At the invitation of Riwaq – the Center for Architectural Conservation, Engineer Shimaa Shaheen, Director of Tarek Waly Center Architecture and Heritage, participated in the activities of the Symposium on Cultural Heritage in Palestine, which lasted from November 30 to December 7, 2020. Engineer Shimaa Shaheen gave a lecture entitled “The Return of the Soul... New Melodies from Old Strings, the Rehabilitation of the Stopplaere’s Rest-house, a Training Center for High-resolution Digital Documentation”, on the fourth day of the symposium, Thursday, December 3, 2020. Shimaa discussed during the lecture the experience of Tarek Waly Center Architecture and Heritage to rehabilitate the Stopplaere’s Rest-house in the West Bank of Luxor as part of the heritage of Hassan Fathy’s architectural heritage; to prepare it for re-use as a training center on high-resolution digital documentation and 3D laser scanning, within a comprehensive vision to preserve, document and repurpose the architectural heritage in a manner that suits the requirements of the present time.
In her participation in the symposium, Shimaa also reviewed the center's general vision for practice through application and hypothesis as two main non-separate mechanisms for the professional practice of Tarek Waly Center Architecture and Heritage. She also reviewed samples of the center's projects in the fields of rehabilitation, management, preservation, and development of heritage sites inside and outside Egypt.
All activities of the symposium took place via Zoom platform, due to the conditions imposed by the global Corona pandemic.