively shaped and developed over six months. For THISS Studio, the collaboration became a valuable case study in applying good material practice outside a European context, reframing it within Cairo’s cultural and urban realities.
This ongoing deference to community knowledge ensured the result was something to be embraced and used. The very fact that Pergola has been realised is a testament to the patience and planning invested in the project. Careful navigation of local structures and close collaboration with community partners were key, underscoring the importance of being led by local expertise.
As part of a wider grant programme funded by Art Jameel and the British Council, Pergola stands as one of four major commissions across the Middle East. In Cairo’s complex landscape of rapid urban development and shrinking public space, the project is more than a building, but a statement on how design can act as a tool for community empowerment and environmental stewardship.
Pergola asserts itself as a landmark along the Nile, at once architectural and civic, it reclaims contested ground and demonstrates how collaboration can create something both lasting and genuinely meaningful.
Sash Scott, Co-Founder, THISS Studio, said:
Pergola reflects a shared commitment to maintaining and creating community-driven, culturally active public space in the heart of Cairo. The project’s success lies in the close collaboration between CLUSTER, THISS Studio, and Orient Productions, together with the active participation of local communities and students. We hope it will become an enduring contribution to Cairo’s cultural landscape and a positive example of building with recycled materials, to create celebrated, long-lasting buildings with contemporary cultural value.
Omar Nagati, Principal, CLUSTER, said:
Arts and culture have the potential of contributing to a more balanced and inclusive approach to urban regeneration amidst a prevailing mode of commercial development that is gradually eroding public space.
Ahmed El Attar, General Manager, Orient Productions, said:
Independent performance venues are exceedingly rare, with artists, cultural operators, and festivals competing for limited space. Collaborating with CLUSTER and THISS Studio has been a remarkable opportunity to bring a new venue to life; one that is essential for local artists.
IMAGES: © Georges & Samuel Mohsen – The GS Studio
THISS Studio
THISS Studio is a London-based team of architects who challenge the conventions of buildings, spaces, objects and landscapes. We take a people and material-first approach to create unique experiences within the built environment. Across project types, industries and at all scales, we combine genuine curiosity with technical capability to turn design constraints into opportunities.
We work with clients across music, retail, fashion and food as well as select residential projects. We centre people at the heart of all we do, prioritising collaboration as an opportunity for invention. We approach every project with a rigorous curiosity with which we uncover an unexpected and particular methodology. Each project develops uniquely, with our engaged involvement from every stage from conception to delivery.
Website: www.thiss.studio / Instagram: (at)thiss.studio
CLUSTER
CLUSTER (Cairo Lab for Urban Studies, Training and Environmental Research) is an independent urban design and research platform in Cairo with 14 years of experience in design in public space. It aims to capitalize on the role of arts and culture as urban catalysts, and bring together professional artists and designers along with artisans and craftspeople in the informal sector. CLUSTER’s projects span mapping and documentation of heritage elements, curating exhibitions and cultural itineraries, introducing tactical design interventions, and organizing training and knowledge-exchange workshops. The recipient of numerous local and international awards, CLUSTER’s work has been presented worldwide in Biennials and Triennials, such as Venice Lisbon, Oslo, Seoul and Lahore.
Website: https://clustercairo.org / Instagram: (at)clustercairo
Orient Productions
Orient for Film and Theatre Productions is a production company based in Cairo. Founded in 2007, its mission is to develop quality projects in the fields of arts, culture, and entertainment with the involvement of practitioners from Egypt, the Arab world, and beyond. Since its inception, Orient Productions has produced and hosted numerous events showcasing innovative works in these different fields.
Additionally, Orient Productions encompasses a number of spaces and projects that aim to create a sustainable ecosystem to elevate Egypt’s performing arts industry and support its growth. Orient Productions’ projects include Downtown Contemporary Arts Festival (D-CAF), an annual, international, multidisciplinary festival; the Arab Arts Focus (AAF), a platform spotlighting contemporary Arab cultural production; Rawabet Art Space, a blackbox theatre in Downtown Cairo; Studio Emad Eddin, a one-of-its-kind initiative providing rehearsal spaces; and Maktabi – Creative Office spaces for the creative sector.
Website: www.orientproductions.org / Instagram: (at)orient.productions
Pergola in Agouza Children’s Park Giza, Egypt – Building Information
Project credits
Location: Giza, Cairo, Egypt
Construction began: July 2025
Completion: September 2025
Gross internal floor area: 84 square metres
Architect: CLUSTER: CAIRO, THISS Studio
Artistic Consultants: Orient Productions
Artistic Programming: Orient Productions
Client: Art Jameel, British Council
Material Suppliers: ReBlox, VeryNile, TileGreen
Main contractor: Rabee el Hany and Mohammed Abdul Azm
Project cost: £45,000
Photography: Georges & Samuel Mohsen – The GS Studio
Pergola in Agouza Children’s Park Giza, Egypt outdoor community arts space images / information received 230723
Location: northern Egypt, Northeast Africa
Egypt Architecture
Contemporary Northeast Africa Architectural Projects
Egyptian Architecture Designs – chronological list
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Grand Egyptian Museum Giza
photo : Iwan Baan
Magdi Yacoub Global Heart Centre Cairo
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Living Pedestrian Bridge Over The Nile
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Edge Innovation Center Building in Cairo
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++
Contemporary MENA Architectural Designs
Buildings in countries near Egypt
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