MSA Faculty of Engineering Academics Win First Prize in International Botanical Turn Competition

October University For Modern Sciences And Arts (MSA) celebrates an outstanding international achievement by academics from the Department of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering, whose project “BOTANICAL RHYTHMS” was selected as the Winner – Cagliari, Italy in the international Botanical Turn Competition, jointly organized by Non Architecture and the Naturescapes EU Project. The official competition results confirm the project as the Cagliari winner.

The winning team comprises Dr. Mona Mostafa Amin, Dr. Alshimaa Galaleldin Zohdy, and Dr. Nermine Ibrahim Nofal, whose project presents an innovative vision for transforming Cagliari’s hidden water heritage into a connected and regenerative botanical landscape network.

BOTANICAL RHYTHMS: From Water Memory to a Living Botanical Network

The project explores the relationship between water, landscape, heritage, biodiversity, and public life through an integrated strategy developed across three interconnected scales:

CITY — CONNECT
Revealing and connecting Cagliari’s fragmented ecological landscapes and hidden water heritage.

NODE — REGENERATE
Transforming the Palabanda area into a regenerative landscape through the Living Cistern concept.

TINY — DEMONSTRATE
Translating the larger system into a tangible Micro Living Cistern, where water collection, filtration, storage, planting, and seasonal transformation become visible and interactive.

Through this integrated approach, the project reinterprets Cagliari’s historic water intelligence as a contemporary ecological infrastructure, creating a connection between the city’s past and its environmental future.

The project’s recognition highlights the strength of its cistern-based concept, its integration of botanical elements, and the clarity of its overall design vision. It reflects an extensive process of research, conceptual development, collaboration, and a shared commitment to creating meaningful relationships between architecture, landscape, people, and the environment.

This international recognition represents a significant achievement for MSA University and the Faculty of Engineering, highlighting the international caliber of its academic community and its contribution to contemporary architectural and landscape design.

MSA University proudly congratulates Dr. Mona Mostafa Amin, Dr. Alshimaa Galaleldin Zohdy, and Dr. Nermine Ibrahim Nofal on this distinguished international achievement and their success in representing Egypt on an international platform.

The Botanical Turn Competition was jointly organized by Non Architecture and the Naturescapes EU Project, co-funded by the European Union, in collaboration with the University of Lisbon and the Instituto de Ciências Sociais da Universidade de Lisboa (ICS-ULisboa).