Mamdouh Sakr

Mamdouh Sakr is The Prince’s Foundation programme director of the Jameel House of Traditional Arts (JHTA) in Cairo. Established in 2009 by Art Jameel, the Prince’s Foundation School of Traditional Arts and Egypt’s Cultural Development Fund, JHTA is a centre offering diploma programmes in the study of traditional arts, craft and design. JHTA offers a two-year diploma to a small group of promising artists, including specialised training in traditional Egyptian crafts such as gypsum, ceramics and glass, in addition to woodwork and metalwork.

An architect, Mamdouh’s academic research interests are community-based design and how architects can learn from the urban fabric of old cities and utilise their principles to design new neighbourhoods. Mamdouh is also an avid traveler, and has written multiple books about his journeys and encounters with different architecture, food and culture around the world, including 'Did you try Qat?', 'Spaghetti in Harar', 'From Cairo to Tel Aviv' and 'Namaste'.

Mamdouh took a degree in architecture from the Faculty of Fine Arts, Helwan, and a master’s from the American University in Cairo, where his thesis, 'The mosques of Britain: How do British Muslims express their identity?', was recognised as the best master’s thesis of the year in 2007 and later published. He went on to complete his PhD at the University of Wales and his doctoral thesis, 'Applying traditional urbanism principles to design a residential neighbourhood in Cairo' was recognised as one of the few studies to address the issue of contextual, community-based design in the region.