Cognitive mapping (53 w)

A mapping exercise with participants to highlight favourite building, land mark building that could become the symbol of their neighbourhood, limits of their neighbourhood, route from home to nearest transportation link, etc. Personalised maps were then created with stickers locating the responses given by the participants and given as a souvenir to them.

Location Competitions (151 w)

The competition was designed with cards to fill in with three different subjects:

• street: an abstract drawing of a street with some coloured dots is presented on the card,, each marked the name of a monument. The person is asked to identify the name of the street were the monuments are located
• monument:, the picture of a monument is displayed on the card and the participant is asked what the name of the monument is.
• building: the picture of an unlisted historic building is displayed on the card and the participant is asked to locate the building.

Participants were asked to fill the card and leave their contact details. A picture of them was montage on to an image related to the street, monument or building mentioned in the questions with one sentence of information on it. It was then printed and sent to them.

Housing stock awareness (125 w)

Each family resident in an historic building was given the chance to have a photo family portrait in front of their homes. This was meant to leave the residents with a personalized memory, thus to enhance their feeling of pride in living and belonging to a historic neighbourhood that is worth preserving. They were given a print out of the portrait, flyers, maps and pins of URHC and of Historic Cairo World Heritage Site.

Within the same activity several fill-in cards were distributed with questions and pictures addressing the value of residential historic buildings from the perspective of their residents with questions on aesthetics perception, maintenance of materials, liveability of spaces, social life and security. The participants were given a goody bag with informative material.

Children activities (156 w)

To approach the children in relation to the heritage, it was thought to explain to them monuments history and values and to create positive game memories connected to these locations.

A first activity consisted in locating monuments on a map. The children were asked to insert the plans with pictures of certain landmarks in the correct place on the map. The team shared information about each of the monuments.

The second activity took place inside monuments or in strategic heritage locations. The children were handed paper sheets with a section or an elevation of the monument they were in. They were asked to draw themselves inside the building and what they saw in the surroundings. They were given colouring pencils and printed figures for a collage. Some children were then asked to present their drawing in front of the camera. Small sets of colouring pencils were given as a gift to the children after the activity.

Storytelling (192 w)

A series of focus interviews were made by an anthropologist in the area of the action project. To better understand the intangible heritage of the study area as perceived by the local community. These themes included the following:

• The Neighborhood (perceived by the residents)
  • Neighborhood divisions, sub divisions and landmarks.
  • Identifying commercial and industrial activities for each neighborhood.
  • Transitional changes in specific blocks or streets.
• Its Heritage (as recounted by residents)
  • Popular history and myths related to major heritage sites.
  • Personal memories of major heritage sites.
  • Activities and structure of administration and control for major heritage sites.

The information collected concerning the neighbourhood heritage, its history; the residents' personal histories in relation to their neighbourhood were interwoven and presented in a storytelling performance aimed at engaging a wide variety of audiences.

The story-telling was performed through/by a walk that moves through the streets taking people to different sites of heritage and stopping at specific points to recount stories and engage with them: it started in the passageway between Sultan Hasan and al-Rifa’i, moved to the palace of Amir Taz, then ended in al-Takiyya al-Mawlawiyya.