Alter Studio 5: Meditation Spaces in Al-Azhar Park Cairo开罗阿兹哈尔公园的冥想空间

Meditation Spaces in Al-Azhar Park Cairo was the third Master Class that Xiaojun Bu and Yingfan Zhang taught at Tsinghua University, after the calligraphy studio of 2020 and the art studio of 2022. Held in spring 2023 with Christoph Hesse, it asked third-year students to build a shared cultural identity by designing meditation spaces with a distinct atmosphere at the centre or on the edge of the park.

Al-Azhar Park, funded by the Aga Khan Development Network and built in 2005, is Cairo's most prominent public park and the largest green space created in the city in over a century, a 30-hectare green lung on what was once dust and rubble. Prayer and meditation are an integral part of Egyptian culture, so each student defined an exact site through individual research, with special attention to links with the neighbourhoods, the historic city wall and the City of the Dead. Each space was to be around 500 to 1,000 square metres, with the focus on natural and re-used building materials.

In a land where strong religious belief is a way of life, the students asked how to soften the barriers between faiths and return to the human being. Eight students produced work such as The Anchor, a re-use of a water reservoir in the park, and Duet of Time, a space of time and light. The final review took place on 16 April 2023 with critics Bao Pao, David Gersten, Yue Feng and Fangzhou Song.