The Alia Archive.

I am an Egyptian artist and architect studying at RISD, always making space for people to gather.  I grew up in one of the world’s most chaotic cities, Cairo, and somehow that taught me to crave stillness. I find it at a piano, around a table, in a room designed just right, or through cooking. Food has always been my first design language. The way a meal can slow people down, open them up, make strangers feel like family, that’s the same thing I want architecture to do.  

 

I’m the co-founder of Sofra (a hospitality startup built around shared dining), and sit on the board of the Brown Hospitality Club. I also make a feta hummus my grandmother would approve of.

 

Everything I build is an invitation to sit down and stay a while. We Egyptians say “البيت بيتك”, the Spanish say mi casa su casa — either way, come in.