Cairo Resilience

8/9/2019 Cairo Resilience

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CAIRO:

BASICCITYDATA

IMPRINT

Edited by Dina K. Shehayeb and Shahira IssaText contributions by Khaled AbdelhalimHope for the Marginalized Majority, Iman Issa

Paranoid City, Haytham El-Wardani eird language

Urban maps: Ahmed Zaazaa and the

German Technical Cooperation Agency, Egypt:Informal Areas Map, Ahmed Zaazaa and the German Technical Cooperation Agency,

Egypt: Chronological Development of InformalAreas Map, Designs (MazinAbdulkarim) Population and Investment

Flows Map, Dina K. Shehayeb, Fawzyel-Gazaerly, and Shahira Issa: PlanningCairo ? A Chronology

Case Studies: Designs (MazinAbdulkarim, Kareem Nabil and Tamer Nader)An Architecture of Refuge: e Wall and Public

Space in New Cairo, Marwan Fayed and ShahiraIssa: Legalizing an Urban Tumour, Case :Street Language, Dina K. Shehayeb: Self-Gov-

ernance in Informal Areas: Boulaq el-Dakrour,Dina K. Shehayeb: Eating Away at PlannedBarriers: Cairos Ring Road, Dina K. Shehayeb

and Ahmed Zaazaa: A Forum of Encounter:Gameat al-Duwwal al-Arabiya Boulevard inMohandesseen

Photography: Mohamed Azzazy, Mazin AbdulKarim, Marwan Fayed, Fawzy El-Gazaerly, ,

Iman Issa, Maha El-Serafy, Dina K. Shehayeb,Ahmed Zaazaa.Copyediting by Shahira Issa

Translation by Hassan KhanGraphic design: Studio Matthias Grlich(Matthias Grlich & Charalampos Lazos)

Printing: Berliner Zeitungsdruck, GermanyMade possible by

Prince Claus Fund for Culture and Development

International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam,

Acknowledgements:

We extend our gratitude to all the contributorsfor their voluntary time and valuable input inthis project. In particular, we would like to thank

the staff of Unit in Egypt who gener-ously supplied us with data sources for the urbanmaps, former Greater Cairo Planning Director

at the , and architects Hoda Edward andMohamed Azzazy for providing backgroundinformation on some of the case studies; and fi-

nally we would like to thank the young architectresearchers at Shehayeb for assistingin the research, photography and compilation of

some of the material.

A publication by diwan*made possible by

Prince Claus Fund for Culture and Development,and the International Architecture Biennale Rot-terdam, / sub-exhibition refuge.

*Diwanis a col laborative research platforminitiated and curated by Philipp Misselwitz and

Can Altay. It brings together leading academ-ics, practitioners and experts from the field ofarchitecture and urban studies in Turkey and the

Middles East. Diwan aims to provoke a criticaldiscourse on the current trends that are radicallytransforming cities in the region, focusing on

voluntary and involuntary forms of urban exclu-sion and urban practices that conf ront, subvertand transgress a reality of growing spatial and

social polarization. rough conducting newfield work, collecting thoughts, reflections,ideas and utopias, Diwan also hopes to act as a

trigger and a nucleus for a multitude of regionalprojects and collaborationsand ultimatelyprovide a unique opportunity to generate links,

networks, and collaborations in a region that isgeographically united with shared histories andnumerous cultural traditions; a region dealing

with very similar challenges, yet remains dividedand fragmented.

Diwan publications include:

IstanbulLiving in Voluntary and InvoluntaryExclusion (edited by Eda nl-Ycesoy and Tan-

sel Korkmaz with Yaar Adanal, Can Altay andPhilipp Misselwitz)

BeirutMapping Security (edited by Mona

Fawaz, Mona Harb, Ahmad Gharbieh)AmmanNeoliberal Urban Management (ed-ited by Rami Farouk Daher)

CairoResilience: e City as Personal Practice(Dina Shehayeb and Shahira Issa)

DubaiMobility (Yasser Elsheshtawy, Markus

Miessen, Can Altay and Philipp Misselwitz)

Home to approximately of the urban popula-

tion of Egypt, Cairo ranks the largest city inthe world according to sources.e city has been the capital of Egypt since its

foundation by Jawhar al-Siqilli in .. emajority of its population is Muslim with a Christian minority.

Metropolitan Cairo, known as the Greater Cai-ro Region (), has been lately re-defined toincorporate governorates: Cairo, Giza, Qa-

lyubiyah, and the newly formed jurisdictionsof Helwan and the of October governorates.Based on the most recent census data, the total

population of those five governorates adds up to,,. Another estimate, indicatesa population of ,, inhabitants and an

area of , km.e exact boundaries of the remain negotia-ble, leaving the population and area estimates de-

batable. However, according to the governments

vision in the plan for the , the bound-aries of the region were proposed to incorporate

vast extensions into both the western and eastern

deserts, covering an area of , km with a pop-ulation of , inhabitants.

www.mongabay.com/cities_pop_.htm

Population and Housing Census, Central Agency for Public Mobiliza-tion And Statistics.

e Strategic Urban Development MasterPlan Study for Sustainable Development of theGreater Cairo Region in the Arab Republic of

Egypt, General Organization for Physical Plan-ning & Japan International Cooperation Agency,.


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TABLE OF CONTENTS

01EDITORIAL:THE CITY AS PERSONAL PRACTICE

case study index02HOPE FOR THE MARGINALIZED

MAJORITY Participatory Governance inGreater Cairos Informal Areas

03SELF-GOVERNANCE IN INFORMALAREAS Boulaq el-Dakrour

map ATHREE ESTIMATES OF INFORMALAREAS IN THE GREATER CAIROREGION

map BCHRONOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTOF INFORMAL AREAS IN 1950,1977, 1991 AND 2000

04LEGALIZING AN URBAN TUMOURCase #11: Street Language in CairosVehicular Transportation SystemsFocus: Medium Sized Buses

05A FORUM OF ENCOUNTERGameat al-Duwwal al-Arabia Boulevardin Mohandesseen

06PLANNING CAIRO...? A Chronology

07PARANOID CITY08THE THIRD LANGUAGE09AN ARCHITECTURE OF REFUGE,

THE WALL AND PUBLIC SPACEIN NEW CAIROCONTRAST Designs in Conversation

MAP CPOPULATION AND INVESTMENTFLOWS

10FORMAL / INFORMAL TENSION11EATING AWAY AT PLANNED BARRIERS

Cairos Ring Road


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urban planning and architecture. Revisiting thecity as a ceaseless personal practice, we consider

what roles architecture and urban planning canhave, and examine the possibility of realizing adesign open to further appropriations.

In A Forum of Encounter, Gameat al-Duwwal al-

Arabiya Boulevard,Dina Shehayeb and AhmedZaazaa, closely observe the multiplicity of uses

and behavioural patterns that occupy this avenuein the Mohandesseen district. Transformed froma neighbourhoods vehicular artery to a dynamic

urban centre, Gameat al-Duwwal has becomea distinctly heterogeneous urban platform. eauthors revisit the history of the Mohandesseen

district, in order to trace the disparate urbanpatterns that have informed the avenues cha-racter.

Marked by a series of post-facto planning strate-gies, Mohandesseens transformations reflect a re-current planning policy in Cairos history. In An

Architecture of Refuge, e Wall and Public Space

in New Cairo, Designs discuss the im-pact of such strategies on New Cairo, which has

shied from a recent suburban expansion into aself sufficient and exclusive city for Cairos elite.ey consider the ethical implications of archi-

tectural practice, while exploring differing urbanparadigms against which the shortcomings andpotential of the New Cairo model could be evalu-

ated or critiqued.In Self Governance in Informal Areas: Boulaq al-

Dakrour, Dina Shehayeb zooms in on a parallel

private initiative in Boulaq al-Dakrour; an infor-mal area that emerged in direct response to un-fulfilled public needs. Shehayeb highlights a few

of the areas spatial characteristics that make fora safe, self-sufficient, well-integrated and mixedurban environment. She analyzes the neighbour-

hoods substandard living conditions, affirmingthe necessity of state support in the provision andmaintenance of sustainable infrastructure and

construction regulations.Khaled Abdelhalim elaborates further on therelationship between the residents of informal

areas and the government. Hope for the Mar-

ginalized Majority: Participatory Governance in

Greater Cairos Informal Areas introduces the

Participatory Development Program, a ini-tiative that aims at re-integrating citizens in the

governments decision-making process. Confron-ted with contradictory and shiing state policies,the residents of informal areas are in a state of

constant threat. Although constituting the ma-jority of the population, they occupy the margin-alized position of second-class citizens.

In Paranoid City, Iman Issa addresses the inse-cure contract between the central / juridical sys-tem and the individual practices around it. She

explores how the state of constant doubt one in-habits in such an unstable environment translatesinto a potential site for knowledge. Issa approach-

es doubt as a productive space where the most ba-sic structural parametres of form that otherwiseremain uncontested could be questioned.

Haytham al-Wardani revisits the position of themarginalized in the hierarchy of the city. He ana-lyzes the inescapable condition of distance that

defines the migrants relationship to both the

homeland and the new residence. In e ird

Language, an expatriate takes us through the

sonic architecture of the city as he reflects on itsdifferent acoustic layers: the sound of the n orma-tive, the unfamiliar, the imperceptible and the

continuous promise of the unknown. He locatesindefinite forms in the citys sound scape, such asnoise, as crucial elements that perforate a citys

rigid and homogenous structures.In search of a blueprint that generates indefiniteforms, Marwan Fayed proposes a design strategy

that reproduces the mechanisms of self-practicedarchitecture. Legalizing an Urban Tumour tack-les the recurrent challenge facing centralized

planning and design: How to propose site-specif-ic models without over-determining behaviouralpatterns? e project builds on the openness of

standardized design whose abstraction leavesroom for individual interventions. It experimentswith techniques that particularize urban struc-

tures while maintaining the possibility of auton-omous appropriations.Dina Shehayeb demonstrates a process whereby

such spontaneous appropriations have nullifiedsegregatorial modernist planning norms. Initial-ly planned as a vehicular highway to contain city

growth in Cairo, the Ring Road was re-integratedinto the city fabric through a multiplicity of pri-

vate practices. Eating Away at Planned Barriers:Cairos Ring Road traces initiatives ranging fromself-managed services to real-estate developmentand informal housing that have gradually trans-

formed the road into a city artery rather than itsboundary.

Shahira Issais an artist based in Cairo. In ,

she co-founded Pericentre Projects, which devel-

oped the ongoing research-based initiative Khar-

ita. In , she completed a residency at Makan

in Amman, during which she initiated a long-term

project, exploring the tension between artistic im-

pulses and notions of culture that inform their cir-

culation. Issa was recently nominated for the fih

Bonaldi Art prize.

Dina Shehayeb is a professor at the Housing

and Building National Research Centre () in

Cairo, Egypt, as well as the principal of her private

consultancy firm Shehayeb . Graduated

as an architect in , she earned her Ph.D. De-

gree from the in focusing on human as-

pects in design and planning. Specialized in trans-

disciplinary research, she works on bridging the

gap between the physical built environment and

its socio-psychological and cultural dimensions

applied to community-based development, par-

ticipatory design, and design and planning guide-

lines. Consultant to several national and interna-

tional organizations including the -Habitat,

she is also editorial board member of several sci-

entific journals.

http://www.amcham.org.eg/operation/events/events/Ahmed_El_Maghraby/Ahmed_

El_Maghraby.asp

e motif of refuge sites increasingly punctuatesrepresentations of recent urban developmentsand planning projects in Cairo. Ranging from

suburban gated compounds and private parks toshopping malls and air-conditioned towers, im-ages of the new cities under construction consis-

tently appear as escape havens and gateways to animproved lifestyle. ose sites of refuge re-imag-ine Cairo as a threatening and overly-saturated

city; a plan deflected by misuse, leaving behind acity spun-out-of-control.In the recently announced Greater Cairo

Plan, the minister of Housing and Urban Devel-opment prefaces the plans reforms with an em-phasis on the urgent crisis of Cairos deteriorat-

ing urban environment. According to him, rentcontrol and agricultural land protection laws areregressive and prevent the city from realizing its

potential as a regional financial and industrialcentre. Along with the cancerous growth of un-planned areas, the minister cites self-initiated

practices, such as the privately managed micro-buses serving low- to mid-income social groups,as outdated and hazardous behavior that contrib-

utes to the citizens insecurity and the citys cha-otic character.Promising refuge, the plan thus supplants

the capitals to-be-former heritage, historic sitesand famous cemeteries with large stretches ofgreen belts. It envisions Cairo as a green city with

new laws, well-governed practices and modern-ized subjects.e Greater Cairo Plan exemplifies the

states formal efforts to give order to the city; ef-forts which reproduce modernist utopias of seg-regatory spatial planning norms. In pursuit of

development, those paradigms fragment the city,compartmentalizing social activities in demar-cated urban zones, and dividing between social

groups.Simultaneously, perforating such enclaves areprivate refuge operations that provide lacking

infrastructural services and affordable hous-ing for the mass population of the city. In mostcases, those pragmatic operations counter mod-

ernist plannings segregatory ideals, leading to aseemingly undesigned, chaotic, and sometimesundesired, yet actual coexistence. Inventing a

new function to each form, those practices con-tinuously cause segregatory planning to collapseinto itself, and to be interwoven into a complex

and dynamic urban fabric.Rather than incorporate personalized interpre-tations of the proposed urban models, recent

planning trends in Cairo aim to purge the ur-ban landscape of deviation, dictating a limitedrange of applications. Here layers of improvised

uses along with self-built urban structures, accu-mulate to form supposed lawless planesso of-ten romanticized as the harsh realities of Cairos

daily-life.is publication traces the tension betweensegregated enclaves and mixed urban environ-

ments, vis--vis the relationship between central-ized / state planning and self-design. Confrontedwith the challenge of a governorate in which

, of its population resides in s elf-built neigh-borhoods, we explore differing strategies toward

01EDITORIAL: THE CITYAS PERSONAL PRACTICE BY SHAHIRA ISSA &DINA K. SHEHAYEB


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case study index


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02HOPE FOR THEMARGINALIZED MAJORITYParticipatory Governance in Greater Cairos Informal Areas

BY DR. KHALED

ABDELHA LIM

In addition, channels of communication suchas meeting the head of a given department or

submitting a complaint to the citizens servicessector are usually neither accessible nor effec-tive. Consequently, most inhabitants of informal

areas hope that the government leaves themalone. And indeed, they manage most of theirdaily needs independently; yet their standard

of living is compromised by lacking amenities,which they cannot provide on their own: inter-

rupted water supply, hour-long queues for bread,garbage accumulation, frequent sewage overflowand lack of policing are just a few examples. Insuch an environment, survival strategies do not

supplant feelings of neglect and injustice, whichremain evident in the voices of the inhabitants ofinformal areas (, ).

In this context, marginalization does not refer toa minority, but to at least of Greater Cairospopulation. Residents of informal areas, the bulk

of the population is robbed of its rig ht to partakein negotiations that directly affect their locality.is case of a marginalized majority vis--vis lo-

cal governance reflects the larger-scale margin-alization of practically all Egyptian citizens whoare excluded from decision-making processes

while lacking access to transparent information.

In an effort to reverse this negative image, theParticipatory Development Program in Urban

Areas () is an endeavour to improve mecha-nisms of public administration and civil societyorganizations that are servicing the poor urban

population. In practice, the efforts of the inits pilot areas proved to be no more than sensi-tizing the local government to the methods of

including (marginalized) citizens in the deci-sion-making process. Using participatory needsassessment and local area action planning, the

has demonstrated that it is possible to recon-nect the local administration with the residentsof informal areas. For example in the district of

Boulaq al-Dakrour (one of s pilot areas inGiza), for the first time, the district chief attend-ed a public meeting in the neighbourhood; street

vendors entered the district chiefs office with-out apprehension, but to discuss the design of anew market; and light posts were installed along

the streets according to a neighbourhood surveyconducted by its natural leaders.

is gives hope for change. But this change re-

mains small and geographically limited with-out the institutionalization and replication ofparticipatory urban development methods;

methods that basically introduce the pillarsof good governance into urban managementpractices. For this purpose, the has ex-

tended its technical support to the governor-ates within the Greater Cairo Region. It focuseson institutionalizing participation through

capacity development and training of the localadministration staff in participatory develop-ment concepts and methods. At the same time,

the advocates the replication of such prac-tices on a national level, such that they become

an integral part of local governance and urbanmanagement mechanisms. Today this effortfinds support from national entities involved

in reforming laws and devising policies. isbrings the hope for participatory governancein the Greater Cairo Region closer to realiza-

tion. It remains up to the marginalized major-ity to call for their right to good governance.

Dr. Khaled M. Abdelhalim is an architect and

a lecturer in the Department of Architecture at

Helwan University. He is the team leader of the

urban development unit and advisor on infor-mal areas in the Giza governorate at the .

Dr. Abdelhalim is also the founding member of

the Egyptian Earth Construction Association.

References:

General Organization of Physical Plan-ning () A New Vision for theCairo of the Future: Indications of the Strate-

gic Plan for Cairo Governorate, a Presentationheld at the Cairo Governorate in January . German Technical Cooperation

(), Cairos Informal Areas between Urban

Challenges and Hidden Potentials: Facts, Voic-

es, Visions.-Egypt Publication.

Abdelhalim, K. & Shehayeb, D. () Is-

sues of Participation in Egypt, A Paper accept-ed for publishing at the Journal of Architectur-al and Planning Research.

Participatory Development Programme

in Urban Areas (PDP), GTZ-Egypt

(German Technical Cooperation Agency)

Informal areas in Greater Cairo are not limit-ed to the slum pockets, which comprise of

the urban fabric. Aer years of unplannedgrowth, they have come to constitute ofthe metropolis. In the absence of planning and

enforcement mechanisms, popular neighbour-

hoods grew and consolidated over time, offer-ing refuge to an array of low to mid-income

groups while accommodating dynamic infor-mal businesses and productive activities. Al-though the residents of those areas generally

enjoy access to affordable housing options ofreasonable quality, they suffer varying degreesof infrastructural shortage and unavailable

public services.roughout, processes of growth and consoli-dation of informal areas in Greater Cairo have

been informed by contradictory governmentpolicies. Oen comprising entire districts,

informal areas are administratively acknowl-edged as part of the city. Since , when apresidential decree stated the right of citizens

to basic infrastructure within the city, the gov-

ernment has been extending its services to in-formal areas. is rights-based position has

been translated on the national level into therecently issued Unified Building and PlanningLaw (Law , ). is law defines informal

areas as unplanned areas in need of develop-ment, a requirement that must be acknowl-edged within the citys planning strategies. At

the same time, the General Organization ofPhysical Planning () has proposed a con-tainment policy to stop the growth of informal

areas, which at best, serves to shi informalgrowth of the city to its outer ring. On the onehand, the governments planning strategies in

response to informal growth, along with itsobligation to extend services to existing infor-mal areas, have encouraged and accelerated

the construction of informal housing. Whileon the other, most technocrats operating atthe national and local levels of governance

believe that informal areas should ideally bedemolished or reconstructed. is is reflect-

ed in the Cairo Plan, a long-term vision,

which proposes large-scale land-use reforms inthe Greater Cairo Region. In the proposed Cairo map, most of the current informal areas are

either wiped out or radically transformed ( ,).On the different levels of local government

district, city and governoratethe contradic-tions are even more intensified. Provision ofinfrastructure and public services goes hand in

hand with the local governments role in control-ling urban development. is includes prevent-ing construction without permits and the pro-

hibition of unlicensed non-residential uses. ecomplicated procedures required to obtain suchpermits and licenses, the pressures from elected

representatives to authorize those permits, or toat least ignore illegal transactionsparticularlyduring the elections period, alongside internal

corruption and insufficient resources for lawenforcement available to underpaid district ad-ministration staff, are all factors that maintain

the status quo of those informal areas. ey per-petuate a quasi-state of informality that gives thelocal government leeway to exercise control and

prosecution whenever needed: By leaving thepeople to build or organize their markets infor-

mally, the government is able to accuse them ofviolating laws and regulations at any time. It is anindirect way of control, as well as a way to reducepeoples demands and expectations of quality

services, because they are informal (Abdelhalim& Shehayeb, ).is mode of local governance leads to a deep

sense of marginalization; it leaves the residents ofinformal areas in the positon of second-class citi-zens: street vendors suffer a daily cat-and-mouse

chase by district administration, microbus driv-ers by traffic authorities, workshop owners bythe shop-licensing department, house builders

by the building control department and so forth.As a result, a large segment of this community of-

ten resorts to bribing officials, while others playon the influence of elected politicians. Recourse

to local politicians however does not work outfor free, but usually in return for either politicalsupport or money. e sum of such experienceamounts to a latent sense of threat harboured

by the workers and residents of informal areas.

Public Day organized by the PDPin Boulaq el-Dakrour(Photograph by GTZEgypt)


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A large portion of the urban population in Egyptlives in informal areas; authorities declare afigure of about ,, Egyptians. Why do

people choose to live in poorly serviced infor-mal areas rather than inhabit the planned andmodern new cities? is is a question that has

been confusing planners and politicians in Egyptsince the s, when they first started noticingthe phenomenon. e persistent misconception

of informal areas being chaotic, its residents un-civilized and ultimately a dangerous threat andan undesirable entity is shared by many unfa-

miliar with informal areas; a misconception thatreflects ideas about the government-as-controllerrather than facilitator.

When state resources are too limited or poorlymanaged; when understanding of peoples priori-ties and urban development processes on which

laws, policies and regulations are based is inade-quate; and when government capacity to regulateis undermined by widespread non-compliance

and disrespect for government institutions, in-formal areas develop and give rise to popularurban districts that answer peoples needs to the

utmost. Informal areas represent the consolida-tion of ongoing private investment of millions offellow Egyptians, striving to provide a liveable,

appropriate and affordable living environmentfor themselves and their childrenwithin theconstraints of the available choices. In , in-

vestment in informal housing was valued at - billion.An informal area west of Greater Cairo, Boulaqel-Dakrour is square kilometers, and said tohouse around . million inhabitants. Who livesthere? Studies reveal that the profile of its inhab-

itants includes a wide spectrum of socio-econom-ic groups; from street vendors to medical doctors

and lawyers; mainly, residents with low car own-ership (only of residents own a private car)who constitute the majority of pedestrians and

users of mass transport.Several conditions coincided to create the de-mand for settlement in the location of Boulaq el-

Dakrour. A main driver behind its growth was thedevelopment of a planned extension to GreaterCairo in the s on what used to be agricultur-

al land. It was called Madinat Al-Awqafand con-sisted of land subdivisions for sale to membersof professional syndicates (mainly middle-class

professionals). is development created jobs for

lower income groups and gradually transformedthe neighbouring villages from agricultural to in-dustrial and service-based economies.

An influx of migrants from the neglected ruralsettlements in the south of Egypt (known as Up-per Egypt) to the village of Boulaq el-Dakrour

started in the s. At the same time, rent con-trol laws were passed in urban areas, grantingtenants security of tenure. As a result, property

owners stopped investing money in maintenance,which accelerated the deterioration of existinghousing stock in the cities, including Greater

Cairo. Consequently, newly formed householdsa natural result of the population increase inthe citycould not find housing units in their

neighbourhoods. Boulaq el-Dakrour thence be-came the spillover of the modest urban popula-tion from Giza.

Boulaq el-Dakrour includes different types ofinformal housing. e most widespread is madeup of medium height, high-density brick and re-

inforced concrete buildings. In some areas, av-erage building height is to floors, with somestructures on the wider perimetre roads rising to

a height of more than floors.e process of development ofBoulaq el-Dakrourresembles the natural growth of cities before in-

dustrial utopias and social engineering ideaswere introduced into urban planning. It is simi-lar in many ways to a large portion of the existent

legitimate city. e most striking visual differ-ence, in form and density, results from the con-straints imposed on informal areas, which are

actually due to the in appropriate locations wherethey oen grow, and the absence of state support.Like many informal areas, Boulaq el-Dakrouris

self-financed. It provides demand-drivenincremental housing stock that yields a compactand low-energy consuming built form. is offers

an efficient mixture of uses that allow work-homeproximity and relative district self-sufficiency;

exactly what city planners, neighbourhood de-signers, sustainability policies and internationalenvironmental agendas are calling for.

Well-kept residential street(Photograph by Dina K. Shehayeb)

03SELF-GOVERNANCEIN INFORMAL AREASBoulaq el-Dakrour

BY DINA K. SHEHAYEB

Afford night lamp (25%)

Water a tree (11%)

Pave the pavement before (17%)

Spray the street with water (42%)Plant a tree (5%)

No One (3%)

Residents (45%)

Shop Owners (36%)

District (16%)

OTHER FORMS OF PARTICIPATION

WHO PARTICIPATES IN STREET CLEANING?


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Private nursery in a ground-loor apartment

(Photograph by Dina K. Shehayeb)

A recent empirical research in Boulaq el-

Dakrourunderlined a few spatial characteristicsof the area, such as walkability, basic self-suf-

ficiency, convenience, safety, and communityparticipation in the provision of collective ame-nities and regular upkeep. e following are a

few highlights:

Services and Commercial Activities

Boulaq el-Dakrour contains shops and marketsthat fully meet its residents needs. of the study sample bought all their needs from

within Boulaq el-Dakrour. In addition, resi-dents appreciate the affordable cost of goods inthose shops and markets; they perceive the stores

positively as a source of income for the areasresidents.e same can be said about the presence of work-

shops in Boulaq el-Dakrour. Although they maypose some nuisance to the residents such as noiseor pollution, the positive value of having ones

needs at walking distance tended to override itsdisadvantages.

Work-home proximity

Another advantage found in Boulaq el-Dakrouris the proximity between work and home; of

residents go to work on foot. e advantages ofwalking to work are numerous. Besides environ-mental gains from reducing energy consumption

and pollution produced from vehicular meansof transportation, at the individual level, walk-ing to work saves money, allowing for the fulfill-

ment of other needs and errands on the wayanactivity pattern that saves time and effort as wellas money.

Transportation

Walking is the most utilized means of transport

in Boulaq el-Dakrour. e compactness of thebuilt form and the inter-connectedness betweenthe commercial pedestrian streets and the resi-

dential ones, uninterrupted by wide vehiculartraffic streets, are major factors. e second mostused means of transportation in the neighbour-

hood is the microbus, a local, privately ownedand run means of mass transit. Although thequality of the microbus is p oor, it effectively com-

pensates for the absence of public transportation,which should be provided by the state.

Self-help

Services such as street lighting and cleaning, gar-bage collection and public landscaping are per-formed quite successfully in residential streets

where narrow widths restrict the access of strang-ers and through-traffic, and allows for the ap-propriation and control of those streets by the

residents. People clean and maintain what theyfeel is theirs. e limit of resident participationin what should be state responsibility stops at the

main streets. Shared by a multitude, those streetsare more public and open to outsiders. ey aremore difficult for residents to control. is leads

to deterioration and neglect; piles of garbage, in-adequate street lighting, poor pavement condi-tions. e failure of the state to perform its public

responsibility is most evident in this territorialdomain.

My street my home

e stranger-free residential quality of the streetrenders it an extension of the home; a private

protected place where children can play andwomen can sit to exchange news and knowledge.is appropriation of the near home environ-

ment serves several functions simultaneously. Itcompensates for the modest private space of theapartment; but more importantly, it helps build

community ties. When neighbours know eachother, social solidarity increases, collective ini-tiatives are easier to materialize and surveillance

and self-policing occur n aturally.

Self- Policing

When a communitys sense of safety is high, theopportunity to commit crimes decreases. Peopleare out on the streets which leads to more eyes

on the street, stronger community ties and lessopportunity for no-good-doers to infiltrate theneighbourhood. InBoulaq el-Dakrour, residents

perceive their area as a relatively safe environ-ment, with occasional nuisances such as trafficaccidents, hustling or harassment. is is re-

flected in the freedom of mobility for women,the uncontrolled childrens play on the street, theunlocked doors or windows, as well as the type of

accidents reported. Despite its reputation, Bou-laq el-Dakrouris generally a safe neighbourhoodwith a limited number of shady streets, associ-

ated with drug consumption, drug dealing and

Collective Private

rooftops

building entrance

stairwells

Collective appropriated space

restricted access residential street

Public

vehicular arteries

beyond control

DETACHMENT FROM STATE

COMMUNITY CONTROL DEMAND FORGOVERNMENTCONTROL

max. approriation of spacesemi - private control

Surveillance safetyleads to


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PARTNERSHIP: HOW?

1. Dialogue (2-ways) on equal power basis

2. Government acknowledges peoples potentials

3. Agree on responsibilities of each partner

4. Establish regulatory mechanisms to:

COMMUNITY

ENABLING

CONTROL

ACCOUNTABILITY

PICKUP WHERE I LEAVE

meeting midway

GOVERNMENT

PARTNERSHIP: HOW?

COMMUNITY GOVERNMENT

Decorations arranged by the communityin celebration of the holy month of Ramadan(Photograph by Dina K. Shehayeb)

prostitution, in the absence of police protectionhowever; a manifestation of an absent govern-ment support and of marginalization. is is ev i-

denced by the marginal amount of crime and fearin such a city scale settlementwith a millionplus inhabitants.

Social solidarityCommunity building

Sense of community, cooperation, presence

of family and kin, feeling of safety, social in-teraction, companionship, and liveliness areall advantages expressed by the residents ofBou-laq el-Dakrour. ey stressed the value of thecommunity, the good neighbourly relations, theattachment and solidarity enjoyed within their

neighbourhood. ey oen positively described

Boulaq el-Dakrouras a popular district, lively,friendly, and "alive round the clock. e density

of inhabitants was recognized as one of the lead-ing factors behind this liveliness.

Such factors decrease the dependence on localauthorities, emphasizing the detachment fromthe state. e state that does not even want to

acknowledge those community initiatives andefforts; that does not capitalize on this potential,making partnerships with the people, but rather

punishes them with threats of relocation.e advantages of self-sufficiency experiencedinBoulaq el-Dakrourare not always readily per-

ceived by the residents themselves, who suffer thestigma of the negative image of informal areas s oemphasized by the government and promoted by

the media. e marginalization of informal arearesidents, the stigmatization of its youth, theirhopes, their dreams and the lacking protection

from drugs and hustling, is causing those placesto attract more illegal activities than the betterprotected districts. Leaving local private initia-

tive to provide for the amenities and serviceswithout due support from the government doeshave its price.

e constraints within which Boulaq el-Dakrourgrew, in addition to its location, the agriculturaland entrepreneurial initial subdivision, as well

as the post-facto introduction of infrastructure,has led to major shortcomings in its standard ofliving. It contributed to the poor quality of roads

and means of transportation, the poorly venti-lated dwellings and unregulated construction

which may vary in safety depending on the lo-

cal contractors expertise. ose problems reflectthe absence of state regulations.In addition, another set of problems arises in do-

mains where the residents ofBoulaq el-Dakrour,like those of any other informal area, cannot re-place the state. Such domains include: garbage

collection beyond the residential streets whereresidents invest time and effort achieving it; thequality of water and infrastructure networks; and

public transportation to compliment the private-ly-provided means. Vehicle-associated accidentrates are higher in Boulaq el-Dakrourdue to the

unregulated microbus service. Microbus driversare oen minor teens between and yearsold, sometimes younger. e above problems

encapsulate the lack of support and rights, all ofwhich a government owes its citizens.ose are the negative aspects of the refuge that

many Egyptians have sought in informal areas.Nonetheless, informal areas still provide a better

value for cost than what planners offer in the al-

ternative, so-called new communities. Measuresof liveability go beyond the initial cost of hous-ing. And informal areas enable women to safely

walk their neighbourhoods, girls to continuetheir education; they offer access to better nutri-tion, with the presence of fresh-produce markets

within walking distance. In informal areas, peo-ple watch out for each other, offering assistancein case of emergency. All of this is found in Bou-laq el-Dakrour, but planning professionals andpolicy-makers refuse to learn from it. e resultis that mid and low-income groups, like the up-

per classes, have chosen detachment from thestate as their best viable option.

(Based on a commissioned empirical study con-

ducted by the author in Boulaq el-Dakrourin Au-gust for the Participatory Development Pro-

gram in Urban AreasEgypt).


9/24

GovernorateG.O.O.P

G.T.Z.

map ATHREE ESTIMATES OF INFORMALAREAS IN THE GREATER CAIRO REGION

Different entities have produced discrepantestimates for the size of Informal Areasin Cairo. Each of the governorates formingthe Greater Cairo Region provide anestimate for the size of informal areas withintheir jurisdiction. These gures amount

to a total of 34 km2and 2.1 million inhabitants(2005). The General Organization of PhysicalPlanning (GOPP), which is the central govern-ment body responsible for urban planningin Egypt, has a larger estimate of 94 km 2and5.9 million inhabitants (1993). The Partici-patory Development Program (PDP) at the

GTZ (German Technical Cooperation AgencyEgypt) produced a higher estimate: Basedon detailed spatial analyses using satelliteimages, their calculation totals 133 km 2and8.3 million inhabitants (2002). The estimatesvary according to the denition that each

entity ascribes to Informal Areas and thepurpose each denition / estimate serves.

SOURCE:GTZThe German Technical CooperationAgency in Cairo

Spatial Data Sources (opposite page):The 2001 / 2000 and 1950 maps are providedby the GTZ (German Technical CooperationAgency, Cairo), based on data from CAPMAS(Central Agency for Public Mobilizationand Statistics, Cairo). The 1991 map wasproduced by CEDEJ (Centre dtudes etde Documentation conomiques, Juridiques

et Sociales, Cairo) in collaboration withGTZ, based on CAPMAS data. The 1977 mapis from GTZ based on a CAPMAS scan ofdata provided by IGN (Institut GographiqueNational, France).


10/24

Situation 1991

Core Villages 1950 / Situation 1977

Core Villages 1950

Situation 1977

Core Villages 1950

Situation 2000

Core Villages 1950 / Situation 1977 / 1991

map BCHRONOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTOF INFORMAL AREAS IN 1950, 1977, 1991AND 2000


11/24

#1al-salam(i.e. Peace)

Legalizing an Urban Tumour is an investigation

into design methodology.rough a series of case studies, the project pro-poses a design strategy that accommodates ap-

propriations of a given framework.e project takes as its point of departure thecomplex urban dynamic that emerges at the site

of collision between non-aligned responses to aparticular structure and the abstract blueprintthat informs its urban setting.

Acquiring momentum, this dynamic re-ordersthe structure and its environment, leaving theinitial plan irrelevant or defunct. Oen regarded

as chaos, the result is a multiplicity of contend-ing forces that simultaneously occupy a singularplane.

Legalizing an Urban Tumourtraces the logic or-dering this chaos, so as to interpret the presentdesign of the urban complex at hand. Based on

observations of public behaviour in the urbansetting, interactive and site-specific interventionsare incrementally introduced, lending them-

selves adaptable to a constantly mutating land-scape. rough a cyclical process of observationand proposal, the design act is stretched in time.

It no longer precedes the design, but inhabits it.Rather than dictate function, it ascribes it to thecitys inhabitants who continuously reprogram

public space.In case , spontaneous communication modesbetween drivers and passengers are analyzed in

three differing vehicular transportation systemsin Cairo: the smaller-sized private taxi, the me-dium-sized public / private buses, and the larger

a motioning technique was gradually developedto signal the vehicles route.

VocabularyGestures for a street iconography

is sign language quickly spread, especiallyin highly populated areas, to become the chief

mode of communication between the conductorand potential passengers. Iconic, the languageemploys hand gestures whose form directly re-

flects a visual representation of the destinationthey signify. For example, to designate al-hayyal-sabi, which translates to the District, the

hand takes the shape of the number seven in Ara-bic ( = ), illustrated in figure#5

MethodIn silent conversation

e street language observed in the case of me-dium-sized buses offers the architect a design

index. It operates in place of a blueprint, provid-ing the potential for a grounded intervention.rough a mechanism of trigger (design propos-

al) and response (its appropriation), the obser veddynamic is translated into a design practice.

Marwan Fayed, An architect and designer,

Marwan Fayed explores Cairos urban structures

through a series of experimental interventions,

building upon the existing practices of city-dwell-

ers and the ways in which they navigate their

lived space. Fayed is interested in optimising re-

sources available to the local design industry. He

currently runs his own design studio and teaches

at the German University in Cairo.

public bus. is study closely observes the case ofthe medium sized buses.

SiteA fluid protocol

e absence of effective traffic regulations in Cai-

rosuch as designated lanes, traffic lights, speedlimits, p edestrian crossings etc.has givenrise to an alternative and fluid code founded on

instantaneous, interpersonal and mostly visualcommunication channels. For example, right ofway is not administered according to a standard-

ized system, but is usually negotiated (visually)between the intersecting drivers, or the driverand the pedestrian, according to the variables of

each encounter (such as surrounding traffic den-sity, driving speed, route etc.).

Dynamice emergence of a sign language

e interpersonal code is central to the commu-nication between the Mini- / Micro-bus driver

and the potential passengers: e lack of a vis-ible destination marker on the bus led pedes-trians to depend on a hasty exchange with the

driver regarding his route. Due to the harsh andunpredictable traffic conditions of the city, thisinformation needed to be conveyed prior to the

buss arrival at the meeting point (an informallyagreed upon stop). In order not to prolong thebuss oen unauthorized stopover, causing a traf-

fic lock, the driver hired an assistant whose rolewas to call out the vehicles destinationas wellas collect the bus fare. Occasional absence of the

assistant created a communication gap betweenthe driver and the pedestrians. In compensation,

04LEGALIZING AN URBAN TUMOURCase #11: Street Language in Cairos Vehicular Transportation SystemsFocus: Medium Sized Buses A PROJECT BY MARWAN FAYEDTE XT BY SHAHI RA ISSA

Vehicle destination is illegible from the pointof view of the potential passengers

An assistant is hired to advertise the vehiclesdestination to the public.

The occasional absence of the assistanttriggered the coinage of a sign languageshared between the driver and the potentialpassengers.

The gestures condense into a codied norm,

adopted by the driver/conductor and thepotential passengers.

LexiconIcons signifying Names of Districtsused by the Mini- / Micro-Bus Driver andthe Passengers

#2rabah(i.e. the Fourth)

#3giza(i.e. Giza, on the Nile river)

#4al-haram(i.e. the Pyramids)

#5al-hayy al-sabi(i.e. The 7th District)

#6al-hayy al-asher(i.e. The 10th District)

#7giza(i.e. Giza Square)

#8mahatet ramsis(i.e. Ramses Station)

2 m

4 m

10 m

10 m


12/24

05A FORUM OFENCOUNTERGameat al-Duwwal al-Arabia Boulevardin Mohandesseen

BY DINA K. SHEHAYEB / AHMED ZAAZAA

Although founded only years ago, the Mo-

handesseendistrict was most affected by the eco-nomic, social and political changes that the City

of Cairo experienced from the s to date. Oneparticular boulevard in this formally-planned

district underwent a unique transformation thatled to its rise from the neighbourhoods vehicularartery to the city-scale phenomenon it is today.

Gameat al-Duwwal al-Arabia street hosts mul-tiple events and paradoxical activities through-out the year, such as shopping, eating, national

celebrations, seasonal tourism, riots, prayers andprostitution to name just a few.Originally planned as two projects Madinat al-Mohandesseen and Madinat al-Awqaf, the Mo-handesseendistrict is one of the planned exten-sions of the s Greater Cairo. It was developed

on agricultural land owned by al-Awqaf (theMinistry managing private properties that are setup as charity trusts) to provide affordable hous-

ing to young professionals. In Arabic, the termMohandesseenmeans engineers. e name is as-cribed to the fact that this new district was sub-

divided into zones, each offering housing oppor-tunities to members of a particular professionalsyndicate: A zone was dedicated to al-Sahafeyeen

(journalists), another to al-Moallemeen (teach-ers), and a third to al-Atebaa (doctors). ename Mohandesseen (engineers) overrode the

other zone designations to formally represent theentireAwqafCity. Later, from the late s wellinto the s, plot subdivisions were sold for

private development under zoning regulationsthat licensed residential villas and a maximum of-storey apartment buildings.

In , president Anwar El Sadat established anew economic policy al-Infitah,the Open Doorpolicy. e state abandoned its commitment to

social housing and depended more on privateindividual investments, which led to a dramaticincrease in land prices. As a result of this poli-

cy, along with the increasing housing demand,the zoning regulations that lent Mohandesseenits initial quiet, green and residential character

were abolished by a Ministerial Decree in themid-s. Villas were torn down to give way

to high-rise apartment buildings and towers;owners added storeys to their buildings. Conse-quently, the population grew rapidly, and so did

the traffic.e location ofMohandesseenmakes it a middle-ground; a space of continuous tension and nego-

tiations between differing socio-economic strata.With upper-class Zamalek to the East, middle-classDokkito the South, lower-class Imbabawith

its public housing estates to the North, and oneof the largest informal areas Boulaq al-Dakrourto the West, Mohandesseen gains a unique so-

cio-spatial quality. Furthermore, Mohandesseenincludes, engulfed within its geometric streetpatterns, the village of Mit-Oqbah,which is the

largest of seven rural settlements entrapped inthe modern urban fabric of Giza.e elevated of October Road (i.e. bridge)

connecting Mohandesseen to Cairos cen-tury Central Business District () assisted intransforming this new district into a secondary

. In addition, the of July artery (whichis linked to the of October road) has come tolink Mohandesseen to the fastest booming pe-

ripheral development of Greater Cairo; a devel-opment which encompasses the new city of October, Sheikh ZayedCity, the rapidly growing

gated-communities nearby, and the ones aroundthe regional roads west of Caironamely, theCairoAlexandria Road and the CairoOasis

Road.Mohandesseenthus became the portal thatconnects Greater Cairo to other regions; ones ofaffluence and influence.

e impact of such developments is reflected

along Gameat al-Duwwal al-Arabia streetor boulevard as it should be rightfully termed,given its -lane traffic, service roads, wide side-

walks, and metre-wide garden in the middle.With its chain restaurants and retail shops, theboulevard attracts Arab tourists from the Gulf.

e name, which means the Arab League, per-haps contributed to this attraction. Transformedinto an entertainment boulevard with a central

garden and wide sidewalks, the street graduallybecame one of the most important commercial

streets in Egypt. So much that when the national

football team wins a game or a regional tourna-ment, Gameat al-Duwwalbecomes the stage forcelebration; a parade of honking cars and flag-

waving young men; of motorcycle shows andcheering performances that continue on till thefollowing morning. To this day, it continues to at-

tract football fans from all over the city, and hasbeen aired more than once in the internationalmedia.

In daytime, many employees head to Mohandes-

seenfor work. It is said to be the economic driverfor the growth of Boulaq al-Dakrour informal

area. At night Gameat al-Duwwalboulevard actsas a main entertainment venue. With its mix ofkiosks, expensive restaurants and cafs, popular

fast food shops, beverage stands and mobile foodcaravans, the boulevard offers dining and hang-out places to different income-groups of all ages,

as well as inexpensive promenade. e gardenin the middle of the road attracts families fromcrowded Mit-Oqbah and Boulaq al-Dakrour; it

provides a breathing space for children in searchof a public playground, and a refuge for couplesseeking romantic settings.

e Mostafa Mahmoudmosque, which providesfree quality medical services, and is reputed for

its management of charity fundszakah, grew inreligious and cultural esteem to become a beaconamong the rich as well as the poor all year round.

Each night, the mosque is illuminated by greenflorescent lights to emphasize the building lo-cated midway along the Boulevard. For the past

decade, the portion of Gameat al-Duwwal bou-levard in front of the mosque has hosted thou-sands of men, women and children who flock to

the boulevard for the dawn-prayers of the mostrevered religious feast in IslamEid al-Adha.People from all walks of life share this moment

of prayer on the asphalt of this boulevard yearaer year. Again, the boulevard asserts itself as aunique platform where a diverse spectrum of so-

cial classes, age and gender groups participate in asingular event, without a hierarchical frameworkgoverning their interaction. During the Holy

month of Ramadan, the space obtains a new im-age; the mosque embraces many religious activi-ties where more than meals are distributed

to the poor. Two large tents furnished w ith tablesand chairs are set up to host the passer-by for If-

tar,the first meal aer the daily fast. Aerwards,

the tables and chairs are stored in a corner andthe two tents are prepared for the evening prayer;one dedicated for men and the other for women.

In , this site witnessed the demonstration ofSudanese refugees who camped for little less than days in this highly visible locationopposite

the officeprotesting against the asylum policy.Users and activity patterns change in the bou-

levard from morning to night; it becomes a dif-

ferent setting at different times of the day. Earlyin the morning, food carts serve fouland falafel

sandwiches, and hot tea to workers, drivers andoffice assistants. During the day, it mainly func-tions as a circulation artery for private cars and

mass-transit. Aer the -hour-traffic jam from : to : in the aernoon, the street chang-es as the employees finish their work, taking on

its leisure identity: families window shopping;groups of young women and others of men prom-enading arm-in-arm; street vendors selling news-

papers, magazines, sunglasses and toys overflowfrom the sidewalk onto the road; prostituteswalking up and down waiting to be picked up.

It has everything and everyone; women in tighttrousers and others in strictly black conserva-tive veil (the neqab); the young mechanic from

Boulaq al-Dakrour, and the rich Saudi teen inhis sports convertible; neighbourhood youth

and those driving tens of kilometres to join in.In summer, the season of Arab tourism, you findhorses for hire and the occasional belly dancer

accompanied by a rababaplayer. Like a circus tillthe early hours of the next day, Gameat al-Duww-

alnever sleeps.

Ahmed Yehia Zaazaa is an architect and teach-

er assistant at the Arab Academy for Science and

Technology in Cairo. His architectural practice

focuses on merging design theory with the reali-

ties of everyday use so as to address the issue of

poverty in Egypt. Zaazaa is currently completing

his masters degree thesis on the characteristics of

informal areas in comparison with the defining

criteria of vernacular architecture.

References:

Mohamed Azzazy, Mostafa Mahmoud Square

and the Mosque Piazza, El Mohandeseen, Cairo,Egypt, an unpublished term-paper submitted inthe Masters Program in Architecture, Arab Acad-

emy for Science and Technology Andre Raymond, Cairo, the nightmaresof growth, Harvard University Press, ,

p. . Iqbal Baraka, To be Greater Cairo, Al-Ah-ram Journal, , Sunday March, .

(Arabic)http://www.ahram.org.eg/archive/Search.asp

A gure-ground for Mohandesseen district,

with Gameat al-Duwwal boulevard runningdiagonally across its centre. The plan showshow the formally planned district of Mohandes-seen engulfed the older village core ofMit-Oqba, the denser urban fabric towards thetop left. Along the far left, lies the informal areaof of Boulaq el-Dakrour, clearly marked byits compact urban fabric. (Source: Ahmed Zaazaa)

Aerial view of the Mostafa Mahmoud round-about in the centre of Gameat al-Duwwal

boulevard (Source: Mohamed el-Azzazy)

Celebrations after the 'eid al-Adha dawnprayers in the fountain at the MostafaMahmoud roundabout, in Gameat al-Duwwalboulevard (Source: Mohamed el-Azzazy andAhmed Zaazaa)

Celebrations on Gameat al-Duwwal boule-vard upon winning the African Nations Cupin 2006 (Source: Ahmed Zaazaa)

Eid al-Adha dawn prayers onGameat al-Duwwal boulevard(Source: internet)

Sudanese refugees in protest on Gameatal-Duwwal boulevard in 2005(Source: Fawzy el-Gazaerly)


13/24

Contemporary Cairo is a collage of urban pat-

terns patched into the city fabric, since its incep-tion in the th Century .. e timeline belowhighlights snapshots from different planning acts

that channelled this process of transformation.roughout the years of colonialism, westernarchitecture heavily influenced the city. On one

level, Cairos street patterns retain a large por-tion of the medieval city texture. Its buildings on

the other hand, mostly reflect Century archi-

tecture with a few remnants from earlier epochs.Post , standardized mass-housing projectsbecame the trend of city growth. Shortly aer

Egypts Independence in , Cairo followedsuit. Modernization brought about rapid urban-ization and housing demand was met with public

housing projects in peripheral areas. Standard-ized housing estates remained a main ingredient

of government-led city planning from the swell into the s. e Planning Law failedto regulate Cairos urban development, rendering

violations of building height and zoning regula-tions the norm. Master plans remained unreal-ized, lagging behind the development processes

of both formal and informal areas. Gradually,Private-sector development came to dictate themajor changes in the citys planning

06PLANNING CAIRO...?A Chronology BY FAWZY EL-GAZAERLY, SHAHIRA ISSA & DINA K. SHEHAYEB

Early th Century: Belle Epoche

Western planning continues to shape entrepre-neurial expansions of Cairo. e two major is-

lands in the River Nile, Zamalekand Manial al-

Rawdah are subdivided; and expansions crossthe Nile onto Giza on the Western bank of the

river. Along with the natural growth of the urbanagglomeration, Cairo witnesses the developmentof two distant suburbs,Maadi() and Heliop-

olis orMisr al-Jadidah, referring to a newEgypt(). Connected by means of a light rail systemfrom their inception, these suburbs introduced

new variations of Westernized urban patterns tothe city.

..:Cairo is born

In , Gawhar al-Siqilli founds al-Qahira, which

by .. becomes the new imperial capital forthe Caliph al-Muizz al-Din of the Fatimid Dy-nasty. Designed for the complex court society, the

rectangular walled city was divided into quartersand liberally endowed with palaces and gardens.Indigenous populations along with commercial

and industrial activities still occupied the oldercity of Misr-Fustat. e renowned traveler IbnBattutah calls it the Mother of Cities.

Late s: Paris on the Nile

Muhammed Ali launches the modernization

of Egypt in . e transformation of Cairohowever, is to be accredited to his grandson, theKhedive Isamail ( ). In an act of gran-

deur the Khedive expanded the capital by morethan one square mile, adding modern parks andbridges, a European planned downtown, an ex-

quisite residential island, a km road to thepyramids, an opera and several palaces and ho-tels along the Nile. e population of Cairo ap-

proaches , by .

s s: Mass Housing

Aer the revolution in , the demand for

housing in the capital is addressed, renderingconstruction of low and mid income public hous-ing a national priority. Following global trends

of the time, rows of uniform apartment blocksprovided prototypical dwelling units to factoryworkers and government employees. Between

and , the government built , unitsof the , units planned to accommodatethe population increase by . Concurrently,

the Cairo Master Plan gives birth to thegovernment-sponsored and self-contained satel-lite communities of Nasr City (, acres) and

Mohandesseen. In July , president Nasser de-crees the formation of the Higher Committee ofPlanning for the Greater Cairo Region.


14/24

s: New Cities More Mass Housing

In , Cairos share from the Egyptian popu-lation growth totaled . . Along with natural

population increase, poor investment in the de-velopment of provinces led to internal migrationfrom rural areas to Greater Cairo, causing the

citys inhabitants to reach of Egypts urbanpopulation. President Sadat launched the con-struction of new cities in the desert to detract

the Nile valley, especially Cairo, from its popu-lation. Billions of dollars of public money wereinvested in those new cities; which years aer

their inception, failed to reach but of theirtargeted population. Inappropriate segregatoryplanning and standardized housing blocks, along

with inadequate services resulted in hostile, bar-ren wastelands of low livability; only potentiallyaccommodating for upper income groups able to

commute to the city for subsistence.

s: Failing Regulations No Planning

A decade marked by the economic shi from so-

cialism to capitalism. During the s, land pricessteadily rise and real-estate development attractsbusinessmen, causing a construction boom. Cairo

expands vertically, with extra floors added to exist-ing buildings, and villas and palaces demolishedto give way to mediocre high-rise apartment edi-

fices. Apart from a few that close enough to Cai-ro, were able to develop into dependent suburbs,most of the new extension cities grew into little

more than ghost towns. Combined with naturalpopulation growth, this led migrant communi-ties from rural districts to take refuge in the peri-

urban informal areas. According to a study, of the housing stock produced between the sand s is informal, i.e. illegally built.

s: Planning post-facto

In order to resolve the exploding traffic conges-

tion, a series of elevated roads and tunnels areconstructed, leaving the city dissected. In themeantime, upper classes are attracted to subur-

ban developments mushrooming along the capi-tals regional roads. Marketed as the Egyptiandream, gated communities and compounds gain

momentum. And a New Cairo, more impressivein size than its predecessor Misr al-Jadidah, isbuilt south east of Cairo to cover km of land

(i.e. the area of Cairo city). Real-estate de-velopers take the lead and partner with politi-cians; and patching up replaces planning to give

grounds for real-estate development.

s :

A beacon of culture and leisure a green sus-

tainable city a lawful and innovatively man-

aged city of equal opportunities a world class

tourist destination will be the Cairo of .

Once again Cairo is subject to grand visions of

the powerful. In place of comprehensive andthorough planning that serves the collectivegood, Cairo enters the new Millennium with inef-

fective law enforcement and the establishment ofa laissez-fairepolicy.


15/24

07PARANOID CITY BY IMAN ISSACairo is a city that invites paranoia in its inhabit-ants. e city is divided between a central system

highly believed to benefit those who are respon-sible for its maintenance, and a set of individualpractices that compensate for the failures and

lack of this central system. ese individual prac-tices manifest themselves not only in the numer-ous informal housing blocks that punctuate the

urban landscape, but seep into every aspect of

the citys life and activity, from parking cars tosigning contracts. ese practices are as fluid asthey are a constant attempt to deal with an un-stable system that they themselves continually

change.Because these practices are set outside of a cen-tral or juridical system, not only are they unable

to look to that system for protection, but its ghostbecomes a constant threat to all. At any moment,that central or juridical system could attempt to

reclaim or alter those practices that emerged inits place. e government will demolish informalhousing at random or outsource or formalize ac-

tivities such as garbage collectingall of whichthreaten the livelihoods of entire communities.In short, what is a rule in Cairo one daya prac-

ticed customcould the next day be shied by

a new factor, forcing a new loophole to be foundin an already punctured system. is means thatno form of interaction is set in stone, no con-

tract is binding and there is always a pos-sibility of a hidden agenda, no matter how smallor high the stakes areand sometimes they are

really high.One could say that there is a constant need to

define things in a city like this. You are alwayslooking for the means with which to mark yourposition, and who or what you need to mark itagainst. You search for telltale signs of their po-

sition, the extent of their power, and most im-portantly how they view you, which means thatin Cairo you are constantly coming face to face

with your own image. Due to this constant repo-sitioning, as an inhabitant of the city you becomeextremely sensitive to the tiniest discordance

between what you are familiar with and whatyou are confronted with at any given moment.

You become paranoid; you inhabit a space of con-stant doubt.is doubt could be the result of the intentional

or accidental convergence of discordant forms,

like the moment a statement made by a persontransforms a perception of him / her from a cer-tain type of politician, salesman, or next-door

neighbor to something else completely, or themoment we realize that the details (color, ges-ture, location), or presence of a certain monu-

ment or statue fail to align with a given histori-cal narrative. One also encounters doubt when acertain form does not correspond with its stated

function, like when a program on television pre-sented as entertainment is viewed as politicalpropaganda, or when a store sign or decorative

element is believed to be used to mark a certainterritory against possible intruders.In a paranoid state, we infer a hidden intention

behind all forms, but in doing so, do we not alsochange those very forms? e possibility of hid-den agendas places everything around us under

suspicion. When one doubts the manner by whicha billboard is constructed, its location, what isplaced on it, or the choice to build certain build-

ings and not others, where, and why, or the de-cision to erect certain monuments, and how theyare presented, does this not change the way one

sees and hears? Does it not change the very ap-

pearance of forms? For it might be that, throughdoubting the use of forms, we permanently mark

themwe alter the way they are seen and themanner by which they are understood. Here, asopposed to a building, we might only see a fa-

ade, instead of map, a collection of lines.In terms of living conditions, paranoia is certain-ly unhealthy. It makes for hyper self-conscious

subjects and a somewhat difficult life, but is it

possible to learn something from the space ofdoubt it offers? For although in a state of para-

noia, we imagine seeing things where they mightnot exist, can this actually furnish a tool for a dif-ferent kind of clarity altogether?

Doubt limits ones ability to instantly judge. Itproduces a space in which the process of defini-tion is prolonged; that is, we are unable to imme-

diately locate an element or scenario using a fa-miliar vocabulary. In a state of doubt, referencesare no longer fixed but float, while associations

are made and unmade. Surely this is an uncom-fortable space to inhabit, but it could also be aspace that provides a possibility for established

forms and conditions to be redefined. When wedoubt the motivation for how a map was drawn

Since my move to a new room in another districtof the city, a mysterious intermittent sensation

of imbalance has been my companion. Only ac-cidentally aer a few days of living there did I no-tice the reasons behind this feeling. I was stand-

ing by the window observing the trees in frontof my new house and listening carefully to thelow rustle of their leaves when a man passed in

front of me, speaking on his cell phone in a lan-guage that I couldnt recognize. I suddenly real-ized that the dizzy vertiginous spells I had been

experiencing lately might be due to the changein the composition of the soundscape that floatsinto the room through this window. What was

missing from what I had been used to for manyyears in my old dwelling was the s ound of Turk-ish. My previous room was located in a street

mostly inhabited by Turkish immigrants, and itwas thus that snippets of conversations in a lan-guage I did not know became my familiar com-

panion. Every now and then I would discern aspecific word reminiscent in its enunciation orphrasing to Arabic; my mother tongue. At other

moments a loose loud laugh or the angry voicesof people in a quarrel would interrupt the silence

of my room, and I would feel that my window

opened up onto a district in Cairo. I wondered, asI stood watching the empty spot where the manwith the cell phone had earlier been standing

and talking, how bits and pieces of this languageI did not know had slipped through my windowinto the depths of my consciousness; a thin film

of lubricating oil that greatly decreases the fric-tion between German that I mainly used in mydaily public interactions, and my own inner voice

in Arabic. It had given me a powerful sense of se-curity and granted me a welcome distance fromboth languages. is belated realization was alas

only possible aer I had lost Turkishs daily pres-ence when I moved houses.It is oen said that moving residence will leave

you feeling a bit unbalanced, that it is a naturalfeeling that slowly eases off as you get used to

your new dwelling. However, my sudden discov-

ery of the role that Turkish had played in my lifewithout me even knowing it, coupled with theextremity of my reaction to losing it, was to say

the least quite astonishing. For I had never beenattracted by its sound. Actually, I have been quiteneutral towards the language since my first en-

counter with it when I moved to Berlin. For ex-ample, I was never interested in learning it orgetting to know it better. Most of my linguistic at-

tention had been devoted to monitoring the end-less forms of friction between my mother tongueand the language of the city in which I now live. A

relationship that has haunted my exhausting at-tempts at refashioning an identity and a life formyself within the embrace of a completely new

language. A tension that lingers into the nightwhen I meet a friend at his room or at a close bynighttime haunt to review the day so as to ease

the weights of its happenings and to extract fromit our daily ration of amusing ironies. For ourlives in this city were facilitated by the interaction

between two languages, a new foreign one associ-ated with daytime negotiations, while our moth-er tongue was reserved for the night. At times,

like two composite melodies, these two languageswould intertwine and fill the skies of the city withtheir musical clamor, while at others the disso-

nance of their collision could almost make youdeaf. It was then though that we would transforminto a pack of wolves invading the nighttime city

to look for prey, to wreak havoc and to then de-

part with our spoils; to dance a primordial victo-ry dance as our howls reach the moon. It was thus

with real surprise that I found out that what hadgranted me a sense of balance in this city was athird marginal voice, the low murmur of a people

I did not know, a people I lived amongst yet neverbelonged to. Immigrants like me, sharing a simi-lar position in the hierarchy of the city; affected

by the same conditions that affect me althoughwe share neither language nor origins.I continued to live in Berlin, and as the years

passed my mother tongue changed its position.Inevitably ties with former friends were loosenedas meetings and visits declined. I plunged into

a long interior monologue, in which my mothertongue became an inner voice that I almost onlylistened to with my inner ear. A language I rarely

used to communicate with the external world;the discovery of how important Turkish had be-come to my sense of balance, made me realize

the depths of my linguistic vagrancy. For I hadalways believed that my mother tongue was asafe harbor, a source of security in my new life;

while the fact was as I discovered that day whilelistening to the sound of the trees, that the secret

08THE THIRD LANGUAGE BY HAYTHAM EL-WARDANI


16/24

a certain way or a monument was moved or re-placed, do we not simultaneously redefine for

ourselves what we believe to be the function,use and character of a map or a monument? In

this sense, the spaces produced by this constantdoubt can allow one to question the most basicstructural parameters of forms that might other-

wise have been taken for granted. It can actuallyfurnish a space for knowledge.

In a state of doubt, we are also constantly look-ing for the external means by which to verify ourconclusions, and in certain cases we might beable to locate those means. For example, as we

tentatively ascribe value to an object, a building,that is later proven to lack that valueas we readintention into what later proves to be acciden-

tal, or vice versado we not then encounter thematerial space of a ri between a newly acquiredfact and a prior judgment? at is, dont we run

the very productive risk of coming face to facewith ourselves?

Iman Issa (b. , Cairo) is an artist based in

Cairo and New York.

source of tranquility was a third language I didnot know: a language that had the advantage of

being light and free from past associations, a lan-guage that I had no desire to understand. Its frag-ments and phrases act like powerful talismans

and resurrect my first city, Cairo while keepingit suspended outside my window. But does theTurkish language really possess this lightness

that I have imbued upon it? Of course not; forTurkish, a language that used to be written in Ar-abic letters, is not as alien to me as I would like to

think. Both languages shared a history as well asa plethora of political and linguistic connections.Is that shared history the reason for its ability to

embrace me in an intimate familiarity even as itremains an alien language? Maybe. But why doesthis composite of familiarity and alienation im-

part a more powerful sense of security than myown mother tongue? Well, I guess this might bethe fate of the vagrant, he who has lost the mantle

of his motherland and has been expatriated. Hismiserable fate is to always be at a distance fromeverything, both close and far from himself, ab-

sent and present at the same time, unable to ex-perience a total and complete sense of security

without the familiar being mixed with something

strange or foreign to it. e Turkish languageitself has in a way passed through a similar mo-ment in its history; the moment of its rarefac-

tion, when it abandoned its written Arabic scriptand was latinicized. is violent separation, thathas made it simultaneously close and distant to

me, resembles the space that was granted me byits words, fragments and phrases and sentences.A distance from the constant friction of both lan-

guages I usedeven if it was a space that I hadnot been aware of.When I returned on visits to Cairo I never felt

the absence of Turkish, for it then gave up itsprivileged position unexpectedly to another lan-guage. For the first few days I always felt a joy at

understanding everything immediately withoutthe need to think about it. I would plunge intothe river of words overflowing onto the streets of

the city. I would walk listening carefully to every-thing around me trying to let every word slowlymelt in my ears. However, inevitably aer a few

days this joy would turn into consternation. epervasive use of one accent became unpleasantto ears that had experienced many different ways

of speaking Arabic. is cruel homogenization oflanguage le in me a distinct sensation of belong-ing to a dominant majority. It lead to a sense of

confusion when I would, despite my extreme cau-tion, stammer out what was to Cairene ears anunusual word that I had learned f rom my interac-

tion with other dialects. It was at such moments,when I would immediately be submitted to a sus-picious gaze from the person I am addressing,

that I would long for my minority position whichgranted me the freedom to express myself in aconfused fashion. A longing for a language that

I did not fully master, in which I could stumbleabout without embarrassment. Ironically it wasthe German language, rather than the Turkish

one that I most desired at these moments. In themeantime my mother tongue became more andmore embedded in its new identity as a delicate,

fragile and internal language rather than a lan-guage for external communication.Aer some time in my new room I managed to

finally overcome my feelings of vertigo. For Ihad learned a new language of this city, one thatI hadnt known before. I sit silently in my room

and suddenly start to notice fragments from my

neighbors life; a phone ringing, the creaking of adoor or window, footsteps on the stairs, the echoof a low whisper, water gurgling in the pipes,

someone clumsily moving around in the court-yard. In these moments of quiet and solitude thesound of the city comes from a distance deep like

the sound of the sea.

Translated by Hassan Khan.

El Wardany experienced a culture shock when

he moved to Berlin ten years ago. Aer he came

in contact with what is known as 'critical art' he

had the distinct impression that he was back in

the Middle Ages. Being a good son of the s he

thought that politics interference in literature or

art must eventually lead to its intense ideologi-

cization. With time he overcame his shock and

learned to becomes less overtly sensitive towards

politics, at least when it comes to art. He has even

secretly participated in critical artworks.


17/24

09AN ARCHITECTURE OF REFUGE, THE WALLAND PUBLIC SPACE IN NEW CAIROCONTRAST Designs in Conversation

BY MAZIN ABDULKARIM,

KAREEM NABIL & TAMER NADER

Single family houses on private plots ofland where owners demanded from the citycouncil a wall to be built around theirproperty so as to more closely resemble theimage of the neighbouring gated-community.

Multiple walls and checkpoints inside thegated compound

Mazin Abdul Karim:

In the s, New Cairo was planned as an ex-

tension suburb of Cairo. Confronted with thefailure of the seventies extension citiesthatwere planned to absorb a segment of Cairos

increasing population, but only attracted lessthan of their prospective inhabitantsthe state had a massive campaign in the nine-

ties to sell huge plots of land to private devel-opers. Concurrently, public housing projectswere built at the periphery of the new city,

leaving centrally located plots for private de-

velopment. Initially, the objective was to cre-ate a sustainable socially balanced communityin New Cairo, allowing for economic interde-

pendence. Yet eventually, it developed intoan exclusive city for the elite. Somehow NewCairo remains suspended between those two

conditions: a Cairo suburb for the rich and aself-sufficient city for everyone.

Kareem Nabil:

Perhaps New Cairo attracts a lot of attentionbecause of the claim it makes of being new. Is

it really an improved model? A correction ofCairos mistakes; or is it merely a conglomer-ate of secluded residential islands? Has it not

failed until now to provide a space for publicactivities?I think it is attracts attention because it is still

in the process of completion. Particularly, itshuge scale and the phenomenal speed of itsconstruction trigger critique. e fear of mak-

ing a mistake, of heading toward an inappro-priate direction translates into self-reflexivity;into evaluating what we claim to produce, not

only as architects and urban planners, butmore so as a society. Perhaps this pushes us tocriticize it, and not notice its potential.

is New Cairo model of the contemporarycity appeared in order to fulfill specific needsof a targeted client-group. Recently, when the

state adopted a neo-liberal agenda, handingover city development to private investors, ur-ban planning directly became a user-depen-

dent process. A specific user groupnamelythe upper classbecame the sole inhabitantsand architects of the city. Eventually New Cairo

formed in direct response to the needs of thisgroup; a self-built urban ghetto for the rich.New Cairo is designed to fulfill the needs of

those clients. It is very important to realize thatthe results of this process might be regarded asexclusive or elitist; nonetheless, this is where

the criticism should be directed.

Tamer Nader:

I think whats crucial about New Cairo is thediminished role of the state, even in providing

basic infrastructure. Unlike a residential sub-urb, a city is a dynamic organism constantlyin the process of morphing and adjusting. One

cannot simply put regulations and control ur-ban activity like the modernists wanted to. Acity develops along certain dynamics and natu-

ral processes that to a certain extent, the stateprevented from happening in New Cairo.

I essentially look at New Cairo as a situationwhere our norms of need fulfillment are chal-lenged. If a wall around my house better serves

my security and privacy needs, why should Ioppose it? For example, although elitist andgated, compounds provide privacy and limit

social interaction to a select group that sharesa common economic status. It is a process offiltering your neighbors. In which case, the

wall serves as a catalyst for social interaction,not as a b arrier.

is takes us to one of the major characteristicsof New Cairo, the wall, or what we can call thebarrier. Walls are not new to cities or urban

communities. In New Cairo however, they tendto serve a new function. ey intensify and en-force ideas of economic status, seclusion and a

rejection of the other. An attitude of becausewe have a wall around us, we are better startsto form.

Take the case of the private property ownerswho, neighboring two of the biggest gated com-munities in New Cairo, demanded from city of-

ficials permission to build a wall surroundingtheir district. When the officials refused, thoseresidents took advantage of personal con-

nections to high-ranked bureaucrats so as toachieve their goals. Perhaps this reflects theireagerness for a faade comparable to that of

their neighbors.

Yes, the barrier has recently become a literal

expression of prestige. For instance, a televi-sion commercial of a famous gated commu-nity concludes with, Above LifeAbove Cai-ro, indicating a life for the elite; the highestclass of society, literally above all other socialclasses. is logic is visible in our built envi-

ronment. A wall separating the KatameyaHeights compound from an adjacent public-housing district is almost metres high:

higher class, higher ground. In the neigh-boring lower class district however, this solidstonewall translates into a or metre-high

perforated metal fence that allows visual ac-cess to the inside. e barrier serves as a classmarker. Its the new aesthetic; perhaps even

the new fashion. Its fashionable to be on theinside of the wall. It is demanded regardlessof a need for security or privacy.

Even if the wall is a sign of superiority, it stilloffers certain functions that we should per-

haps consider realizing without the wall. Whatcould replace the wall? We could start definingthe services that the gated community model

succeeded in providing, namely privacy, secu-rity etc.

Well, does one isolate oneself from the cityout of fear or doubt? Living ones whole lifebehind walls; driving behind one; working

behind one?

It is quite interesting that it is exactly those

models that are emerging. Gated work envi-ronments such as Smart Village in the ofOctober city; gated universities such as the

American University in New Cairo. Even hos-pitals in New Cairo are n ow gated.

Perhaps, New Cairo advocates an urbanism of

completely isolated and gated islands of activi-ty. An add-on to any building typology, the gateand the wall it proposes re-define our lifestyle.

is decade has been marked by an increasingcriticism of urban dynamics and city formationprocesses. On the one hand, urban scholars claim

that the city is dead; on the other, new modelsof urban agglomerations have emerged, such asin the Gulf region and China. Koolhaas remarks,

e Gulf is not just reconfiguring itself; its re-configuring the world is burgeoning cam-paign to export a new kind of urbanism may

be the final opportunity to formulate a new blue-print for urbanism. If this is the case, it becomesessential to regard the new cities and communi-

ties in the Middle and Far East, which are underconstruction from zero, as a reflection of refugeand exclusivity.

Part of a larger state plan to absorb and redis-tribute the population and urban activities awayfrom the capital, New Cairo is a recent extension

city of Cairo. An emerging urban model, its poli-cies and growth processes are oen received withcynical criticism. Perhaps this is related to what it

promises: A new versus an old situation whereall our understandings are to be challenged, andour failures and problems corrected.

Promising an improved lifestyle, New Cairo hasbeen the most booming of the proliferating des-ert cities around Cairo. Unlike its precedent, it is

founded on the notion of refuge; the city as a sin-gular statement independent of an existing urbansubstance. In New Cairo, new urban typologies

such as gated communities and exclusive publicspaces are at the citys core.


18/24

Construction workers walking along endlesskilometers of walls and gates that transformthe outside into a no-mans land

Uninhabited public housing projects, over-shadowed by the walls of a neighbouring gatedcommunity

If we advocate the wall as the new need for

all, that even wall-less residents have a rightto a wall, maybe we could imagine buildingwalls for everybody. Walled public housing for

example.

e problem is not necessarily the wall itself;but the lifestyle it advocates. Again, this takes

us back to the diminished role of the state inproviding and regulating security needs forthe general public

But do we really have security issues? Perhapsa continuous threat and fear accompanies the

widening gap between the two poles of society.a

Documents

Cairo Resilience