El Sadek Fady, Streets of Cairo

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)

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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)

16

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.

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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.

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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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69

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.”