Overview

We Are Desco presents the Egyptian Graduation Projects Competition 3.0 Ceremony, the awards event closing the third edition of Egypt’s dedicated architectural graduation projects competition, proudly sponsored by Aedas. The ceremony brings together leading architects, industry professionals, academics, and emerging talents to recognise and award the most outstanding student projects across architecture, interior design, and urban design submitted from Egyptian graduates of the 2024/2025 academic year.

We Are Desco is an Egyptian design community platform founded to bridge the gap between architecture and design students and the professional world. The competition, now in its third edition, was launched from the observation that architecture graduates present their projects to a small jury and a few friends, then the work disappears. The competition creates a national platform for that work to be seen, evaluated, and connected to professional opportunity.

Focus

The Egyptian Graduation Projects Competition 3.0 is restricted to Egyptian graduates in architecture, interior design, and urban design from the 2024/2025 academic year. It operates across multiple selection stages, beginning with a top 150 shortlist determined by a public community vote (the DESCOMMUNITY AWARD), followed by jury evaluation of the shortlisted projects.

The competition’s primary prize structure is tied to professional development rather than cash alone. Winners are directly connected to Aedas, one of the world’s leading global architecture firms, with opportunities for international exposure, career development, and future collaboration. The total prize fund is 150,000 EGP, with internship positions at Aedas as the flagship award. This structure positions the competition as a career bridge rather than a purely academic exercise, making the ceremony the moment when student design work is formally connected to the professional sphere.

This is not just a competition, it’s a career opportunity.
We Are Desco, Egyptian Graduation Projects Competition 3.0

Competition History and Format

We Are Desco launched the first Egyptian architectural graduation projects competition in 2023, originally hosted in the metaverse, making it the first event of its kind to use a virtual environment for this purpose in Egypt. The platform’s founding insight, articulated by co-founder Hazem Gouda, was that graduation projects deserve a national audience and professional evaluation beyond the traditional academic jury. Each edition has expanded the scope, prize structure, and industry partnerships.

The third edition’s jury and partnership with Aedas, combined with a total prize fund of 150,000 EGP and a multi-stage selection process, represents the most significant scale-up yet. The competition is open to participants in all three design disciplines: architecture, interior design, and urban design, reflecting the full range of spatial education programmes at Egyptian universities.

Sponsor: Aedas

Aedas is one of the world’s largest and most internationally active architecture firms, with studios across Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and beyond. Its sponsorship of the competition’s third edition provides the prize structure with genuine professional weight: an internship at Aedas is a direct entry point into an international design practice, not a token reward. The connection between Egyptian architectural education and a firm of Aedas’s scale is one of the most substantive elements the competition offers its participants.

Audience

The ceremony targets architecture and design graduates, students, educators, and professionals active in Egypt’s design community. It also draws industry leaders and potential employers who use the competition as a talent pipeline. For those tracking the development of architectural education and emerging talent in Egypt, the competition and ceremony offer a consolidated view of the country’s current student output across spatial disciplines.

Event Details