From Freedom of Expression to Expression of Freedom: Responding to Socio-Political Change in the Classroom

Abstract

On 25^th January 2011 Egyptian reality changed. This change brought violence and even death, but it also brought concepts previously absent from society – democracy, choice, rights and freedom of expression. As educators we quickly became aware of our responsibility to capitalise on the opportunities this presented. This paper sets out to outline the ‘Freedom Pavilion’ project at the American University in Cairo (AUC), and its role in illustrating the expressive power of design. The American University, with a campus in Tahrir Square, was figuratively and literally a witness to the events of 25^th January. Upon returning to classes merely 36 hours after the overturned president abdicated, as part of its role to bear witness to these events AUC launched a project to collect artifacts from the revolution – the ‘University on the Square’ initiative. The project outlined here is a design studio response to that initiative.

Students were challenged to present projects that could embody this newly born freedom and functionally house the artifacts that bore witness to it. Programmatically the project was required to house the ‘University on the Square’ collection while creating a space for free exchange of ideas, debate and discourse. Projects ranged from abstractions of the revolution's narrative; experiential spaces relaying the multi-sensory encounter of moving from oppression to freedom; and conceptual installations using the overlay of material, form and experience. This paper presents the power of bringing civic engagement into the studio and integrating critical discourse to motivate students, challenge their assumptions and foster their creativity.

Keywords:

• design studio
• Egypt
• pavilion design
• socio-political change