The Maadi Innovation Center is designed to boost Cairo's growing technology sector by encouraging collaboration between firms of multiple scales. Commissioned by the World Bank and Level Infrastructure, the new 200,000sf facility will be a public/private partnership in the heart of Cairo's Maadi district, home to many local and international universities. The Innovation Center will provide space for a dynamic and complementary mix of technology tenants including investors, start-ups, and established tech companies.

Our design aims to mix these varied programs, creating opportunity for tenants to support and learn from one another. The plan is conceived as a campus that is at once inward facing and connected to the surrounding urban context. Multiple above ground concrete volumes define an exterior courtyard space. Openings between the building volumes create opportunity for access to the courtyard and connection to the surrounding urban context.   The courtyard is surrounded by buildings with open daylit workspaces that deliberately overlap with circulation zones, creating opportunity for productive run-ins and unplanned interactions. 

Below grade, the individual volumes are connected by  a large public mixing space, where established companies will share facilities with small start-ups.  These proximities can create mutually beneficial innovations, resources, and conversations.