Cairo International Airport

Mostafa Shawky's design won first prize in the 1956 competition for Cairo International Airport. He then prepared the drawings and supervised construction until the airport opened.

The key idea came to him on the flight home from a tour of the main airports of Europe and America, sketched on the back of his cigarette packet: departing, arriving and transit passengers would all move on a single level without crossing, while every airport he had visited used two levels or more. He credited this idea with the project's success.

The airport was also his first experiment, in 1960, with integrating works of art into architecture, with murals by the artists Fathy Mahmoud and Salah Abdel Karim. In 1963 he received the Order of the Republic (third class) on the airport's completion.

Part of the interior decoration and furniture was designed by the French designer Jean Royère. Some sources date the competition to 1955 and construction to 1956–1960; the airport was officially opened in 1963.