Al Ismaelia for Real Estate Investment activated a connected network of six restored heritage buildings to host the Downtown District of Cairo Design Week, welcoming more than 40 exhibitors across architecture, interiors, fashion, product design, and experimental installations. The week unfolded as a continuous urban journey through six buildings that have been structurally restored, economically reintegrated, and culturally reactivated.
Launched as Egypt’s leading annual design festival, Cairo Design Week was established to position design as a driver of economic growth, knowledge exchange, and urban development. It connects designers, manufacturers, students, institutions, and the public through exhibitions, talks, and spatial experiments that explore the role of design in everyday life and in shaping future cities. Within this framework, Downtown Cairo emerged as one of the festival’s most active districts, operating as a living laboratory where heritage buildings functioned as contemporary design platforms.
Through hosting the Downtown District across its portfolio, Al Ismaelia once again translated its model of adaptive reuse into a live urban experience, opening restored properties to the public as productive cultural and economic assets.
“Through adaptive reuse, our Downtown buildings opened fully into the public realm and welcomed thousands of visitors as part of a shared cultural district,” said Karim Shafei, Chairman and CEO of Al Ismaelia for Real Estate Investment. “The curated experience supported designers, artists, and creative businesses, and it also generated clear commercial spillover, with several tenants recording sales growth during the week. The culmination of the creative buzz that engulfed Downtown shows just how these restored buildings now operate as active contributors to the city’s cultural and economic life.”
TamaraHaus served as the official launch venue of the Downtown District and its symbolic anchor. Reimagined as a time-traveling experience inspired by Cairo’s historic department store culture, the building became a “house of stories” where design was experienced through sight, sound, and movement. TamaraHaus also hosted the Creative Dialogue panel “Creative Rethinking of Spaces,” in which Shafei joined HRH Princess Tarfa Fahad Alsaud, founder of the Ithra Design Award; Jemma El Chidiac, design editor of Identity; Ahmed Fayyad, founding partner of TDF+ Architects; and architect and curator Mona Helmy. The discussion examined how adaptive reuse, design economies, and cultural programming shape the future of historic city centers.
At The Factory, the installation by experimental design studio C Reality, unfolded as a multi-sensory exploration of daily life across five Egyptian governorates, demonstrating how heritage spaces can carry new forms of storytelling without detaching from their social context.
At the Warehouse, GLC Paints activated the former industrial space through an immersive forecast of 2026 color trends across four conceptual zones, operating as both an exhibition and learning environment. The program also extended into educational talks with students on how material culture and technology influence future color directions.
At the Kodak building, Efreshli curated a broad showcase of Egyptian designers across furniture, sculpture, linen, and home products, showcasing how restored commercial buildings can function as accessible gateways between traditional craftsmanship and modern interior needs.
The historic La Viennoise building turned into a live fashion environment through the Mayka fashion exhibition at Mazeej Balad, bridging heritage architecture with contemporary apparel design and marking the only dedicated fashion activation within the Downtown District.
At 29 Hoda Shaarawy, MORPH+ and Society of Play presented the “Seriously Swinging” installation, situating a kinetic seesaw structure inside a solemn architectural interior to explore the tension between gravity, play, and form, and inviting visitors into a direct physical dialogue with the space.
Founded in 2008, Al Ismaelia for Real Estate Investment pioneers the adaptive reuse of Downtown Cairo’s historic buildings. The company currently owns 25 heritage properties spanning 85,000 square meters and has invested approximately EGP 800 million in restoration and redevelopment. Through a strategy that integrates culture, hospitality, retail, and creative industries, Al Ismaelia continues to reposition Downtown Cairo as a mixed-use district where heritage preservation and economic viability operate within the same urban framework.