Hisham Mahdy on Four Years of Shaping Cairo Design Week

Cairo Design Week brings Egypt’s design community into the city once a year, moving between streets, courtyards and heritage landmarks for exhibitions, installations and creative experiences. As the festival enters its fourth edition in November 2026, founder Hisham Mahdy reflects on how it has developed over the past four years and the ideas shaping its next chapter.Much of that story is tied to Cairo itself. The city’s neighbourhoods carry different histories, architectural languages and communities, and this year’s programme moves between Zamalek, Downtown and Heliopolis, with the art programme extending into Old Cairo. A new app will connect these locations, giving visitors a way to navigate the week while learning about what is happening across each district.

Three new strands at Cairo Design Week look at some of the forces shaping design across Egypt and the region. A new initiative brings UNESCO-recognised Egyptian craft traditions into contemporary practice, asking how inherited skills can remain relevant and continue to evolve. inMotion turns to mobility and automotive design through products manufactured in Egypt, while MENA Edit, developed with Creative Dialogues, brings together 27 designers from Egypt and across the Arab world. Together, they open up conversations around craft, technology, production and regional exchange.

Downtown Cairo carries the architectural evidence of the city’s cosmopolitan past. Cairo Design Week is making a case for its creative future. By bringing designers, businesses, cultural institutions and investors into a district undergoing major development, the festival is helping draw attention to Downtown’s potential as a creative district. Mahdy sees this alongside platforms such as Food Week and Photo Week, which are contributing to a year-round cultural calendar for the city.For the first time, Cairo Design Week enters the gardens of the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir, placing contemporary design alongside extraordinary evidence of Egypt’s long history of making. Ancient furniture, jewellery, textiles and objects reveal a culture where material knowledge, utility and beauty were closely connected. Bringing today’s designers into that setting creates a direct link between that history and the people working with materials, techniques and visual languages today. “Being here is proof that I have roots here, that I learn from my ancestors, and that I continue on this path,” said Hisham Mahdy, founder of Cairo Design Week.Egyptian design has never been easily reduced to one aesthetic. Cairo Design Week brings emerging designers, independent makers and established practices together with voices from across the region and beyond. The programme reflects a design scene being shaped between craft and technology, heritage and experimentation, local materials and global references. “The capabilities are here. The talent is here. The identity is here,” said Mahdy. The question now is how that talent continues to develop, connect and find its place within the wider design landscape.