El Sadek Fady, Streets of Cairo
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The Streets of Cairo and the Battle for
Public Space
Fady S. El-Sadek
Thesis
IDBE, Cohort 15
University of Cambridge
May 2011
I dedicate this thesis to my father, who has taught me that
diligence and perseverance are the keys to success.
Also to the people of Egypt, who continue to prove that even
the most difficult of circumstances can be turned into a goldmine of opportunities.
Forward
This thesis was started in September 2009 with the aim of articulating numerous problems
inherent in the Cairo governments’ urban planning and development. These problems were
evident in the city’s deteriorating qualities of life, paralleled by a lack of public space. The
writing of this thesis was nearly complete at the onset of the people’s uprising against the
Egyptian government’s neglect and abuse of its citizens.
On January 25 2011, after mass collaboration on the internet, protestors gathered in the
largest public space in the center of Cairo; Tahrir Square. As the protests grew in intensity,
the incumbent government disconnected the nation’s mobile telephone network and internet
access in an attempt to weaken public organization within the virtual public sphere. The
efforts, however, were in vain as the people had already taken to the streets. Over a million
people gathered in the square and aired their grievances and demands during 18 days of
continuous protests that started peacefully, but turned violent when the government attempted
to quell the protestors by force. Aided by the continuous media coverage of Tahrir Square,
the movement managed to topple the government, and the president was forced to step down
on February 11, 2011.
Therefore, the final writing of this thesis reflects the situation as it was and also has the
fortunate opportunity to report on significant changes that are being planned for the future of
Cairo’s built environment.
2
“When we looked at public space
Photograph of an informal settlement around Sayeda Zeynab in central Cairo: The picture shows the
tight knit fabric, the city smog, and satellite dishes that keep the ‘informal residents’ connected to the
public sphere.
, Cairo was one of the cities which had the
highest density of people, and the lowest square meters of public space.” (His Highness the Aga Khan quoted in AKTC 2008)
3
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Introduction 5
I. Chapter One 7
The Urban Center: the Global City
a. Privatization of the City 9 b. Decline of Public Space and the Ecological Environment 12 c. Achieving a Sustainable Balance 14
II. Chapter Two 16
Cairo: An Overview of Development and Urban Fabric
a. Modern Cairo 18 b. Three Generations of Modern Satellite Cities 20 c. The Informal: Social and Environmental Priority 24 d. The New ‘Order’: Economic Priority 25 e. Public Infrastructure 28 f. The Streets of Cairo 29
III. Chapter Three 31
The Battle Ground: Cairo Today
a. Exclusivity: Gated Communities and ‘Fortified’ Public Space 34 b. Environmental Sustainability of the New Order 36 c. Tourism and the Sterilization of Cairo’s Public Spaces 38 d. Balancing Priorities 42
IV. Chapter Four 43
The Macro-Urban Core
a. The Refurbishment of Islamic Cairo 44 b. Gentrification of ‘Khedival’ Downtown 45 c. The Ramses Challenge 47 d. Al Darb al Ahmar: the Social Intervention of Al Azhar Park 51 e. Cairo 2050: “The Planned City Sweeps the Poor Away” 53 f. Overview of the Four Projects: The Scale of Intervention 56
V. Chapter Five 57
Remediation at the Micro-Urban Scale
a. Grassroots Connection: the Role of Public Space 57 b. A New Urban Approach: Proposed 200 Streets in Cairo 59 c. Bottom-Up Redevelopment 61
Conclusion 62
Bibliography 64
Appendix A 69
Appendix B 70
4
Introduction
Public space plays a vital role within the urban fabric of a nation and its communities that has
been too often ignored as an essential ingredient in the health and life of a society.
Historically, the programming of public space circulated around civic functions of political
affairs, communication, and the marketplace. In the 21st century, internet technology and high
speed transport have taken much of the information, communication and commerce activities
remotely to individuals, reducing the need for physical presence. Today, urban public space
involves the fostering of community through vital activities such as commuting, recreation,
socializing, celebration, and when necessary, giving voice to the populace. Fundamentally,
public space establishes the physical grounding of social justice within the urban built
environment. True public spaces within the city can secure social rights by providing
communal safeguard against “the futility of individual life.” (Arendt, p. 56)
In Cairo, Egypt, there is a dire need for public space. Over the past two centuries the built
environment of the city has spread rapidly and intensified to the point that most publically
accessible open spaces and green areas have all but disappeared. Priority has gone to the
automobile; the road network within the city is continuous and extensive. In Cairo today, the
asphalt road has become the predominant definition of public space. In this space, pedestrians
negotiate with cars, buses and street vendors for right of way. There is no enforced regulation
to maintain sidewalk continuity. Pavements are most often obstructed by electric boxes,
advertisement boards, parked cars and even dividing walls. The street is nearly the only
remaining arena that provides continuous pedestrian access to everyone without charge.
Empirical study has correlated societal well being with the public provision of open space
and pedestrian infrastructure. Additionally, public transportation and the support of ‘non-
automobile’ modes of circulation have been positively associated with a healthier ecological
5
environment. Research asserts that on average Egyptians have a low “subjective well being”
and the majority of Cairo’s residents live in ‘informal housing’ significantly lacking in basic
infrastructure. (Hussein 2008) Pollution levels of the city are among the highest in the world.
This dissertation assesses the value of public space within the contemporary global city and
its correlation with social, political, and environmental stability. Specifically the investigation
covers the lack of public space in Cairo, assesses its impact, and proposes a possible
approach of remediation. The preliminary issues that established the framework of
investigation are; the intolerable traffic of Cairo, its lack of continuous pedestrian
infrastructure, record pollution levels, and incessant planned development that does not
prioritize social and environmental welfare. This is mainly the result of top-down planning
that has been unable to holistically address these issues, resulting in compounded damage and
increased difficulty in resolution. The definitive gap lies within the relationship between the
individual districts and neighborhoods and the central planning authorities.
The discussion unfolds in five chapters. Chapter One discusses the historical and
contemporary function of public space, and relevant issues of urban planning found in Cairo
and other global cities. Chapter Two briefly reviews the history of Cairo’s built environment
with the objective of identifying patterns in development. Cairo’s current situation and
obstacles to sustainable development are then discussed in Chapter Three. Chapter Four
reviews and assesses four macro-urban scale projects that address public spaces of the core
city. Finally, Chapter Five proposes a possible approach that can address the ‘megalopolis1’
at a yet unexploited scale of intervention, the micro-urban scale.
1 Term used to describe large populous city regions that cover several urban centers. (Watson 2009)
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CHAPTER ONE
The Urban Center: the Global City
Good spatial planning should shape our urban environment. It allows us to respond to
complex needs at the most appropriate scale – whether regional, city or neighbourhood. The
planning system has struggled to distribute activities in a sustainable way. It should always be
possible to walk, cycle or take public transport to work, to school or college, to shops, to the
park or the cinema. When the planning system gets these kinds of basics right, it will provide
busy, distracted citizens with a genuine choice to reduce their carbon emissions. Vitally, we
need to use the landscape of towns and cities – trees, parks, rivers and lakes – to mimic
natural processes, like water flow and cooling air flow. This green infrastructure should be as
much a priority for a successful place as grey infrastructure – like the road network, or the
sewage system. (CABE, Hallmarks of a Sustainable City, p.4)
In both ancient and modern times, the city has always been a complex organism; a
continuously transforming built environment that supports the largest groupings of human
existence. Today, cities house over half of the world’s population. (Kries 2006; Watson 2009)
Within this built environment human activity is sustained and organized through laws and
culture. The laws influence the built environment, which in turn influences the culture, and in
turn influences the laws. The cycle establishes the growth and continuous development of a
city. There is rarely direct initiative to modify the culture as there is in dictating the laws and
built environment, yet with the circle of influence among the three, cultural change is
inevitably incurred with time. In Cairo, to promote the image of a modern and global city,
there is often direct initiative to hide, or mask the culture. This is most notably executed
through barriers and exclusionary public spaces.
Urban theorist Alberto Perez-Gomez discusses in his article “The City as a Paradigm of
Symbolic Order” the architectural manifestation of ‘order’ within the city as portrayed by its
built environment. The historical materialization, transformation, and layering of order over
the past two millennia have resulted in the modern city, which he claims is in a state of
contemporary crisis. (Perez-Gomez 1986)
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Of the historically significant cities that have survived to present day, the majority of them
have origins in the Roman Empire [Figure 1]. These cities have materialized upon ancient
foundations, Roman planning, medieval growth, Renaissance development, and the Industrial
Revolution woven together into the modern day urban fabric. The factors that constituted and
steered their growth included political authority, rituals and religious manifestations,
economic environments, and technological integration; most significantly of which, in latter
times, has been traffic engineering. None of these factors has been solely responsible or
capable of shaping cities into what
they have become. Rather it is the
combination of all of them along
with a human and organic
development that creates the city; a
“spatial and social organism.”
(Kries 2006; Perez-Gomez 1986) Figure 1 Greatest extents of the Roman Empire
Historically, city planning was concerned with the public arena and points of assembly. The
Greek ‘agora’ and the Roman forum were the sites where political powers addressed the
public and established the ‘logos’ or divine reason by which order was imposed in the city. 2
(Low 2006; Perez-Gomez 1986) Religion and political authority were tightly knit and embodied in
the public grounds.
The Greek discovery of logos also led the Greeks to the discovery of the individual, of the
subject. A place had to be provided for the reconciliation of diverse logoi, and this was
precisely the agora, the place for discussion and oratory, for politics, which was understood
by Aristotle as the search for stability, i.e. order. The agora was the origin of polis, the Greek
city. While the Greeks discovered the power of reason, they were always immediately
concerned with maintaining the given order of the gods, and this was the role of the city: to
embody this order. (Perez-Gomez, p. 7)
2 ‘Logos’ can be interpreted as present-day ‘legislation.’
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Aristotle’s search for stability has transformed into the modern search for sustainability. In
the modern era, order has become fragmented, or decentralized. The “order of the gods” is
now in the hands of government, which is intermittently being handed over to private
enterprise. The integration of automobile infrastructure within the city fabric over the past
century has influenced urban culture to adapt around the dynamic of mechanical mobility.
The public arena has been divided more dramatically than before into path and open space.
The provision of open space within a city is a public infrastructure that is necessary for social
and environmental welfare. (Butterworth 2000) Perez-Gomez stated that “today the Western city
has become completely “privatized.”” 3 (Perez-Gomez, p. 15) Over the last 25 years since his
paper was published, this view has gained validity in cities around the globe. In Cairo,
privatization has almost completely taken over the open space of the public arena, leaving
pedestrians to negotiate right of way with cars through the streets.
Privatization of the City
Calhoun denotes that the public sphere is a staple amenity to our nations and communities
that defines our level of security and knowledge. In order for us to understand the public
sphere and what it entails, it is necessary to contrast it against that which is private. (Calhoun
2005) “…during the modern era, not only did privacy come to appear as a positive value
linked to both individuality and the family, the idea of a public linked by communication of
all sorts grew in importance, reshaping ideas of political legitimacy and underwriting the rise
of democracy.” (Calhoun, p.1)
The essence of a city’s ‘public sphere’ embodies the provision of public goods and grounds
for open communication. Not only are the physical grounds of public space necessary within
the urban context, their connectivity as linked platforms is crucial to their role in communal
3 ‘Privatized’ here means owned and/or managed by private enterprise.
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health and education. The segregation of these spaces, through the exclusion of segments of
the public, counters their role in securing public well being. (Calhoun 2005; Carr et al. 1992)
A literature review by Williams and Green identified a lack of clarity in the definition of
public space. (Williams et al. 2001) As the nature of public space has changed, the definitive
line has blurred between; public spaces that are publicly maintained, public spaces that are
privately managed, and private spaces that are privately managed and considered by many to
be public space. To assess the value of a public space in terms of public provision and its
impact on the local community and environment, it is necessary to first identify the
stakeholders responsible. Williams and Green break these down into those with:
‐ Private interests: who evaluate a ‘good local environment’ based on profit,
maintenance, and operational costs;
‐ Public interests: who are primarily concerned with ‘public needs,’ namely security
and accessibility; and
‐ Community interests: who “see good local environments as ones that reflect local
preferences and are contextually compatible.” (Williams et al. p.4)
The motivational drivers of the public and private sectors are unequivocally different. Public
spaces designed or developed by stakeholders with private interests will almost always
prioritize profitability of the space over social impact, environmental impact, or safety. (Low
2006; Saunders 2006; Williams et al. 2001) The over privatization of cities is beginning to
restructure the city; “planning and creation of the public realm are becoming more a result of
private initiative than a driver of it.” (Saunders, p. 83) This phenomenon accordingly casts doubt
upon the objectives of new urban plans such as the ‘Cairo 2050 Vision’ (discussed further in
Chapter Four). Public and private interest groups need to coordinate urban development plans
to promote communal and social welfare.
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Excessive privatization of the city, and the resultant segregation of social classes based on
wealth, doubly victimizes the underprivileged classes. Firstly, privatization has decreased
public spending on a city scale as more investment goes into the ‘public spaces’ of more
homogeneously wealthy areas. Secondly, particularly in developing nations, it is the
wealthier, and often more educated, members of society that guide national planning and
development. As the affluent masses of the Egyptian public continue to disappear from
Cairo’s truly public arena, their contribution to enhancing public well being, both financially
and intellectually, dwindles. In order for the voices of the underprivileged to be heard,
platforms that encourage interclass communication must exist. Segregation will reflect in the
public spaces of the city, and the consequent deterioration, particularly within the poorer
areas will, in turn, reflect upon the community as a whole. (Amin 2006, Butterworth, 2000, Williams
et al. 2001)
From an economic perspective, there is no direct correlation between improving public
spaces and increasing value, as often the cost of such improvements can offset the immediate
profitability of a project. However, the evidence seems overwhelming that in the long-run,
failure is imminent if balance is not achieved between suitable public space and economic
development. The costs of such improvements in the bigger picture can be seen as negligible.
“In most cases the cost of urban space schemes will constitute less than 2% of the total
annual turnover of retail businesses within the town centre. Therefore, modest improvements
in trading performance will be sufficient to offset the costs of most schemes.” (Williams et al.
p.14) Additionally, such improvements can be viewed in the light of establishing a ‘good local
environment’ that pivots on ‘good urban design,’ which in turn is directly correlated to;
decreased energy consumption, waste production and running costs, and increased property
values, jobs and security, and community pride. (Williams et al. 2001)
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Decline of Public Space and the Ecological Environment
In assessing the maintenance and administration of several town centers across the UK,
Williams and Green found that only two in nine had a town center manager, who plays the
same role as a shopping mall manager that is consistently employed by developers to protect
and manage their investments. Their report asserts that open public spaces are in decline,
with the key failures of upkeep being lack of funding and poor management. (Williams et al.
2001)
One of the most significant root causes of the deterioration of public space is traffic. Changes
to the street scene need to be made in order to decrease the negative impact of traffic. This
could include readdressing the function and activities on the street, creating pedestrian streets
through road closures, or reducing traffic volume and speeds (suggested at 10mph or less
through pedestrian heavy areas). Traffic is equally influential on the quality of public spaces
as it is on the social and ecological environments. (Ibrahim 2009; Williams et al. 2001)
People on [the] ‘light street’ (2,000 vehicles a day) were found to have three times as many
friends and twice as many acquaintances in the neighborhood as those on the ‘heavy street’
(16,000 vehicles a day). Also, in mapping exercises, people on the ‘light street’ considered
the whole street to be their home territory, whereas residents of the ‘heavy street’ regarded it
to be a smaller area around their own building. The conclusions drawn were that heavy traffic
has a negative effect on public interactions and changes the manner in which public space is
used. (Williams et al., p.8)
Jan Gehl, a notable Danish scholar in the development of contemporary public spaces, and
Lars Gemzoe defined four city types and the public space they entail;
‐ The Traditional City: Public space is centered as market and meeting place, and is not
overwhelmed by traffic.
‐ The Invaded City: Traffic has completely taken over the public arena, negatively
impacting the public space.
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‐ The Abandoned City: Public space has been abandoned, and residents are highly
automobile dependant.
‐ The Reconquered City: Post-intervention of an Abandoned or Invaded city, where
automobile reliance has decreased, and public spaces have been refurbished. (Williams
et al. 2001)
According to this classification, Cairo can be identified as an ‘Invaded City’. In order to
transform it into a ‘Reconquered City’ it would be necessary to reduce automobile reliance,
prioritize pedestrians, and regenerate public space that would enhance the wellbeing of the
entire community. To achieve such objectives, the provision of suitable public transportation
will be necessary as a public provision. “Public space is intrinsically linked with transport use
and the way in which public space is served by transport has a significant effect on the
quality, usability and viability of it.” (Williams et al. p.13)
The Williams and Green report claims that people expressed preference in town centers that
are “compact and well integrated” over new commercially based developments. Research in
the USA showed that distance travel and traffic can isolate people in their homes and can
increase crime, thus advocating more ‘livable streets’. Cities that prioritize public
transportation and pedestrian networks allow for increased social interaction and sense of
community. However, the complete removal of automobile traffic can have adverse effects
on local commerce and safety. Accordingly, it is necessary to find a balance among different
transportation alternatives that are well aligned, and controlled to prioritize the pedestrian. In
order to find this balance planning efforts must be coordinated between local planning
authorities and transportation operators. (Williams et al. 2001)
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Transportation through the city is directly linked to the health and well-being of its residents.
Infrastructure such as pedestrian walkways and open areas allow for physical activity, and
mixed use developments encourage the choice of walking or cycling rather than taking a car.
Connectivity amongst such infrastructure is critical to rendering it a valid alternative.
Efficient public transportation additionally decreases the reliance on automobiles, one of the
single largest culprits of localized pollution. (Butterworth 2000) The reliance on the automobile
has been directly linked to surmounting ecological and social damage that, with the
continuous development of non mixed-use residential districts that are not connected by
public transportation, is becoming more unavoidable.
Achieving a Sustainable Balance
The contemporary city has reached unprecedented proportions of development and demand.
The continuously changing and growing built environments house and support over half of
the world’s population. Cairo alone accounts for a quarter of the national population of
Egypt. Globalization, internet technology, and high speed transportation have dramatically
impacted the response of the built environment, which requires a re-assessment of the role
and impact of the city’s public infrastructure. Increased privatization and unchecked
prioritization of economic drivers of growth have increased social segregation and reduced
public provision. In Cairo, inclusive and accessible public space continues to erode. Heavy
reliance on automobiles has diminished and deteriorated the physical public arena; negatively
impacting urban social and environmental balance. Revitalizing public space can play a
significant role in mediating this imbalance.
Improvements to town centers and public spaces need to be multidisciplinary in approach as
the enhancement or addition of a single element will not have the overall desired effect and
accordingly will not be cost efficient. Urban planning and development must give priority to
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addressing circulation and open public space. Objectives should include; calming the traffic
and improving public transportation, prioritizing pedestrians, greening of spaces, and the
management of operations, maintenance and security; thus expanding social cohesion and
reducing environmental degradation. It is necessary to define public space as ‘non-exclusive’
platforms that are accessible and interconnected within the urban fabric. Well designed and
maintained public spaces enhance social, environmental, and economic stability within the
city. Government incentives towards urban renewal along with planning policy guidelines
that balance development objectives are necessary. With the goal of improving sustainability,
synchronizing public and private responsibility of urban development is a primary step.
(Williams et al. 2001)
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Chapter TWO
Cairo: An Overview of Development and Urban Fabric
With the objective of understanding the contemporary state of Cairo’s urban fabric, it is
important to review the history of its development and patterns of growth. Although the city’s
rich history is one of its most prized possessions, accurate accounts of its urban development
beyond critical turning points are limited. “Leaving aside myth, science asserts that
permanent settlement started at Cairo near the end of the last Ice Age… 10,000 years ago”
(Rodenbeck p. 6)
Figure 2 The beginnings of Modern Cairo (based on: Rodenbeck p. VIII; Graber p. 2)
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The modern day city center lies within the Nile Valley wedged between two mountain
plateaus slightly upstream from the apex of the Nile Delta, the most fertile land in the world.
The location lies along the historical road that once connected the city of Memphis and
ancient Heliopolis (the biblical city of On). The built environment of the present day capital
commenced with the Islamic Period as the city of Fustat along the Eastern bank of the Nile in
640AD. The location was the crossroads of the Nile River and an ancient canal that once
connected the Nile to the Red Sea4. Over the following thousand years the city would be
overtaken by numerous dynasties and various forms of government as it expanded
northwards along a series of satellite centers (Rodenbeck 1998, Sims 2003). “Building dynastic
cities was a common phenomenon” [Figure 2] (Raymond, pp 23-24)
Cairo’s satellite settlements were usually designed to be self-sufficient and would be
established either directly along the periphery of existing settlement, or beyond a buffer of
open land. The open land would eventually be in-filled with informal development as formal
planning focused on the center of each satellite. Aging older settlements would also infill in
similarly unplanned fashion. This trend of formal development augmented by informal
sprawl is the definitive pattern of Cairo’s growth. It was first addressed as a development
problem during the Fatimid period of expansion from 969AD (the formal inception of Cairo
[Al Qahira]) until the late 12th century. (Raymond 2001; Sims 2003)
Each surge of satellite construction created new low density communities, which primarily
appealed to the wealthier population. The relocation of the urban poor from within the city
core was most often executed by force, more so common in the latter 20th century. Attempts
to entice underprivileged citizens through higher wages were largely unsuccessful in terms of
decreasing the population density of the urban core. (El Shakry 2006)
4 The ancient canal played the role of the Suez Canal today; bypassing Africa en route between the Far East and Europe.
17
According to Description de l’Egypt
written by the Napoleonic expedition in the
18th century, Al-Qahira, the historic core of
Cairo, in 1798 [Figure 3] had a population
density of 39,800 people per square
kilometer. This is nearly the same average
density of Cairo today. (Description de l’Egypt
1809; Metge 2000) Generations of modern
satellite development, reviewed in the
following section, have continuously
attempted to reduce this density, rather than
develop methods to mitigate the
infrastructural demands of the existing.
Figure 3 Cairo and its surroundings in 1798
(Description de l'Egypt 1809)
Modern Cairo
The year 1863 was an important one for Cairo, for it marked the accession of Ismail Pasha,
the first ruler in nine centuries to make an overall plan for the city’s development. Inevitably
his plan echoed Western models, as Europe’s ascendancy in political and economic matters
seems to have extended to urban ones as well […] the new urbanism was predicated on an
organization of space in which the street system had primacy, an urban geometry based on the
grid and a prior knowledge of the structures to be built. The new concept of urban
development henceforth privileged perspective and alignment. (Raymond p. 309)
In his desire to display a modern city worthy of comparison with the grand European
capitals5, Ismail Pasha commissioned some of the most notable architects and engineers of
his time including Baron George-Eugene Haussmann who had worked on the renovation of
Paris in the mid 19th century. The Paris scheme was implanted as downtown Cairo, creating a
dramatically new public center for the city that later echoed in the satellite cities built at the
5 Modernization of Cairo was rushed in time for the inauguration of the Suez Canal on August 17, 1869
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turn of the 20th century. (El Shakry 2006; Raymond 2001) Baron Haussmann’s design for “Second
Empire Paris” signaled a pivotal transition of the public sphere around the world and has
since been the subject of much debate.
(Low 2006)
Haussmann’s new wide boulevards not
only provided for military control over
strategic streets but opened up areas of
new commercial activity […] This
linked to a wider social restructuring, the
emergence of a voluble middle class, the
increasing segregation of the city by
class and a symbolic shift in the
representation of urban space as
spectacle. (Low, p. 8)
The literature on Hausmann’s scheme
addresses the capitalist intentions of the
layout, but also acknowledges its value as
a modern public setting where all can
participate; integrating private and public governance. (AlSayyad 2006; Caldeira 2000) Downtown
Cairo still provides some of the most accessible public space in the city that allows for the
integration of public pedestrian infrastructure alongside private enterprise. The centerpiece of
the plan was, and remains, the largest square in Cairo; Qasr al-Nil Square, [in Figure 4]
renamed Tahrir after the 1952 Revolution. In 2011, this square was the epicenter of the
historic People’s Revolution that brought down an oppressive government in demand for
local democracy.
Figure 4 Haussmann's downtown stitched in
alongside medieval Cairo. (Raymond p. 310)
Although downtown Cairo (also called ‘Khedeival Cairo’) provides inclusive public space,
the model was replicated with very little reference to the local environment. The similarity of
the boulevards and many of the buildings to downtown Paris earned Cairo the nicknamed
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‘Paris on the Nile’. [Figure 5] Abdelhalim Ibrahim, a prominent Egyptian architect, claimed
that this marked a notable duality in the city between “the acquired and the inherited […]
This conflict between the two trends is still
present-day Cairo which, in reality is two
cities, not one.” (Abdelhalim p.44) Today
this duality exists between the planned
more exclusive city based on foreign
urban models, and the more organic and
indigenously designed informal city,
which grows along the peripheries and
within the gaps.
ongoing at all levels, though in different forms, in
hree Generations of Modern Satellite Cities
Figure 5 Talaat Harb Square in Downtown Cairo;
near replica of a Parisian square.
T
generations of satellite cities. Years of
of Heliopolis commenced as the farthest modern satellite, ten
During the 20th century, Cairo expanded around three
recession or war would be followed by sudden booms of construction in both the formal and
informal sectors. [Figure 9, page 23]
Defects in planning were most
notable in the city infrastructure
that strained to cope with the
burgeoning population and poorly
integrated informal development
of the built environment. [Figure 6]
Figure 6 An informal district (named Ezbet el Haganna)
ongside Nasr City. developing al
In 1905, the satellite city
kilometers north-east of the city center, and the first urban development on desert land.
20
Masterminded by Baron Edouard Empain a successful Belgian businessman6, Heliopolis was
built around grand boulevards, mansions and European style apartments. The baron initiated
the city’s development around two basic cornerstones; an electric tramline that connected it
to central Cairo, and the Heliopolis Company, established as an authority over all legislative
issues related to real estate, development, infrastructure, and maintenance. By 1925
Heliopolis housed 25,000 residents. Today the edge of Heliopolis cannot be delineated from
the dense city fabric within which it has become tightly knit. The once low density oases in
the desert now houses over five million residents. [Figure 7] The tram lines, which were
instrumental to Heliopolis’s
success, were significantly
dismantled in the late 20th century
to make way for wider automobile
streets. The Heliopolis Company
and a few remaining tram lines
remain operational. (Dobrowolska
2006; Raymond 2001; Rodenbeck 1998)
Figure 7 Heliopolis Today: The paths crossing the
roundabout are remaining operational tram lines.
British colonialism ended in 1936 by the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty and the country’s
occupation ended after the 1952 revolution. With the new found national liberation, “social
planners imagined Cairo as a revolutionary planning hub, in which the rural was privileged,
and targeted for improvement, in the reconstitution of space” (El Shakry p. 75) The size of Cairo
was capped and the land was re-appropriated within a mapped ring, which roughly aligns
with the path of the Ring Road; developed four decades later. New satellite cities were
planned within this region, and city development took on a socialist approach to the ordering
6 Baron Empain was one of the key figures in the construction of the Paris Metro.
21
of public space and communal welfare. Nasr City was the emblematic model of the second
generation of modern satellites.
[Nasr City] was intended to be a bureaucratic-administrative town, containing all the major
ministries, with housing and community facilities for the growing technocratic-civil servant
class. It thus spatially embodied the regime’s conception of Cairo as a technocratic planning
nucleus. (El Shakry p. 85)
Although the ministries never
moved to Nasr City as planned, the
other institutional, recreational and
educational facilities, suitably
integrated with residential and
commercial development, saw the
steady growth of the new satellite’s
population. Today Nasr City maintains the best proportions of allocated public space and
pedestrian infrastructure of any residential neighborhood in Greater Cairo. [Figure 8]
However, Nasr City is concurrently known for its appalling traffic jams, which are directly
attributed to poorly enforced building codes. The majority of the apartment buildings
illegally increased floors to almost double the planned units. Corruption within planning
authorities is most frequently blamed, and lax fines for code violation sanctified such
practices. In the mid 90’s a new law appropriated prison sentences for violations on any new
construction, yet still struggles to eradicate such activity. Today although the predominantly
socialist-block type architecture of Nasr City is aesthetically unattractive, its stadium,
fairgrounds, and several other institutions substantially serve neighboring satellites as well as
Cairo as a whole. (El Shakry 2006; Ibrahim 2009; Sims 2003)
Figure 8 Nasr City Today: Note the strings of cars lining the
streets
22
Figure 9 Modern Cairo's Built Environment and Public Infrastructure’s Timeline of Development
(CAPMAS 2010; Metge 2000; Rodenbeck 1998; Sims 2003)
23
During the 1970’s Egypt opened its doors as a free-market economy (known as “Infitah”)
during which time the governments’ urban planning focus shifted from the rural and urban
development of the countryside, to the urban development of the capital city as an exemplary
image for Egypt’s modernization. Plans for expansion embarked placing neoliberal economic
ideology and capitalism as the cornerstones of development. Maintaining the objectives of
decreasing population density, plans for satellite developments intended to expand Cairo to
double its size. (El Shakry 2006) Infrastructural development of the largest of these satellites,
the Sixth of October City, began in the mid 1980’s. [Figure 10] [See Appendix A]
Figure 10 The built environment of Cairo in 2010 spans nearly 70 km East to West and 30 km North to
South. The ring road, planned since the 1970’s and completed in 2010, is 110km long. One of the
initial objectives of the ring road was to cap the growth of Cairo.
The Informal: Social & Environmental Priority
The informal built environment of Cairo is a physical manifestation of the human instinct to
seek shelter. The informality ranges from roughly patterned districts that moderately align
with more planned infrastructure, to an organic “urban crawl” common to Africa.7 The
7 “Urban Crawl: A condition of hyperdensity, limited but enabling scale of communicative possibilities that
converge opportunistically. It occurs when the pressure of an urban environment reaches a critical threshold in
cities of developing countries.” (Brillembourg et al. 2009)
24
resultant patterns are a response to social and environmental demands [Figure 11]. The built
environment is defined and characterized by economic limitations. The buildings range in
composition from solid concrete and brick with air-conditioning and in-house piping, to
makeshift structures of cardboard and aluminum siding that are dire in infrastructural
provision. The inception of informal neighborhoods occurs almost always from nodes of
transportation access or alongside areas that provide employment (mostly informal jobs such
as domestic service or informal markets). Suitable investigation into the informal can provide
innovations to city planning that can mitigate its polarizing duality. (Adeyemi 2009; Saleh 2010;
Shehayab 2009)
Figure 11 Informal Built Environment [Left]: aligned perpendicular to north-south due to
environmental demands. Informal Prayer [Right]: aligned perpendicular to southeast towards
Mecca.
The New ‘Order’: Economic Priority
One of Cairo’s primary development issues has been the manner by which local planners
have assessed the city’s growth and demands. In a lecture entitled “Cairo Reversed, Values
and Spaces”8, Eric Denis discussed an innovative perspective on what he called Cairo’s
‘morphological trajectory’ during the 20th century. The most influential factors attributing to
the city’s dramatically expanding trajectory are the economic reforms that much of the
literature attributes to the IMF/World Bank restructuring of the economic framework of
Egypt. This period of ‘Neoliberazation’ has resulted in turbulent but persistent economic 8 In the 2009 symposium on Urban Trajectories in Cairo
25
growth paralleled by rapid growth of the city’s built environment. [Figure 12] This growth may
have served the wealthy population, yet is disconnected from political collaboration that
adhered to a development plan for the capital as a whole. The most significant results of these
movements were as Denis addresses; the structural adjustment of the economy as well as the
city, a significant decrease of public spending, and the continuous growth of privatization.
(Denis, 2009; El Shakry 2006)
Figure 12 "Population and [Public] Investment Flows" (AbdulKarim 2009)
In 1976 when the national government launched plans for the latest ring of satellite cities the
population of Cairo was nearly eight million residents. It was not until the early 2000’s that
notable migration from the city began to these satellites by which time the population of
Cairo had surpassed 16 million residents. In the 1990’s, to launch these satellites, the
government subsidized millions of square meters of desert land to private developers. Over
300 developers began to build gated communities that house between 100 and 10,000
residential units each. Within less than two decades the landscape of the desert surrounding
Cairo has completely transformed. The newly built developments were aimed at a middle
26
class that barely exists in Cairo. (Denis 2006) These satellites have significantly grown in
population over the past several years and the rate of migration is increasing. It is expected
that by 2020 they will house at least five million residents. (Cambanis 2010)
The privatization of mass sections of the city, intertwined with the commodification of land,
has linked it to speculation and consequent inflation that has promoted social exclusion.
(Watson 2009) The majority of new development is affordable to only a minority of the local
population. Inflation in land prices since the turn of the millennium has seen property prices
increase by tenfold. (Denis 2009) Areas of distant desert land now carry the same price tag per
square meter as Nile front property by virtue of a branded community name. Inversely, older
districts with prime location within the city have maintained cheap price tags due to the
social classes that reside within; ultimately aiding in a homogeneous zoning of the city by
class. (Denis 2006) The imbalance that lacks congruence with the physical location, the
cornerstone of real estate, has recently seen investors buying large sections of poor districts,
even informal areas, speculating on future price corrections. The Cairo 2050 Vision
predictably earmarked several of these neighborhoods to be redeveloped as tourism and
business districts of high rise buildings and commercial venues. [See Appendix B]
Today, at the climax of the capitalist era, manifestations of wealth and power continue to
transform the capital cities of people’s republics into segmented zones that attempt to collect
homogeneous sectors of society. This is contrary to what has given Cairo’s urban fabric its
historical and cultural value. In recent developments of Cairo and other global cities, there
has been a complete loss of common ground, the democratically inclusive public space.
(Caldeira 2000; Kuppinger 2004)
27
Public Infrastructure
“Inevitably, rapid expansion brings with it major pressures on service and utility systems […]
In face of the rapid pace of change, many improvements become either inadequate or
obsolete by the time they are finished.” (El-Shakhs p.4) With the lack of prioritization of public
infrastructure, networks have continuously failed to adequately support the city. Tramlines,
which in the 1970’s accounted for 15 percent of travel were systematically dismantled to
make more room for automobile streets. By 1998 automobiles had accounted for more than a
quarter of travel, double what they had three decades earlier. Public buses and the new
underground metro lines account for less than 40 percent of travel, 20 percent less than what
busses alone carried in 1971. (Metge 2000)
Heliopolis, the symbol of the first generation of modern satellites, was developed with ample
pedestrian provision, communal infrastructure and public transportation. The second
generation satellite cities were developed upon modern-socialist block type architecture along
strong street grids, well maintained sidewalk setbacks and residential parks. However, public
transportation was not a cornerstone of development, and poor management of the
intensification process led to significant strains on the infrastructure. The sidewalks and parks
were equally compromised. The latest (third) generation, based on the American suburban
model, relies almost completely on the automobile. [Figure 13] There are no significant public
spaces outside the private
developments, providing only the
streets as public infrastructure.
Public transportation is significantly
covering a catchment area of several Figure 13 Gated Communities in New Cairo. Area shown is
15 square kilometers.
inadequate with a handful of stops
28
square kilometers. Over the past half century, the public infrastructure of Cairo has
continuously compromised on provisions of public space and public transportation.
Recent development has been almost solely steered by economic drivers of growth. The
he Streets of Cairo
pursuit of financial development has been relatively fruitful, but neglect of the public arena
has pushed the city into social and ecological imbalance. Continuous privatization has
depleted the city of open public space. As developments continue to intensify, the streets
strain to cope. They have become unorganized and hazardous with pedestrians weaving
through traffic. [Figure 14] The
street is the only space in
Cairo where all communities
and classes within the city
interact. This is Cairo’s
remaining point of assembly;
its agora.
Figure 14 A typical downtown street in Cairo; pedestrians and
automobiles battle for the right of way. (A Nation in Waiting 2008)
T
oped through waves of construction that ebbed and flowed over the
has been relentless throughout Cairo’s history.
Modern Cairo has devel
past two centuries, with each cycle being exponentially larger than its predecessor. The latest
series of satellite developments along with the intensifying existing fabric has nearly tripled
the area of the megacity over the last few decades. (Denis 2009) City planning has consistently
aimed to decrease the population density by reallocating residents, industry, and institutions,
yet has failed to achieve such objectives. The definitive pattern has been the continual
decrease in public provision paralleled by the increasing speed of informal intensification that
29
In Streets: A Critical Perspective on Public Space, Ceylik, Favro and Ingersoll explore the
development of city streets as a transforming phenomenon that evolve as the rings of a tree
telling the story of its life. A chapter by Nezar Alsayyad travels the history of a street that
runs along what was once the central court of a 340 acre compound in Cairo built in the
distant desert by the newly arriving Fatimid dynasty at the turn of the first millennium. The
“Bayn Al Qasrayn” (directly translated as “between the two palaces”) court was encroached
upon by the growing city, but continuously played a significant function of social public
space and civic arena even as the surroundings changed and the two palaces themselves
completely disappeared. [Figure 15] The street that runs along what was once an open public
court has become a mere avenue that is flanked on both sides at this particular zone with
retail and commercial activities. Today, over a thousand years later the street and
neighborhood are still known by the same name yet have been transformed by the imminent
intensification. (Alsayyad 1994)
Figure 15 Bayn al Qasrayn Street: showing the encroachment of the city. (Alsayyad 1994)
The question at hand is the development and maintenance of sufficient public space within
y has a vast this growing fabric. Although the picture may easily seem bleak for Cairo, the cit
resource of urban assets that could potentially transform it into an integrated stitching of the
antiquated city, the modern city and the human scale. This reconciliation needs to begin in
the only remaining open grounds: the streets. Among numerous other factors, formally
planned buildings and streets set a framework for the evolution of the city even as some of
those buildings eventually disappear. The streets do not disappear as quickly, if at all.
30
Chapter Three
The Battle Ground: Cairo Today
Cairo is in many ways a cosmopolitan city. Its built environment alone embodies layers of
istorical and modern architecture within neighborhood layouts of both foreign and
taken over spaces of
ce to the community. A notable example is the Sixth of October Bridge; a twenty
h
indigenous models. In a paper entitled “Grieving Cosmopolitanism in Middle East Studies”
Will Hanley stands the ideology of cosmopolitanism upon two “complementary issues;
tremendous ethnic, religious and linguistic diversity, and (being) the opposite of ‘national’ or
nationalistic.” (Hanley 2008) Cosmopolitanism is generally an inclusive concept, which entails
a universality of citizenship, broadness of thought and a lack of prejudice. As such, Cairo
embodies the virtues of diversity and globalization; yet incongruously embodies exclusion
and segregation. The formulation of the cosmopolitan state of Cairo is elitist in application
and legitimizes value to formal labels over actual content. (Hanley 2008)
The mask of false grandeur and impractical organization has persistently
significan
kilometer elevated highway that cuts across the city creating its main east-west artery. [Figure
16] This crudely constructed concrete platform, referred to by pre-Revolution officials as ‘one
of the longest bridges in the world,’ was constructed incrementally over three decades.
Figure 16 The Sixth of October Expressway. Note the sideboards along the side facing the more
impoverished neighborhood
31
Planning of the expressway was ad hoc at best; some stretches of the bridge run between
buildings nearly touching third floor balconies, and other sections were developed by trail-
and-error, requiring portions to be closed off and redesigned post-construction. (Atia 1999) The
purpose of elevating the entire highway across the city was to swiftly transport automobiles
and tourist buses from the main airport access road to the center of town, while hiding the
neighborhoods and slums below. [Figure 17] This was achieved by placing side-boards to
block the views of the very poor areas.
Additionally, 80 percent of its trail has
rendered parallel roadways below
dysfunctional due to the colossal support
columns. Although tourist buses are
permitted access, public buses are not. Figure 17 Neighborhood spaces in the Abbasia
district below the Sixth of October Expressway
Present day Cairo is a collage of planned districts and informal sprawl that are stitched
together by the streets. Walking in Cairo is tedious as there is a lack of continuous pedestrian
infrastructure. Nearly all sidewalks are incomplete with no enforced regulation to maintain
continuity. Although buildings within the planned city are set back from the road by a
minimum of three meters, garage ramps, elevated planters, on center lamp posts and even
light structures (such as cigarette kiosks) are standard obstacles. [Figure 18] The only
Figure 18 [Left] Tramline infrastructure and advertisement boards along a street in Heliopolis create
obstacles along the pedestrian path. [Right] A kiosk and trees in Zamalek block the sidewalk.
32
continuous path is the asphalt road, which pedestrians are forced to resort to, competing with
the automobiles. [Figure 19] Traffic regulation is generally ignored as are the rare pedestrian
crossings. “Right of way is not administered according to a standardized system, but is
usually negotiated (visually) between the intersecting drivers, or the driver and the
pedestrian, according to the
variables of each encounter.”
(Issa 2009) In response,
pedestrians and drivers often
aggressively and capriciously
assert their boundaries within
the congested public arena. Figure 19 A crowded street in Cairo. Cars, buses, motorcycles,
cyclists, pedestrians, and street vendors share the asphalt road.
(photograph by Andy Serrano)
The conditions in the streets of Cairo have become no less than chaotic, riddled with
confusion. Heavy traffic has resulted in intolerable levels of noise and air pollution, and a
constantly decreasing average speed of travel through the city. Rather than addressing the
cause of the growing “urban tumor”, planners and developers most often resorted to masking
the symptoms. Gated residential communities and exclusive public spaces that are physically
separated from the streets by walls have grown throughout the city, creating refuge for those
with means. (El-Naggar 2007; Harris 2009; Issa 2009)
If we look for a moment at other cities around the world where enclaves are increasing, we
see that some are going through similar processes of deep transformation and
democratization: Johannesburg and Buenos Aires, for example. The unsettling of social
boundaries is upsetting, especially for the elite. Their movement to build walls is thus
understandable. The problem is that the consequences of fragmentation, privatization, and
walling are severe. Once walls are built, they alter public life. The changes we are seeing in
the urban environment are fundamentally undemocratic. What is being reproduced at the level
of the built environment is segregation and intolerance. The space of these cities is the main
arena in which these antidemocratic tendencies are articulated. (Caldeira, p. 334)
33
Exclusivity: Gated Communities and ‘Fortified’ Public Space
The majority of the literature unfavorably criticizes the growth of gated communities and
‘fortified’ public spaces. The development of gated communities in and around global cities
has spread at an unprecedented rate, particularly in developing nations. These ‘exclusive’
neighborhoods designed to mitigate security risks, do not necessarily impact crime reduction
and can make the location more vulnerable as there is less public around. Such settings are
likely to increase the notion of fear rather than avert any actual threat The development of
“defensible spaces” both as residential communities and ‘fortified’ public spaces such as
shopping malls and luxury hotels in Cairo has exasperated the city’s social polarization. The
resultant momentum undermines social cohesion and democracy. (AbdulKarim et al. 2009;
AlSayyad 2006; Caldeira 2000; Kuppinger 2004; Ribiero et al. 2000; Williams et al. 2001)
In older parts of Cairo, expensive buildings house one to two poor families living in the
ground floor that provide services and protection to the residents of the building.
Additionally, the rooftops of such buildings often house affordable one room
accommodations that are rented by lower income members of the society. This heterogeneity
of the city fabric has maintained a mixture of social class within districts. However, the
sidewalks, parks, and communal areas of these neighborhoods have been absorbed by organic
intensification and an abundance of parked cars. The wealthier residents consequently resort
to fortified public spaces, while the less wealthy spend the evenings in the actual streets; in
and around cars. Adequate “opportunities need to be created to encourage residents to
physically see each other, in order to begin to get to know each other through socializing and
talking. Safe, attractive public spaces and venues need to be built to encourage community
mingling and socializing.” (Butterworth, p. 9)
34
Planning regulations in Cairo require a minimum percentage of public space in new
developments. However without defining the function and purpose of such spaces,
privatization has allowed for retail and commercial centers to satisfy this requirement. In an
essay entitled “Egyptianizing the American Dream”, Mona Abaza assesses the surge of
shopping malls and mixed use entertainment complexes throughout the capital. Before the
1990’s such malls did not exist in Cairo. Groups of shops had only existed in outdoor bazaar
type settings, or lined the ground floor of residential buildings open directly onto the
sidewalk or street. The appeal of enclosed shopping malls can be attributed to the
prioritization of the leisurely pedestrian, and the provision of ‘escape’ from the pollution and
disorder of Cairo’s streets. “The mall provides a feeling of ‘elevation,’ of being modern and
protected from the outside world”. (Abaza p.212) [Figure 22] However, these malls are not
inclusive to all strata of the society and thus cannot be defined as public space. In spite of the
financial decline of such establishments, particularly in the US at the turn of the millennium,
their existence in Cairo continues to flourish. (Abaza 2006)
Public space in the city should be responsive to the entire community, free of exclusion, and
literally a spatial interpretation of participatory responsibility; a democratic arena. (Caldeira
2000, Williams et al. 2001) Applying suitable planning policy and guidelines can directly affect
the reduction of ‘undemocratic spaces’ that intend to exclude those who cannot afford to buy.
In the UK, for example, city development plans have included social housing in every
borough of London to counter social segregation. Additionally, since the induction of PPG6
(Planning Policy Guidance #6) 9, aimed at revitalizing town centers with commercial activity
and discouraging developers from building new malls, “the number of new large
developments has decreased each year and retailers are refocusing their attention on town
centers”. (Williams et al. p.11) Rather than constructing new, ‘fortified’, public spaces,
9 According to the 2001 edition of the Social Trends publication of HMSO
35
revitalization of existing urban centers also responds to the public preference of ‘compact
and well integrated’ town centers that are accessible to all. Additionally this reduces the need
for transportation, minimizing the associated environmental impact.
As for the future of the new satellite cities and their gated communities, the pattern of Cairo’s
growth alludes to an inevitable intensification that will occur with time. Petra Kuppinger
poses the question that looms repeatedly in the realm of this discussion: Given another
decade or so, will the gated communities then be the new Heliopolises and Maadis?10
(Kuppinger p. 53)
Environmental Sustainability of the New Order
As professionals of the built environment turn their focus to low carbon cities, the search
ensues for the most suitable density and layout to increase environmental sustainability.
AbdelKhalek Ibrahim questioned the validity of the claim that the new ‘suburban’ layout and
density of the gated communities sprouting around Cairo, and elsewhere in Egypt, is a more
environmentally sustainable city scheme than the locally common high density mixed-use
layout. A simplified logic has supported this claim that lowered density would result in
lowered consumption of resources and energy at single points. However, the overall picture,
as Ibrahim settles, is quite the contrary.
The urban fabric of the Egyptian city has been dictated by an environmental response to the
desert climate conditions of extended periods of harsh sun and strong sand bearing winds. As
a result the Arabian typology of city planning emerged, and the typical Egyptian city is
compact, dense, and applies significant mixed-use function. This allows for suitable shading,
protection from desert winds, and minimizes transportation needs. The local culture itself has
10 Heliopolis and Maadi are heralded here as symbols of the first generation of modern satellite cities .
36
grown accustomed to the close proximity of neighbors and functions due to the traditional
setting. Neighborhood bonds are very strong in the Egyptian city and people generally spend
a good portion of the day in the vicinity around their house interacting with neighbors,
passers-by, and market vendors. “Egyptian people often prefer streets, buildings and
neighborhoods that are abundant with life and activities and thus safe, whereas spaces that are
not inhabited or used by people are seen as unsafe.” (Ibrahim, 2009)
The new urban layout that is
appearing, however, does not allow
for any of these conditions… yet.
[Figure 20] A foreign import from
North America, the suburban model
is a response to a much different
climate and as an effect of the urban fabric, has resulted in different cultural interaction. The
fabric itself does not allow for the same mixed-use nature of the more compact and dense
city. Distance travel for work and market is more common in the American city, as is travel
by sustainable public transport, cycle, and foot, all of which are not very common in Cairo.
This urban layout, as it is being superimposed over the deserts around Cairo, is already
increasing reliance on the automobile, as well as air conditioning needs due to the lack of
neighborly shading.
Figure 20 New Cairo Satellite showing a gated community
surrounding a golf course (lower half)
The gated communities of the latest generation of satellites have already set a framework that
will, with time, transform as the surrounding context intensifies. The current state of over
densification and high pollution of Cairo is primarily the result of poor management of this
intensification process. Strong guidelines for the transformation of the fabric over time could
mitigate this problem. (Ibrahim, 2009) To better suit the development of the future urban fabric
37
of Cairo, it would be favorable if urban planners approach the design more as a foundational
framework to support the eventual adaptation of the city. To mitigate the environmental
impact of the forthcoming densification of the latest satellites, infrastructural requirements of
public transportation and communal spaces should be prioritized.
Tourism and the Sterilization of Cairo’s Public Spaces
Tourism, a significant contributor to the national economy of Egypt, has taken priority of a
vast amount of Cairo’s development. The commodification of living portions of the city and
its culture for tourism has frequently come at the expense of the local community. In a paper
on the agoras of global cities, and the local communities and tourists they now serve, Bart
Neuts discusses the exhaustion or overconsumption of public goods. The definitions of public
space, common property and public goods are intertwined, dependant, and frequently
misused. Public space delineates a physical platform that is openly accessible, inclusive and
non-subtractable in absolute terms. This means that as a public good it is consumable, or
subtractable, but is regenerated upon the departure of its user. Common property, on the other
hand, is a space shared by a defined set of users that is subtractable and can be depleted. The
difference between public space and common property is its accessibility, and accordingly its
degree of ‘private ownership’. This variance begins to define the level of investment as well
as level of exclusivity exhibited by a space. (Neuts 2009; Webster 2007)
The perspective by which Neuts, and many other scholars, discuss urban public space is
intrinsically positioned on the premise that it is open to all citizens. The city’s public space
can even be viewed in this light as a common property of its citizens, hence allowing the
right to exclude non citizens. (Neuts 2009) To sustain the public provision of open space it is
necessary to avoid overconsumption. The capacity of a given public space to handle a
quantified mass of users simultaneously, determines what should be viewed as the maximum
38
public resource allocated by this space; what Webster calls a “congestion threshold” (Webster
2007). Since public space is non-subtractable, its function, or usability, will maintain as long
as the absolute number of users at one time does not exceed this capacity.
Failure to exclude people from benefitting from the resource leads to what is known as the
free rider problem. Consumers are unwilling to voluntarily invest in a public goods resource,
since their investment is not essential in order to enjoy the outcome. Therefore, each rational
individual will have the incentive not to participate, free riding on the investment of
others.(Neuts, p.4)
Those with vested interest in tourism will ‘rationally’ poise development to enhance the
tourist experience, relying on the more intangible local community or government to preserve
the communal interest of citizens. The free rider problem is not a notable issue in more
sterilized, or homogeneous, tourist areas as tourism is quantifiable into number of tourists and
resultant revenue. Accordingly investments in such areas are higher and provision of what is
questionably called ‘public goods’ is more directly linked to profit. Such investment in more
heterogeneous public spaces of the city that cater primarily to its citizens is not directly
related to immediate profit. Accordingly these spaces are greatly devoid of private
investment, leaving the responsibility of public provision on the shoulders of government.
Figure 22 Marginal Cost and Revenue Curves
for Public Space (Neuts p.7)
Figure 21 Resource use of a public space under
open access conditions (Neuts p.6)
Figures 21 and 22, developed by Neuts, mathematically interpret the quality of experience in
a space using G. Hardins theoretical example from his paper “Tragedy of the Commons” of
too many animals grazing in a field. The quality of the visitors’ experience (E) is based on
39
the constant features of the space itself, the number of users at one time (n), and the price
paid by the visitors (p). The graph in Figure 21 shows that the optimal experience for value
requires a number of users (n*) below which the experience is too sterile, and above which
the quality of the experience is decreased. The price of the experience should respectively
rise to suit the supply/demand ratio. Open access to locals and tourists, unrestricted by a
proportionate cost to tourists, reduces the quality of experience for all users. (Neuts 2009)
“Due to negative externalities, the individually optimal resource use will be higher than the
socially optimal quantity, ns [refer to Figure 22] leading to a loss of societal wealth.” (Neuts, p.7)
Figure 22 graphically describes the inverse relationship between the marginal costs incurred
by society (MCs) and the marginal revenue (MR) as the individual marginal cost (MCi)
remains constant. The analyses show that an optimum number of users of a public space lies
between n* and ns. As tourism statistics are closely monitored in Egypt, the optimum number
of tourists at one time, and the appropriate cost figures can be easily calculated. The optimum
balance between the number of users and price can maintain the quality of the space. In order
to be sustainable, the number of users needs to be addressed in terms of maintenance,
operation, and external costs incurred by the city and its citizens.
Most historical and cultural attractions throughout Cairo have amplified the freerider problem
in public spaces, which suffer from poor management and maintenance. Several landmarks
have become tourist ghettos while others have become sterilized for a scripted tourist
experience. An example of the latter is the Al-Rifa’i Mosque and the Sultan Hasan Madrasa.
In the mid 1980’s the extension of the prominent Mohammed Ali Street that ran between the
two landmark buildings of Islamic Cairo was closed and the area was paved as a pedestrian
plaza. The initial intent of the transformation, according to an official from the Supreme
40
Council of Antiquities (SCA), was to cleanse the
space of suspected drug use in the surrounding area
and curtail the growth of “fundamentalist cells”.
(Elsheshtawy 2006)
In the following years the people of the surrounding
neighborhoods found refuge in the new pedestrian
plaza and began enjoying its potential as an open
public space within their community. Yasser
Elsheshtawy conducted several interviews with
members of the public using the space and observed
the square over a period of several months. His
analysis revealed that the space had taken on a new
role where the people of the surrounding community
would sit, chat, and play all the while as tourists
would visit the landmark structures and catch a
glimpse of the daily lives of the Egyptian people.
[Figure 23]
[Bottom] Tourists entering from the only
available gate after the wall was built.
[Second Down] A marriage ceremony
[First Down] Children playing soccer
with tourists
[Top] Retirees enjoying the square
Figure 23 Pictures of Al Rifai Square by
Yasser Elsheshtawy (Elsheshtawy 2006)
However, the interviewed official of the SCA had
expressed his dismay of the public activities around
the monuments. He perceived the presence of the
poor locals as a nuisance to tourists, and indicated
that plans were underway to control the problem.
Within a few years the square was walled off to deter
non-tourists from entry and use. (Elsheshtawy 2006)
41
Although tourism is beneficial to the city on many levels, the transformation of Al Rifai
Square epitomizes the singular prioritization of tourism, and a non-holistic approach to
Cairo’s development. The initial decision to close Mohammed Ali Street had suitably
improved the location for tourists and locals alike. If there was further need to separate or
delineate tourist activity from local activity within the square, interdisciplinary approaches of
resolution could have been introduced. Landscaping and public provisions such as benches
and playing areas could have focused local activity away from tour paths. However the
decision to ‘wall’ deprived the local community of a valuable amenity resulting in their
increased disenfranchisement. Additionally, it rendered the square an awkward ‘sterile’ space
for tourists that is disengaged from the city fabric within which it resides. Rather than
separating users and functions, the sustainability of a public space can be attained by
balancing the number of citizens and tourists. Restrictive costs and schedules imposed upon
tour operators can help achieve such a balance, thus securing the public provision.
Balancing Priorities
In summary, it can be said that the physical public arena of Cairo is in a “state of
contemporary crisis.” (Perez-Gomez 1986) Insufficient pedestrian infrastructure, poor
management and organization of the streets, and unchecked intensification has resulted in
poor circulation, decreased safety and compounding environmental damage. Gated
communities and fortified public spaces have provided exclusive arenas for some, yet have
increased social fragmentation. The overwhelming of urban spaces by traffic and tourism has
dismantled connectivity within the city’s physical public arena, negatively impacting the
local quality of life. Balanced objectives of development and remediation must be achieved
in order to counter the absorption of public infrastructure at the expense of the social and
environmental welfare of the city.
42
Chapter Four
The Macro-Urban Core
The history of Cairo’s urban development over the past 1500 years reveals a continuous
pattern of new satellite development that was considerably devoid of refurbishments to the
existing. The majority of older districts have been taken over by informal settlement that
organically reused, transformed and intensified the city’s core. Until recently, the idea of
gentrification was unknown to the city that continues to house centuries of urban treasures.
With Cairo reaching megalopolis scale, and several failed attempts to relocate major
institutions and population out of the core, pivotally located within the Nile Valley, attention
has turned to redeveloping the existing fabric.
This chapter will review four projects that are
redeveloping the public arena of central Cairo.
[Figure 24] Although these projects address less
than five percent of the city, they provide lessons
for dealing with the remainder of the urban fabric.
The success or failure of each of these macro-
scale refurbishments can be correlated to their
level of research, detail, and community involvement at the micro-urban scale. Their
objectives vary from tourism development; transforming the urban fabric into a quasi-
museum, to social and cultural development and the provision of public infrastructure. They
are ordered in the discussion from the most economically focused, to the most socially and
environmentally focused redevelopments.
Figure 24 The four projects in central Cairo
that are discussed in this chapter.
43
The Refurbishment of Islamic Cairo
Once it [the museum] was a place that had instruction and the propagation of a particular
view of the world as its underpinning. Now it [the museum] has come to be seen as an urban
landmark – a replacement for the missing agora, a place devoted to spectacle. (Deyan Sudjic
quoted in Hamnet, Shoval 2003)
The Historic Cairo Restoration Project (HCRP),
which began in 1998, is responsible for the
restoration of the largest section of the old city;
Islamic Cairo, the world’s largest living collection
of Islamic heritage monuments. [Figure 25]
(unesco.org) Refurbishment of what is intended as
an ‘open air museum’ has been underway for well
over a decade. The project carries the primary
agenda of tourism development; however the
scheme has succeeded in upgrading the public
arena of one of Cairo’s poor districts. Al Moezz
Street, the districts’ main thoroughfare, has been
transformed into a pedestrian spine that serves
locals and visitors [Figure 26].
additionally provided
opportunities for local artisans and craftsmen
within the restoration process, and with the
production of ‘ethnic products’ for tourist
consumption. However the edge of restoration
between the tourist path, and the communal
Figure 25 UNDP Rehabilitation Plan (1997)
for Islamic Cairo (Crane 2006)
The project has
Figure 26 Al Moezz Street; the pedestrian
spine of Islamic Cairo.
44
public alleys of the district, underlines the projects’ incompleteness. A project of this scale
should include primary objectives of social enhancement, particularly as it utilizes a ‘living’
quarter of the city for economic gain. This gain must equally provide for the involved
community in order to be successful. These imbalanced objectives have impacted the quality
of the tourist experience as several critics have noted a loss of “cultural value” within the
recently opened monuments. (Williams, C 2006)
The Gentrification of ‘Khedival’ Downtown
The Haussmann designed downtown (often called “Khedival Cairo”) houses some of Cairo’s
most ornate 19th and early 20th century architecture. It also houses the city’s best kept
pedestrian network. Since the 1990’s there has been significant movement to refurbish the
district that has fallen victim to urban decay mostly due to rent control laws. Over the past
decade, downtown Cairo has seen improvement to its public arena. Sidewalks are being
maintained, zebra crossings have been introduced, and adherence to traffic lights is being
enforced. More significantly two streets have been closed to traffic and paved as pedestrian
only. (El Kadi et al. 2006) Several factors have led to the preliminary success, albeit still small in
scale, of the ongoing gentrification. Primarily, the integration of participants from the public
and private sectors, along with significant media attention increased the momentum of
change. Additionally, the project commenced with an intricate assessment and data collection
process dubbed “heritization”.
The heritization process comprises a range of successive and/or concomitant stages: study,
appraisal, documentation, selection, classification, enacting protective laws, creating special
institutions to manage safeguarding efforts, deploying the tools, making the renovations,
raising public awareness, training consumers, and ensuring ongoing maintenance. (El Kadi et
al. p. 350)
45
Based on diligent data collection, redevelopment efforts continue to snowball in effect. A
recent competition by the General Organization for Physical Planning (GOPP) produced a
Revitalization Master Plan for an aggrandized scope of the district. The project parameters
now cover two significant squares that have been completely invaded by traffic; Abdel-
Moneim Riyadh Square, and Tahrir Square. [Figure 27]
Figure 27 The winning entry for the Revitalization Master Plan proposes; significant reduction to
automobile access, increased provision for public transportation and open green space. Spatially, the
proposal appears to integrate with the immediate fabric while being proportionate in size as a
downtown for the macro city. (GOPP 2010)
In 2008, two privately funded companies were established to purchase, refurbish, and manage
several buildings of downtown Cairo; one of which is Tatweer Real Estate. Marshall Stocker,
of Tatweer, explained that Cairo was selected by his investment fund for two reasons. First,
because “Egypt is going through very massive and ambitious economic changes, moving
from communism [socialism] to capitalism, the macro-economic change is phenomenal.”11
(Stocker 2010) Second, because of the old rent control law instated in 1921 that continues to
11 Interview with Mr. Marshall Stocker, Chairman and Managing Director of Tatweer Real Estate, conducted
by the author on November 28th, 2010 in Cairo
46
protect residents and their first generation inheritors by locking rents several thousand
percent lower than free market value. Rent control has been one of the most influential
factors in the deterioration of buildings and their surroundings as landlords have no incentive
or income to provide maintenance. The disrepair of the district resulted in the wealthy and
affluent moving elsewhere, further reducing funding for maintenance. Research has
positively correlated the Egyptian rent control law to reduced private investment in formal
housing and increased private investment in informal housing. The rent control law in Egypt
was abolished in 1996, effective only to rent contracts post this date. (McCall 1988, Stocker 2010)
decline of its public spaces, with the inverse being equally valid. Research and planning at
wntown Project has managed to change damaging
housing policy, as well as attract local and international investors.
Downtown Cairo exemplifies how the lack of social diversity within a district results in the
The Ramses Challenge
both the macro and micro levels have resulted in a well integrated development plan. The
heritization process of the Khedival Do
Ramses Square is a major civic plaza centrally located in present day Cairo. The square is at
the crossroads of the country’s trainlines, and the city’s main east-west traffic artery. In a
inar was to not build the
ridge, and alternatively relocate the station north of the city leaving the historic station
1984 seminar entitled “The Expanding Metropolis: Coping with the Urban Growth of
Cairo”12, local and international scholars and practitioners of the built environment convened
to review Cairo’s urban history and assess the city’s urban development. One of the main
debates surrounded Ramses Square, and questioned the sustainability of a proposed flyover
bridge that would continue across the city. The response of the sem
b
12 The seminar was held by the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in Cairo.
47
building [Figure 28] to house lighter inner-
The square has borne the name Ramses
since 1955 when the ancient statue of
Ramses II was brought from Memphis to
stand at its center. (Raymond 2000) By the
turn of the millennium, the statue stood at
the center point of the Sixth of October
Bridge expressway. [Figure 29] Figures
published in a November 2009 article
claimed that Ramses Square was traversed
by 300,000 pedestrians, and 3,000,000
at a large expense to public funds.
city transport.13 The advice was not
heeded and the expressway bridge was
built, crudely dissecting the historical
square and essential qualities of public
life.
Figure 28 Ramses Square (Pre 1882), then called
‘Bab el Hadid’ (Translation: the ‘Iron Door’
referring to the railway entrance to the city).The
image shows the station building surrounded by
commercial activity, pedestrians, and a horse drawn
carriage moving goods.
cars and buses every eight hours. (El-Aref
2009) The statue that had stood the test of
time for thousands of years, could not
sustain the pollution of central Cairo, and
in 2006 Ramses II was transported out of
the city in a ceremonial 12 hour procession
Figure 29 Ramses Square today
13 When the station was constructed in the mid 19th century, it was located at the then northern edge of the city
as can be seen in Figure 5 [page 11].
48
In 2008, the National Organization for Urban Harmony (NOUH)14 announced a competition
for the redevelopment of Ramses Square. Proposals were called to address the immediate role
of the square as a functioning landmark and civic center, realign traffic and public
transportation to better integrate with the larger network of Cairo, as well as address the
ailing ecological state of the city. Additionally the scope asked for a macro-urban scheme to
t
.
Notably however, the proposal did not provide space within the square for the informal
market that has existed there since the 19th century.
address the incomplete public transportation network. (NOUH 2008) Ambitious as the scope
was for a single competition, it underlined the city’s need to reassess its public spaces and
civic centers, in conjunction with its overwhelming traffic and defunct public transportation.
Figure 30 Ramses Square: the winning scheme (El-Aref 2009)
The winning entry [Figure 30] rerouted 1.3 kilometers of the expressway bridge through an
underground tunnel, redirected surface traffic and created an open pedestrian plaza. Adjacen
to the square the proposal called for an 18 acre “urban park,” which would be developed as
“a second lung for Cairo similar to Al-Azhar Park” (El-Husseini15, quoted in El-Aref 2009)
14 NOUH is the urban development advisory body to the Governorate of Cairo
redevelopment plan. 15 Omar El-Husseini is the architect and urban planner representing the winning
49
Since the competition results were announced in 2009 significant debate has ensued over the
implementation of the winning scheme. In an article entitled “Midan Ramses: Between the
Crimes of Disfiguration and Beautification”, the author Ezzat El Kamhawy implored
planning authorities to identify the objectives of the Ramses redevelopment plan and confirm
the reasons for further public spending. Significantly, El Kamhawy expressed the public’s
distrust of the government agenda stating that it is evident that Cairo is developing towards
the sole objective of becoming a global center of tourism and commerce, without suitable
provision for the communal welfare of the city. (El Kamhawy 2010)
eplete the resources of public funds
without successful resolution to its compounding problems. Public attention brought on by
the departure of the Ramses II statue, signaled civic confusion as the uprooting of the
landmark rendered the square’s name illogical. The highly criticized construction of the Sixth
of October expressway, and the subsequent debate to dismantle it a mere decade after
completion; exhibits both a lack of insight and attention to public opinion, thus casting doubt
over future plans. As Ramses square is one of the oldest planned civic nodes of modern
e is in many ways a major meeting point of the formal and
The challenges of Ramses Square have continued to d
Cairo, the majority of the surrounding urban fabric has been either informally developed, or
informally intensified.16 The squar
informal city. [Figure 31] Notably,
community involvement and
data collection at the micro-
urban scale were significantly
absent in the development plans
of Ramses Square. Figure 31 The urban fabric surrounding Ramses Square today
has been deve or centuries. loping and intensifying f
16 The inception of the Square began with the construction of the train station in 1856
50
Al Darb Al Ahmar: the Social Intervention of Al Azhar Park
Following the same 1984 seminar that debated Ramses square, the Aga Khan Trust for
Culture embarked on a community centered redevelopment project in one of the poorest
neighborhoods of core Cairo; Al Darb Al Ahmar. In conjunction with refurbishing the
dilapidated urban fabric, the goals included; revitalizing the community, providin
employment, and developing infrastructural services such as health care, sanitation, and
training. The redevelopment would be unified by a project to be built by the community: Al-
Azhar Park [Figure 32]. Income from the park would provide em
g
ployment and funding for
community projects and loans. (AKTC 2005; Ouroussoff 2004)
Al Azhar Park, completed in 2005, was greatly needed on a city scale. A large park had not
been developed in Cairo in over a century as concrete and asphalt blanketed a large portion of
the Nile Valley.17(AKTC 2008) The park is a grand move towards the reclamation of public
space on the macro and micro-urban scales. Although entry is not free, it is affordable, and a
Figure 32 Al Azhar Park; built for, and by, the surrounding community (Al Darb Al Ahmar
neighborhood is the area on the left).
17 In 1984 the green space per resident of Cairo was roughly equal to a single human footprint. (AKTC 2008)
51
discounted rate is provided for the residents of Al Darb Al Ahmar18. The location of the
project capitalized on the existing threads of the urban fabric, as well as an archeological
infrastructure. Significantly, the 300,000 meter square plot covers what was once a vast trash
dump in the middle of Cairo’s urban core that had collected refuse for five hundred years.
Additionally it uncovered a two kilometer stretch of the old city wall that was fully restored
by local artisans. The long term vision of the project has already begun to create a wave of
refurbishments within the surrounding
neighborhoods. [Figure 33] The success of
the project can, among other things, be
directly attributed to the active
The Aga Khan Trust for Culture brought t ther institutional partners, local non-
governmental organizations, municipal institutions, neighbourhood representatives, local
With the focus on community involvement, surveys were conducted during each phase
asse gly,
par er
feed es
of the project. The development of the public space was not the primary objective of the
project, but rather the tool used to provide for community enhancement. (AKTC 2008)
involvement of various stakeholders,
most vital of which was the local
community. (Ouroussoff 2004, Salama 2008)
businessmen and people living and working in the area. A detailed survey of the local
population’s socioeconomic needs was made and a series of meetings were then held to
determine the community’s own development priorities. (AKTC 2005, p. 7)
oge
ssing the results of achievements. Subsequent steps were tailored accordin
ticularly those of the socio-economic development plan. This closed loop of end us
back aided by a microfinance program helped achieve the social revitalization objectiv
18 Park entry fee = 5LE roughly $1; Darb Al Ahmar Residents entry fee = 2LE roughly $0.35
Figure 33 Azhar Park along side Al Darb Al Ahmar
District (Salama 2008)
52
Cairo 2050: “The Planned City Sweeps the Poor Away”19
.20
es of; increasing parks and
h
ation of ten to twelve million
residents from within the city to new
satellite settlements; an objective of
previous plans that has consistently failed.
[Figure 34] The vision intended to decrease
the unplanned regions from 50 percent of
the current built environment to 15 percent
by 2050.
imported
The ‘Cairo 2050 Vision’ was the latest government plan for the urban development of Cairo.
The grand scale vision claimed the pursuit of social development, yet appears to have been
designed almost solely for global appeal; attracting tourists and investors for the economic
development of the ruling class. Although the 2050 plan was promptly discarded after the
2011 Revolution, it indicates the incentives of planning authorities in dealing with the city
This, now former, master plan for Cairo had listed the objectiv
open space, increasing public transportation, reducing traffic and pollution, and achieving
social equality within the city. It asserted that the informal areas account for 50 percent of the
city’s housing stock [other sources place the figure at over 60] (AbdelHalim 2009, GOPP 2009). In
spite of this acknowledgement, and suitable objectives, the overall scheme proposed only a
few points of remediation with the informal districts. Alternatively, the vision planned for t e
reloc
Figure 34 Cairo 2050: Planned reduction of the
population within the urban core (GOPP 2009)
New low income housing was to be constructed within and around the city. The proposed
models were selected to achieve a lower density urban fabric, yet they do not
19 (Anna Tibaijuka, quoted in Watson, title) 20 As announced after the 2011 Revolution, by the general organization of physical planning (GOPP); a unit of
the Ministry of Housing that continues to be in charge of developing and overseeing Cairo’s urban strategies.
53
respond to the local environment; socially, ecologically or aesthetically. [Figure 35]
Additionally, the neighborhood genre relied heavily on automobiles rather than public
ansportation. (Watson 2009, GOPP 2009)
rmal mitigation of informal growth has remained
Other cities internationally, particularly in the global south, have suffered from similar
growth, some of which have developed innovative methods of intervention; such as the
it
tr
Figure 35 Cairo 2050: Proposed transformation of one million square meters of existing informal
housing and scarce agricultural land alongside the Pyramids at Giza (GOPP 2009)
The core city’s redevelopment was approached as a ‘tabula rasa’ that envisioned the
eradication of mass sections of the existing urban fabric. [Figure 36 and Figure 37] Throughout
the development of modern Cairo, fo
unsuccessful. The challenges of halting such growth, or retrospectively installing public
infrastructure remain unmet, as planning continued to insist that the solution was removal.
Metro Cable Transport system in Caracas, Venezuela. In dealing with a similarly tight kn
Figure 36 Area around Azhar Park was planned to be cleared from the informal housing covering
millions of square meters. Zone 2 is the UNESCO protected Islamic Cairo (GOPP 2009)
and seemingly inaccessible fabric, public transportation was achieved using cable cars. The
residents of the barrios can now reach the center of the city at a fraction of the time and cost.
54
Since the systems’ integration, dubbed “acupuncture”, there has been visible economic
development and upgrade within the barrios. The station nodes themselves began to develop
communal activity platforms and have become pivotal to the neighborhood, and the
relationship of the local residents with the macro city. (Brillembourg et al. 2008)
Although the Cairo 2050 Vision had promised socially and environmentally viable
objectives, the plan appears geared primarily towards the identified economic objective of
(GOPP 2009) The vision was designed around grand doubling the tourist capacity of Cairo.
schemes that would transform the city at a macro-scale, completely eliminating expanses of
heavily populated neighborhoods with the intent of relocation. The rationale was touristic
perspective of landmarks and ‘global appeal.’(GOPP 2009) [Figure 37] The definitive hindrance
of the vision lied in its scale of spatial intervention. For the built environment of Cairo to
move towards enhancing social and environmental sustainability, plans need to approach the
fabric at a meso and micro-urban scale. (Salama 2008) Now that the demand for social balance
has been clearly asserted by the 2011 Revolution, planning authorities need to realign their
development approach in order to achieve a sustainable city. The discarding of the Cairo
2050 vision is a positive first step. [Further excerpts of the Cairo 2050 Vision in APPENDIX]
Figure 37 The planned "Khufu Plaza,” parks and boulevard would replace two million square meters
of existing formal and informal development (GOPP 2009)
55
Overview of the Four Projects: The Scale of Intervention The four reviewed projects aiming at the revitalization of the macro-urban core of Cairo
provide important lessons in dealing with the city. The successes and failures of each confirm
that; in order for the macro objectives to be achieved, local needs should first be addressed at
the micro urban scale. Each neighborhood presents individual challenges by which smaller
objectives can be established. These objectives provide solutions that are more immediately
responsive to the local community. By networking these micro-scale objectives, a framework
approach can be developed for the larger district or region. This method of intervention
proved successful in the development of both the century old Khedival Downtown, and the
millennium old Darb al Ahmar district. The macro-scale revitalization plan of Downtown is
accordingly more likely to succeed than that of Ramses Square, as it was based on the unique
heritization process.
By understanding the urban fabric of Cairo, it is possible to read the political agenda and anti-
democratic nature of the developing built environment, lending to the conflicting duality of
the city. The Cairo 2050 Vision highlights the gap between planning authorities’ top-down
schemes, and the actual parameters and requirements of the individual districts of the city.
The 2011 Revolution has brought to an end this unsustainable trajectory towards social
imbalance. Shortly thereafter, grassroots committees have organically developed throughout
the city to address and discuss potential methods of remediation of the urban public arena;
thus placing the seeds for micro-scale collaboration. By synchronizing these micro-scale
efforts, with the macro-scale objectives, Cairo could begin to transform into a more
sustainable city.
56
Chapter Five
The urban planning of Cairo has, over the past couple of centuries, frequently replicated
urban models from cities of the global north. The ‘borrowed’ ideas themselves have become
outdated as the ‘founding fathers’ of the original models are now turning their attention to
‘governance’ or support rather than government control. (Avritzer 2002; Shehayeb 2009; Watson
2009) Definitively top-down “dominance of universalist perspectives on planning [… has]
impoverished and limited planning thinking and practice, and [has] left it open to accusations
of irrelevance and of directly worsening urban poverty”. (Watson p. 186) The present nature and
circumstances of Cairo render it a highly unique urban fabric to approach. For continued
development of the city to be sustainable, social and environmental objectives need to be
placed on par with economic ones. These objectives will require a deeper understanding of
Remediation at the Micro-Urban Scale
the social, economic and environmental needs as pertains to a very intricate urban fabric. The
feasibility of such investigation and planning would be unsustainable in a top-down
approach, and accordingly hinges on community participation.
Grassroots Connection: the Role of Public Space
Marcelo Lopez de Souza has written extensively on the urban reforms experienced in Brazil
commencing in the latter 20th century. Similar to Cairo, cities in Brazil are experiencing
social segregation and polarization enhanced by privatization of the city. The introduction of
“alternative urban planning and management” into legislation has provided planners with
“new master plans” that are significantly more ‘grassroots’ in approach. (Souza 1999)
‘New’ master plans are seen as different to the old ones, in that they are bottom-up and
participatory, oriented towards social justice and aiming to counter the effects of land
speculation. Souza states that while conventional urban planning strives to achieve an ideal
57
city, from which illega
existing city, to develop tools to tackle t
lity and informality are banned, new urban planning deals with the
hese problems in a just and democratic way. (Watson
In order to obtain a holistic perspective, community feedback and involvement is essential. As
mses Square has shown, there is
ment in
infr gh
whi
p. 182)
The gaps in Cairo’s urban planning appeared in the top-down approach, which was widely
disconnected from the micro-urban scale. The mass of Cairo’s recent development has been
achieved through government initiatives in facilitating large-scale private developments.
Although ultimately serving only the wealthy minority, privatization has provided for higher
quality and better maintained ‘exclusive public spaces’ and residential communities. The
broader spectrum of the city’s growth and intensification remains informal and is completely
self-financed. This significantly overlooked aspect may easily be utilized to the authorities’
advantage, to guide urban development in a more organized manner. If the government
addresses the small scale developers and individuals and provides incentives of financing and
tax cuts, as well as allowing for incremental development, more authority can be exercised in
guiding city growth, as well as the quality of development. Over the past decade several
programs have developed, which promote micro-financing, a tool that has proved beneficial
in the refurbishment of the Darb al Ahmar district. (AKTC 2005)
the public response to the proposed development of Ra
demand for public understanding and support for development objectives. As Souza indicates,
one of the significant tools to the reforms in urban planning and management in Brazil has
been ‘participatory budgeting’ in which there is public involvement in prioritizing budget
allocation. This tool has since been exported across several Latin American countries as well
as Europe. (Souza 1999; Watson 2009) There are other forms of community involve
astructural development such as Municipal Bonds, common to North America, throu
ch the public can directly invest in the infrastructural projects they choose.
58
Gov ic
tran ion are perhaps the most significant demands that are greatly lacking in Cairo.
However, the distrust in government initiatives, and the lack of existing connection between
the city residents and planning authorities must first be addressed and negotiated. Enabling
this relationship is an important role of public space within the city. In today’s Cairo the lack
of public space is paralleled by the public’s disenfranchisement. Inversely, it was through
assembly in Cairo’s largest open public space and civic center, Tahrir Square, that the
public’s demands of liberation from an autocratic government regime were heard.
New Urban Approach: Proposed 200 Streets in Cairo
ernment support in the form of small scale financing, along with well-integrated publ
sportat
st
The civic role of the agora in ancient Greece is one that can be easily overlooked in the
capitalist, neoliberal, democratic 21 century. However, in Cairo, this physical platform has a
major role in the re-establishment of trust and connection between citizens and their
government. The civic platform is required for citizens to become the leading driver, by
which planning is developed to achieve a more sustainable city.
Public space in its purest form is a physical platform that is open to all. Ideally, the space
allows for the transfer of knowledge and order between the government and citizens of a
nation. As the scale of nations, or cities, has grown, the division of representation has ensued.
Decentralization and dispersion are hallmarks of the modern era. In the case of Cairo, in spite
of the previous Egyptian governments’ persistent goal of decentralization, the actual
momentum has not been achieved. A new scale of intervention could provide possible
solutions. Observation and statistical documentation can provide adequate insight into
unexplored scales of intervention.
59
Cairo is represented by 108 seats in the People’s Assembly, dividing the city into 54
districts21. If each of these 54 districts is further subdivided into three or four neighborhoods,
dependant on local population, approximately 200 neighborhoods can be delineated
throughout the city. With current population estimates of around 20 million inhabitants,
neighborhoods would roughly account for 100,000 residents each. It is proposed that a local
committee for each neighborhood be established consisting of; representatives of the
community, representatives of the central planning authority, and third party representatives
that would aid in identifying local objectives, needs, as well as gathering information. (AKTC
005)
These committees would, by using a set of guidelines, choose one street that is central to the
neighborhood, close in access to existing public transportation, or could be accessible, and
lined on both sides with retail and commercial activity. Where possible, a connection to a
green or open space, which can be converted into a park, would be ideal. The selected street
would be paved as a pedestrian thoroughfare, providing parking infrastructure underneath or
as suitably designed for each neighborhood. Local traffic would be adequately redirected and
As is common for cities of Cairo’s scale, particularly in developing countries, governments
do not have the resources or ability to suitably meet city demands in a centralized manner.
By establishing a city-wide network of ‘main streets,’ a physical ‘agora,’ based on localized
2
the new pedestrian street would be retrofitted with public provisions such as seating, shading
and fountain facilities. Each of the pedestrian streets would house a public building that
would host the neighborhood committee as well as government provision of information and
data collection units for the neighborhood. Ultimately, this proposed pedestrian “Main
Street” would provide a government sponsored community center for each neighborhood.
21 Two seats per district
60
centrality and intercity accessibility, will be instated into the city fabric. This would create a
public platform for development of the city and the refurbishment and maintenance of
individual neighborhoods. It would additionally facilitate raising funds, collecting taxes,
collecting votes, and promoting small scale financing opportunities for community
development. (El-Shakhs 1997) Additionally, when mapped, the community selected centers
would show 200 centers dotted across Cairo that, when connected, would provide alignment
for a more effective public transportation network.
The proposed approach allows for a micro-urban scale of intervention that could begin to
ebuild the relationship between the local communities and the central government. r
Additionally the introduced centers can allow for an improved public transportation network
and a physical ‘public’ space that begins to address the social and ecological imbalance of
the city. The network of 200 streets would ultimately allow for better city-wide coordination
in achieving functional and well ordered public space.
Bottom-Up Redevelopment
By creating decentralized platforms of citizen-government collaboration, that are more
manageable in proportion on both the micro and macro scales; neighborhood, city, and even
national objectives can begin to synchronize with increased support and unification in
purpose. With such a dynamic, the old government view of the population being a major
burden can be transformed to understand that this population can become an asset.
Community participation can provide insight, statistical foundations, and grassroots
innovations to development plans. Additionally, as the relationship between the government
and citizens develops, the provisions will be reciprocal, as the costs of providing public
infrastructure can be shared by the taxes collected from portions of the city that had been
ted for. previously unaccoun
61
Conclusion
Today over half of the world’s population lives in cities. These urban environments are
constantly growing and adapting around developing technologies and demands. Since
Aristotelian Greece there has been acknowledgment of the impact of the urban built
environment on the ‘order’ of civilian society. In the modern era of individuality and
democracy, the need for communication and interaction is evermore necessary for
collaborative efforts of development and coexistence. Although the virtual public sphere has
superseded the physical on many levels, the provision of functioning public space within the
urban built environment has been positively correlated with societal health and quality of life.
the focus is often overwhelmed with
edying the symptoms of disorder. The factors that have maintained and enhanced this
sustainable drivers of planning, as well as the results of
The historic city of Cairo has in modern times suffered from severe disorder due to an
imbalanced state of affairs. Social segregation and environmental degradation are merely
symptoms of deeper rooted problems of social imbalance and corruption that have plagued
the city for decades. In the search for sustainability,
rem
disorder have been both; the un
unsustainable planning. With an urban population of over 20 million residents, top-down
development plans of the city have consistently failed to remedy its burgeoning problems.
The duality of Cairo’s formally planned and informally developed built environment has
been polarized in recent times. As residents of the informal city account for the majority of
Cairo’s population, the city’s infrastructure does not support the needs of the sum of its
residents. This has created an unsustainable dichotomy. Continued prioritization of the
wealthier minority and tourism has seen the disappearance of inclusive public space,
decreased public spending, increased public disenfranchisement, and an overall deterioration
of the city’s quality of life.
62
Communication and transportation technology, along with the magnitude of populations and
nd
econcile the divisions implicit in
spans of built environment within the global city, have led the urban center to become
decentralized. In the multi-centered city, public space should work as a network, paralleled
and facilitated by public transportation; rendering the platforms of communication and
collaboration functional. Opening such channels will allow for increased community
participation and shared responsibility for the development of the city. In dealing with the
existing urban fabric of Cairo, the intervention of public space at the micro-urban scale will
establish manageable centers of community involvement in both the micro and macro
development of the city, a necessary element in the revitalization of the urban environment.
Since the success of Egypt’s 2011 Revolution, a newfound trust in local grassroots
collaboration has led to a wave of movements calling for the resolution and mitigation of the
dichotomy of the city. The momentum of change is phenomenal. As Tahrir Square allowed
for the seeds of local democracy to be planted, so has risen the legitimacy of public space.
[Figure 38] The role of the square during the events of the revolution verified that true public
spaces within a city can be pivotal in securing social reforms. By reintegrating well
connected public spaces within Cairo, the “agora” of the city can be reinstated. Thus enabling
the Cairo of tomorrow to secure social provisions and balance among its citizens, a
r
the previous government’s urban
development trajectory. Such
progress would ultimately enhance
order within the city’s society,
economy and environment, and re-
establish urban space as the heart
of public life.
Figure 38 Democracy implanted in Tahrir Square (caricature
by Carlos Latuff)
63
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Growth of Third Generation Modern Satellites
Appendix A
(El Kouedi et al. 2007) The pioneer settlements of the latest generation of modern satellites were designed around industrial activities, and were to be self-sufficient centers.
As the industrial infrastructure for the satellites of Sixth October of City and Tenth of Ramadan City was developed, residential communities began to sprout around the ring road. Al Obour, introduced in the 1980’s, was developed around agricultural trade and processing mostly from the northeastern corridor of the Delta. The “New Settlements” shown in dark blue were initially developed as low-income housing. These were overtaken by more ‘exclusive’ private developments in the 1990’s creating New Cairo and Sheikh Zayed City, as well as doubling the size of Sixth of October City.
70
The Cairo 2050 Vision (GOPP 2009)
Appendix B
The imagined vision of Cairo in 2050. The only existing buildings in this perspective are the three yellow dots; (left to right) The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the television building (Maspero), and the Ramses Hilton Hotel. The caption reads; “Cairo 2050: A global, green, integrated city”
Below is an extended northern ‘vision’ of Cairo 2050. The same three buildings are dotted in yellow.
71
Dealing with the Informal
The existing built environment of Dar as Salam and Al Basateen districts shown as the standard type of informal development that is proposed for remediation; to be retrofitted with roads, green areas, and infrastructural services.
The proposed remediation of 700 feddans [local land area unit = 4200m2] of the Dar as Salam and Al Basateen districts alongside Maadi. The caption reads “Loosening up 125 Feddans for Roads, Green Areas, and Services - (10,000 housing units)”
72
The proposed remediation of 5500 feddans of the Shobra and Qalyub districts. The caption reads “Loosening up 180 Feddans for Service Roads and Green Areas - (14,000 housing units)”
The proposed remediation of 2500 feddans of the Al Moneib district. The caption reads “Loosening up the built block of informal areas - Removal of factories - Introduction of roads and green areas - Provision of required services.” The proposal shows the development of several hotels over scarce agricultural lands.
73
New models of low-income housing proposed for development within and around Cairo. Caption reads: “Provision of 2.5 million housing units with full services and necessary methods of transportation based on international standards of living.”
With the above and below housing models, plans were to develop two new districts (insert in lower right image) near the Pyramids at Giza. The new districts were designed to “belt in” the sprawling informal districts, thus containing them from spreading further.
74
Transportation
The development plans for public transportation are to increase the existing metro lines by roughly 500 kilometers in 40 years at a cost of 400 Billion Egyptian Pounds (approx. $67 Billion). Note: The approximately 85 kilometers of currently existing metro infrastructure have taken 30 years to develop.
Significantly, the Cairo 2050 vision still showed very large catchment areas (low coverage) of public transportation within the latest generation of satellite cities.
75
Doubling the Tourist Capacity of Cairo
The Vision 2050 planned for doubling Cairo’s tourist capacity from 27,000 existing hotels rooms to 50,000 hotel rooms in 2050. Caption reads: “Use of Nile river as entertainment spine; Tranformation of Islamic Cairo, Coptic Cairo, and Khedivel Cairo into open-air museums and centers of tourism; Increasing entertainment tourism, medical tourism, and conference and conventions tourism.”
The transformation of 1200 feddans of Nile front property into a tourism and entertainment valley. [Requiring the removal of the existing informal districts of Boulaq, Al Sabtiah, and others]
76
An obelisk found in the Ancient city of Heliopolis (Biblical city of On) now stands in the middle of the heavily intensified, semi-formal, district of Ain Shams.
The vision called for the clearance of 500 feddans of the area surrounding the obelisk to create open parks, hotels and commercial developments along the new “City of the Sun” boulevard.
77
The caption reads; “The transformation of the informal district of Nazlet al Semman [informal district adjacent to the Pyramids] into an open museum and exposing a hidden valley temple that lies below;
- Maintaining social welfare for the residents by relocating them to new housing units within and around the area,
- Transforming their economic livelihood to suit new activities; and providing employment opportunities,
- Developing integrated tourism activities within the unique location.”
The New Khufu Avenue and Plaza concept is based on the international examples of the Champs Elysee in Paris and the Mall in Washington DC.
78
The development of Khufu Avenue and Parks would require the clearance of 2000 feddans of existing formal and formal development
Additionally, development would require the “loosening up” of the Boulaq al Dakrour and Faisal districts.
79
Greening the City
Several districts alongside Azhar park and the Citadel would be cleared to provide open green spaces, new low density neighborhoods, and tourism and business districts.
Al Azhar Park would be augmented and made 25 times bigger.
Below is a birdseye perspective of the new “Great Traditional Handicrafts Business Park” to be developed alongside Al Azhar Park.
80
The highly contested Nile islands which have managed to remain almost purely agricultural will be developed to create green parks, hotels, a skyscraper business tower, and exclusive residences and clubs.
The proposed project was aptly titled “The Cloud.”
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