El Ashry Studios is dreaming of a shaded Aswan. In these dreams, the scorching pavements are sheltered by blooming trees, and a city-wide canopy of colourful crocheted squares - each one stitched by a different pair of hands. It is a vision that is equal parts practical and poetic, and through the ‘Let’s Shade Aswan’ campaign, the dream is slowly becoming real.The initiative, being led by Cairo-based El Ashry Studios, is a community-driven campaign working to transform the public spaces of Aswan into cooler, greener and more visually textured environments - all through the collective effort of ordinary hands.

As a grassroots initiative, the campaign is open to everyone looking to help. Volunteers can help crochet granny squares that will go on to form street-wide canopies. Suspended above pedestrian streets, these interlocking crochet panels will cast colourful shade onto the ground below while flooding the space with life. Alongside this centrepiece effort, volunteers can also join ‘The Tree Planting Team’, where they will spend a day lining the streets of Aswan with fruit trees such as mango, orange or palm. Artists - or those who simply want to paint - have the chance to restore older homes along the streets by painting them with traditional Nubian folk art, reviving a visual language central to Aswan's identity. People can also join as workshop instructors or as photographers documenting the process of the campaign as a whole.Behind the campaign is El Ashry Studios, a creative community founded by brothers Hassan and Mohsen El Ashry. The studio itself has an origin story that feels very much in keeping with the spirit of the initiative. Mohsen El Ashry recalls that the whole thing began when their family home became too chaotic to work in - sculpture, ceramics and creative mess spilling into every room - and every piece of furniture. Their late grandmother stepped in, handing over the keys to her apartment in Giza, which had been closed and used for storage for a quarter of a century.

The brothers renovated it and began hosting workshops that would give back to the crafty community around them, creating a shared space for artists across disciplines. Today, the studio brings together around 60 artists, each with their own speciality. "Everyone who comes tells us they feel like they're at home, like we're family," Hassan El Ashry tells CairoScene. "It’s really something beautiful."Workshops span ceramics, sewing, drawing, and even traditional cooking. "I personally love sitting with my grandmother while she cooks, and I still do — it's how you learn things you're afraid might disappear over time," Mohsen El Ashry says. That same instinct - to preserve, to pass on, to make things by hand - runs through their ‘Let's Shade Aswan’ campaign.

More information about the campaign and how to contribute can be found on El Ashry’s Instagram page, @elashrystudios.