Parallels Exhibition and Workshop

By Farah Shoukry

In the midst of Old Cairo, Darb 1718 hosted Module Designers’ Parallels exhibition and workshop. Parallels is the first workshop in a series to follow under the umbrella of Strawberry Fields Forever; an optimistic name for a developmental experimental project that aims to reach out to the community.

Yasser El Quessney, the principle architect and mastermind of Module Designers, is co-operating with Walid Taher in order to recruit interested parties to share their knowledge on parallel development. 

The exhibited artwork of mixed media art was expressing the perception of Parallels in different notions. Whether an installation,  a quotation,  photography, audio, video, mono-print or collage.  The architects, graphic artists and interior designers of Module Designers explored their artistic talents on their way to reach out to the community.

A dialogue on parallel development, art, architecture, urbanism and sustainable agriculture,  has been initiated by the honorable guest speakers who joined us on Saturday April 6. Mohamed Elshahed, behind Cairobserver, enriched the participants with an insightful perspective on Cairo behind the scenes. Muhammed Radwan, the enthusiastic ICE-Cairo Space Manager,  talked about the ICE initiative and the efforts made to empower youth to start their own green market business. Elshahed and Radwan stressed upon the importance of mapping and documenting various initiatives working in the developmental field to allow for collaboration as many initiatives share similar goals and interests. The following session was presented by Mohamed Salah and Ahmed Refky, the wonderful brains of Shagara NGO which works on the plantation of rooftops. The team shared their vision on green sustainable communities and discussed the technical methods used to implement the Shagara vision. Moreover,  Prof. Ahmed Rashed, Head of the Architecture Department at BUE, shared with us the “Taking Leave”, student architecture competition that has been implemented with a revolutionary spirit. 

The fruitful Parallels workshop acts as a momentum and inspiration to set up a Co-Work space in Fakharany Village, Qasr El Shame3, right next to the Darb 1718 Center. Keep an eye open for the next workshop, “Multiplicity”, to be announced soon upon organization.

Lessons from elsewhere: Leipzig by Ali Alraouf

Event: “AUB Neighbourhood Initiative” Lecture by Cynthia Myntti

THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY IN BEIRUT NEIGHBORHOOD INITIATIVE

A LECTURE BY PROFESSOR CYNTHIA MYNTTI

Saturday, 13 April 2013: 5:00 pm  - Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University

In the context of a proposal for Ain Shams University Neighborhood Initiative - Proposed by the Department of Architecture in partnership with the Built Environment Collective  - Megawra

ABOUT THE LECTURE
The Neighborhood Initiative of the American University of Beirut was launched in 2007 to encourage faculty and students to contribute to solving the problems affecting the district of Beirut located just outside the university walls.  The Initiative is housed in the President’s Office, and works with academic and non-academic units across the university and a wide variety of stakeholders in the neighborhood and in government.  Among the issues addressed are congestion, noise pollution, poor walkability, the near absence of greenery, an aging population, and growing disparities between rich and poor residents.

ABOUT CYNTHIA MYNTTI
Cynthia Myntti is Professor of Public Health Practice and Project Leader, Neighborhood Initiative, American University of Beirut.  She received her PhD in social anthropology from the London School of Economics; a Masters of Architecture from Yale University; and a Masters of Public Health from Johns Hopkins.  She has been associated with the American University of Beirut since 1972, first as a graduate student and later a faculty member.  Cynthia also spent nearly a decade in Cairo and is author of the photographic book ‘Paris along the Nile: Architecture in Cairo from the Belle Epoque” published by AUC Press

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ABOUT AIN SHAMS NEIGHBORHOOD INITIATIVE.

Any attempt to understand our local problems – their reasons, indicators and potential solutions – cannot afford to ignore institutions of higher education as principle stakeholders that are able to contribute effectively to the problem-solving framework. The contribution of universities ideally builds on a capacity for conducting research linked to a universal knowledge base and an ability to tap into an unrivaled pool of human resources taken from its students and staff.

In this initiative, academics from Ain Shams University come together to carry out research on the neighborhood of al-‘Abbasiyya - where the two Ain Shams campuses are located. This research is built on field research and is meant to produce results that can be applied in interventions for the betterment of the neighborhood. It is also meant to bring together academics from different fields (humanities – social studies – sciences) and different levels (post-graduate and undergraduate) and stakeholders from different backgrounds (academia – government – residents – civil society – CSR) in a process that orients the university towards a holistic realistic approach to research and builds within it an ethos of social responsibility.

The objective of this initiative is therefore threefold:

•  to produce interdisciplinary academic research that is linked to societal needs and concerns and grounded in real-life observations;
• to implement the results and recommendations of this research in urban interventions of benefit to society and that ultimately enrich the research process;
•  to use this process to strengthen multi-lateral ties: between the university and the surrounding neighborhood; between post-graduate and undergraduate programs; between the different disciplines; between academia, civil society and the government.

Postcards from Revolutionary Cairo

By Jonathan Guyer

I was in Marrakesh two weeks ago, which is teeming with tourists of all stripes, decked out in tank tops and short shorts. Coming from Cairo, I found the swaths of high school groups, families pushing strollers, and long lines outside museums to be a bit of a shock. We don’t see these folks in Egypt anymore. The outside world’s perception of Cairo as a dangerous battleground has devastatingly affected tourism.

The idea of my postcards from revolutionary Cairo is to re-think Egypt’s tourism industry—the new historic sites here that people across the world must see for themselves. I’m not advocating for war tourism or the fetishization of blight (as a Detroiter, I’m all too familiar with what has so aptly been called “ruin porn”). Rather, I intend to depict sites that Cairenes see everyday and would want to send to friends outside of the country. 

Postcards almost always play off of the tourist’s imagination rather than the local resident’s appreciation of “attractions.” While paying homage to the colonial, Orientalist posters of the early 20th century, I hope to tease out the tensions and contractions of marketing contemporary Egypt. The burnt out National Democratic Party building and the half-built Nile Ritz Carlton are vistas as essential to Cairo’s skyline as the pyramids. 

Jonathan Guyer is a Fulbright fellow researching political cartoons in Egypt and associate editor of the Cairo Review of Global Affairs. He blogs at Mideast By Midwest and tweets @mideastXmidwest

Event: Learning from Cairo, April 12-14

Learning from Cairo seeks to engage the current political and urban transformation unfolding in Cairo as a critical context for examining relevant international case studies and best practices in areas ranging from housing, transportation, public space, and local governance to informality. Learning from Cairo emphasizes a comparative and interdisciplinary approach bringing practitioners, academics, officials and local stakeholders into dialogue, with the objective of generating an ongoing critical urban discourse, and future visions for Cairo.

Friday, April 12th, 2013 
Public Plenary sessions

9:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Oriental Hall, Palace Building
American University in Cairo
Tahrir Campus

Program

(Arabic and English translation will be provided)

9:00 - 9:30 am Coffee and Registration

9:30 - 10:00 am Opening Remarks

Urban Political Change: Southern Perspectives
10:00 am - 12:00 pm

Khaled Fahmy, Department of History, AUC
Gautam Bhan, Indian Institute for Human Settlements, Delhi
Mokena Makeka, Makeka Design Lab

Discussant:
Mohamed Elshahed, Cairobserver

12:00 - 1:30 pm Lunch and Prayer

Right to the City: Emergent Practices in Latin America
1:30 - 3:30 pm

Heba Raouf Ezzat, Cairo University
Jennifer Bremer, Department of Public Policy and Administration, School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, AUC
Lindsey Sherman, Urban-Think Tank, Caracas/ Zurich

Discussant:
Diane Singerman, Department of Government, American University, Washington D.C.; Tadamun: Cairo Urban Solidarity Initiative

3:30 - 4:00 pm Coffee Break

Cities in Transition: Public Engagement and Civic Design
4:00 - 6:00 pm

David Sims, Author of Understanding Cairo: The Logic of a City Out of Control
Damon Rich, Division of Planning and Community Development, Newark, NJ
Gregers Tang Thomsen and Selva Gürdogan, Superpool, Istanbul

Discussant:
Ayman Ismail, Department of Management, School of Business, AUC


Saturday, April 13th, 2013 
Cairo Tours
(please register for one tour only)
9:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m.

Tour 1. Urban Core
Led by: May Al-Ibrashy, Megawra
Mohamed Elshahed, Cairobserver

Tour 2: Desert Cities
Led by:
Nabil Elhady, Cairo University
Rick Tutwiler, Desert Development Center, AUC

Tour 3: Informal Settlements
Led by:
Yahia Shawkat, Shadow Ministry of Housing
Khaled Abdel Halim, Department of Public Policy and Administration, School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, AUC
Kareem Ibrahim, Urban Development Consultant | Co-Founder of Takween ICD

Tours end with a joint lunch in Al-Azhar Park

Sunday, April 14th, 2013
9:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m.

Parallel Working Sessions
9:00 a.m.-3:30 p.m.
Falaki Academic Center, American University in Cairo
Tahrir Campus
24 El Falaki Street, Bab El Louk

Coffee and Registration:

9:00 a.m.-9:30 a.m.

Morning parallel sessions:

9:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m.

Session 1. Mapping Informality

Omar Nagati and Beth Stryker, CLUSTER
Gregers Tang Thomsen and Selva Gürdogan, Superpool

Discussant: Mohamed Elshahed, Cairobserver

Session 2. Evictions and Urban Citizenship

Gautam Bhan, Indian Institute for Human Settlements, Delhi
Yahia Shawkat, Shadow Ministry of Housing, Cairo

Discussant: Joseph Schechla, Housing and Land Rights Network, Cairo

Session 3. Design Innovation and Urban Development

Mokena Makeka, Makeka Design Lab, Cape Town
Mohamad Abotera and Ahmed Zaazaa, MADD Platform

Discussant: Amr Abdelkawi, Department of Construction and Architectural Engineering, School of Sciences and Engineering, AUC


Lunch
12:00 p.m.-1:00 p.m.

Afternoon parallel sessions:
1:00 p.m.-3:30 p.m.

Session 4. Community Activism and Avenues of Participation

Kareem Ibrahim and Diane Singerman, Tadamun
Damon Rich, Chief Urban Designer, Division of Planning & Community Development, Newark, NJ and Founder, Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP)

Discussant: Khaled Abdel Halim, Department of Public Policy and Administration, School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, AUC

Session 5. Security, Segregation and Borders

Aida Elkashef, Filmmaker
Lara Baladi, Artist
Omnia Khalil, Urban Action

Video presentations and panel discussion

Discussant: Samia Mehrez, The Center for Translation Studies, AUC

Session 6. Research/Design Interventions and the Informal City

Lindsey Sherman, Urban-Think Tank, Caracas/Zurich; Chair of Architecture and Urban Design, ETH Zurich
Dina Shehayeb, Shehayeb Consult

Discussant: Magda Mostafa, Department of Construction and Architectural Engineering, School of Sciences and Engineering, AUC

Closing Session, Oriental Hall

Oriental Hall, Palace Building
American University in Cairo
Tahrir Campus
4:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.

More information to come.

With support from the Ford Foundation
and the American University of Cairo
Department of Construction and Architectural Engineering, School of Sciences and Engineering
School of Humanities and Social Sciences
School of Global Affairs and Public Policy
School of Business
The Architecture Students Association (AA)


Additional sponsorship by

info@clustercairo.org

Bulaq: the struggle over a neighborhood

كتب علي محمد احمد

هندسة عمارة- بوليتكنيكو دي ميلانو

لقاء مع نائب محافظ القاهره عقب قطع أهالى بولاق لطريق الكورنيش

رسائل

خرج أهالى مثلث” ماسبيرو” فى عدة وقفات أحتجاجيه حتى قاموا بقطع طريق الكورنيش فى أخر وقفه و ذلك بعد أستمرار تجاهل مطالبهم خلال الوقفات الأولى.

تقوم المحافظه بالتفاوض مع ملاك الأراضى ( المستثمرين ) لمحاولة أصدار قرار أستيلاء على جزء من الأرض لبناء 64 برج لأهالى ماسبيرو لتسكينهم بها, و صرح نائب المحافظ بأن عملية بيع الأرض تمت بين الأهالى و المستثمرين دون تدخل من الدوله و أن دور المحافظه يقتصر على التنسيق من أجل توفير مسكن بديل للأهالى.

أكد أيضا نائب المحافظ أن هناك مخططات موضوعه لتطوير المنطقه و تحويلها الى فنادق و مبانى أداريه و غيره.

عرض 

مثلث ماسبيرو هو ذلك المثلث الذى تتكون أضلاعه من شارع 26 يوليو فى المنطقه الواقعه بين قنصلية أيطاليا و كورنيش النيل مرورا بمسجد أبو العلا و الضلع الثانى شارع الجلاء فى المنطقه الواقعه بين قنصلية أيطاليا و فندق هيلتون رمسيس مرورا بشركة أسكندريه للتبريد و المدرسه الأرمينيه و الضلع الثالث طريق الكورنيش من الفندق لوزارة الخارجيه مرورا بمبنى” ماسبيرو”.

يخترق المثلث شارع أبو طالب الممتد من شارع الجلاء حتى ظهر جراج الخارجيه موازيا لطريق الكورنيش, و بمجرد دخولك الى شارع أبو طالب تجد الكثير من المشاهد التى تجسد أهمالا متراكما يتمثل فى الحاله المتدهوره للمبانى و السيارات المنتشره فى الطريق التى يعمل بعض من أهل المنطقه على أصلاحها من أجل الحصول على قوت يومهم و ليس لدي أغلبهم ورش خاصه فقد يضطر الى المبيت فى كثير من الأحيان داخل أحد السيارات ليوفر ثمن الذهاب الى مدينة النهضه ( أحدى الأماكن التى وفرتها الدوله كبديل لأزاحة السكان عن بولاق) , فى شارع أبوطالب يمكنك أن ترى وجوه أرهقها العمر و لكن أبدا لم يهزمها, بعض من هؤلاء السكان رحل أبائهم من النوبه القديمه و أستقر بهم الحال عند ساحل بولاق ( الميناء القديم للقاهره ), و لم يكن يخطر ببالهم أن أجيالا قادمه سوف تتعرض لشبح التهجير و لكن هذه المره فى قلب العاصمه و ليس من أجل مشروع قومى ولكن من أجل بناء فنادق و منتجعات و مونوريل و أطماع مستثمرين.

بولاق بشوارعها و حواريها و أهلها جزء أصيل من قلب القاهره و نسيجها العمرانى القديم و هي حلقة وصل بين شبرا و السبتيه و رمسيس و القاهره الخديويه وهذا النسيج التاريخى هو دليل على الوجود و على البقاء

موقع المثلث و المنطقه المخطط أزالتها داخله

من يملك 

هناك بعض المبانى فى المثلث ملكيتها ثابته أو على الأقل غير متنازع عليها مثل : القنصليه, وزارة الخارجيه, مبنى الأذاعه, الفندق, مجموعه من العمارات فى حاله جيده على شارع 26 يوليو و الكورنيش, و المدرسه الأرمينيه.

و بالطبع فأن محل النزاع هى بيوت أهالى المنطقه الذين ليس لهم سند فلا هم فندق و لا وزاره و لكن الدوله تتعامل معهم على أنهم ملكيه عامه يمكن التحكم فى مصيرهم حسب هوى السلطه.

قامت الدوله ببيع هذا الجزء من الأرض منذ عدة عقود لمستثمرين من السعوديه و الكويت بالأضافه الى شريك مصرى هى شركه تدعى ماسبيرو لا أحد يعلم من يقف خلفها, و برغم من أن الدوله لا تملك الأرض و أن أهالى المنطقه يملكون عقود للأرض ترجع الى بدايات القرن الماضى و تنتمى لأجدادهم و لكن الدوله أتمت صفقة البيع و قامت بوضع مخطط لتطوير المنطقه فى أطار مخطط القاهره 2050 و قامت بتوفير مساكن بديله للأهالى على أطراف القاهره بمدينة النهضه و تم تسجيل العقود بأسم المستثمريين الجدد و ربما هذا ما تم أستغلاله للتحايل على العقود التى يمتلكها السكان حيث أنها تنتمى لعصر قبل أن يتم أعتماد نظام التوثيق فى الشهر العقارى و غيره , و حتى تضع الدوله السكان الذين رفضوا مغادرة منازلهم أمام الأمر الواقع قررت حظر الترميم و التنكيس للمبانى حتى يتثنى لهل الأستيلاء على العقارات التى تسقط بفعل الزمن و يصبح الساكن أمام الرحيل للنهضه أو المبيت فى العراء, و لما كان أنهيار المساكن مسأله وقت لقدمها فكان حظر التنكيس و الترميم هو الحل السحرى للأستيلاء أولا بأول على أجزاء من الأرض مقابل مبلغ زهيد و شقه فى النهضه بأيجار أعلى من ااموجود ببولاق, و تكون هذه ورقه ضغط على السكان فى حالة أظهار عقودهم تثبت أنهم قد تنازلوا , و أمام أبتزاز الحكومه لم يجد البعض مفر من الذهاب للنهضه و لكن الغالبيه صمدوا و ظلوا فى منطقتهم و أصبح الوضع الجديد أن الدوله بائع و المستثمر مالك و أصحاب الأرض الأصليين متطفلين بل عائق أمام تطوير قلب القاهره فى حين أن بولاق ملك أهلها و القاهره ملك سكانها و ليست ملك مستثمر أو مسئول

من يعد

كن الوعد الأول هو أعادة تسكين أهالى المنطقه فى مدينة النهضه على طريق الأسماعيليه فى كتل خرسانيه فى الصحراء, بعيدا عن مدارس أطفالهم و أماكن عملهم و بعيدا عن محلات وسط البلد التى تمدهم بقطع الغيار و لوازم الحرف و الأعمال المختلفه من أصلاح سيارات و غيره, و أيضا بعيدا عن مختلف وسائل المواصلات فبولاق محاطه بمترو جمال عبد الناصر و موقف عبد المنعم رياض و العديد من وسائل المواصلات الخاصه ,و يترتب على هذا الأنتقال فى بعض الأحيان أخراج الأطفال من التعليم لعدم القدره على تحمل أعباء المواصلات و فقدان الأهل لوسيلة كسب الرزق المتمثله فى الورش المختلفه فلا يوجد من يقصد النهضه لأصلاح سياره مثلا.

الوعد الثانى بعد الثوره كان الأستجابه لرغبات الأهالى بعدم التهجير و بحث اليات أيجاد بديل ( حيث أن هولاء الأهالى حاليا ليس لهم صفه و هناك مالك اخر للأرض ), و تم التوصل الى بناء 64 برج على قطعه معينه من الأرض لم يتم تحديدها و أن كان الأهالى أقترحوا أرض شركة الأسكندريه للتبريد ب 22 شارع الجلاء و هى غير مستغله حاليا مع أستمرار تنفيذ مخطط التطوير من جانب الدوله و المستثمرين المجهولين على باقى الأرض, و أذا كانت الحكومه تنكر ملكية الأهالى للأرض من الأصل و تنكر أنها طرف فى عملية البيع فلابد من أن المستثمر قد أشترى من طرف ثالث !

الوعد الثالث و الأخير حتى الان عقب أحداث قطع طريق الكورنيش الأخيره و هو أعطاء المحافظه مهلة 3 أشهر للأهالى حتى تنظر فى قانونية وضع الأستيلاء على المساحه المطلوبه لبناء الأبراج و أن المحافظه فى وضع المنسق بين الأهالى ( المالك الحقيقى ) و المستثمر ( المالك الحالى ) حتى لا تتعدى على حقوق المستثمرين

أرض شركة الأسكندريه للتبريد على شارع الجلاء

من يستحق 

مفهوم أن يكون طموح السكان هو ال64 برج فهو بالنسبه لهم أستحقاق أفضل من أن يجدوا أنفسهم فى الشارع أو فى مدينة النهضه فى صحراء لا يعلمون عنها شيئا و لكن الغير مفهوم أن تبارك الدوله بأجهزتها هذا الأستحقاق و أن تبارك مخطط تطوير يقوم بأزاحه مواطنين من أماكنهم و تكبيدهم متاعب يوميه أكثر و ليس مخطط لتطوير معيشة السكان أنفسهم و توفير حياه أفضل لهم فى محل أقامتهم.

أرض بولاق أستحقاق أصيل لأهل بولاق و أستحقاق أصيل لنسيج القاهره العمرانى و التاريخى لا يجوز أزالته و لكن يجب حمايته و ترميمه و بقاءه كجزء من ذاكرة المدينه, حق تحديد المصير أيضا أستحقاق لأهل المنطقه فلا يجوز لأحد التقرير بالنيابه عنهم بل دور الدوله هو حمايتهم من أطماع الرأسماليه و حمايه نسيج القاهره العمرانى القديم من خطر الأزاله, يجب توفير مسكن ملائم لأهل المنطقه على هذا النسيج و ليس فى أبراج. حق تقرير المصير هذا يجب أن يكون ناتج من حوار بين الأهالى و متخصصين و هذا يأخذنا لدور المحليات الغائب عنه التمثيل الحقيقى للمواطن.

القاهره تستحق أفضل من مخطط القاهره 2050, و تحتاج الى تطوير حياة سكانها الحقيقيين الذين هم دينامو الحياه اليوميه للمدينه و لا يستحقون التهميش, القاهره لا تستحق محو ذاكرتها المعماريه و تحويلها ألى دبى جديده تتنافس فى رؤيه النيل و أهلها يصارعون من أجل مأوى و لقمة عيش, قلب القاهره يريد أن ينبض من جديد بتحسين أوضاع سكانه و ليس بدعاوى تطوير زائفه, و كورنيش النيل حق لمواطنى العاصمه لا يجوز حرمانهم منه فى أنفاق حتى يتثنى لقاطنى الفنادق الأنفراد به بعيدا عن أنظار الماره

لا تحتاج القاهره الى أبراج زجاجيه و مجتمعات مغلقه جديده فى قلب المدينه لخدمة شريحه معينه تريد أن تنعزل عن باقى المجتمع وتنفرد بالنيل حتى تتحول فى النهايه القاهره الى مجموعه من الحواجز و الأسوار نتحرك بينها مثل الأقزام.

تساؤلات 

هل حل المشكله فى توفير 64 برج أم الحل هو النظر فى جذر المشكله ؟

هل يجوز قلب الحقائق حتى يصبح الأهالى هم المتطفلين وقطاع طرق و هم من يثقلون بطلباتهم على كاهل الدوله ؟

ما المقصود بمراعاة السلميه فى التظاهر السلمى ؟ السلميه تشترط توافر حكومه محترمه تنظر فى مطالب المواطنين من أول وقفه أما مقابلة الوقفات بمبدأ الكلاب تعوى و القافله تسير يفتح الباب على مصراعيه للتصعيد و تخطى حدود السلميه حتى لأيصال أصواتهم.

ما هو دور المحليات و المتخصصين ؟ و ما هى حدود دور المسئول فى أتخاذ قرارات مصيريه تخص حياة المواطن ؟

لماذا لا تخرج الدوله ممثله فى المحافظ أو أيا من كان بمنتهى الشفافيه لتعرض علينا الطرف البائع للأرض هل هى الدوله أم الأهالى ؟

هل من المنطقى وجود مخطط لتطوير المنطقه لأستخدامات أخرى دون وجود نيه لأزاحة السكان ؟

هل من المنطقى أن تنكر الدوله ملكيه الأرض للسكان فى يوم من الأيام و تمنع تنكيس و ترميم المبانى و تعطى مقابل مادى من أجل نقل السكان الى مكان أخر و يكون الطرف البائع هو أهالى المنطقه و ليس الدوله؟

ما المقصود بكلمة تطوير هل هو محو ذاكرة منطقه و تغيير قلب المدينه على الخريطه, أم عمل مشروعات تنمويه تصب فى تحسين معيشة سكان المدينه اليوميه ؟

أذا لم يتم الأجابه عن هذه الأسئله بمصداقيه و شفافيه و وعى بخطورة ما نقوم به من أجرائات على المدى الطويل تؤدى الى طمس معالم المكان الذى نعيش فيه, فلنودع القاهره و لنرحب بعاصمه جديده كرتونيه, فالحلقه بين المواطن و المسئول و بين الدوله و المجتمع مفقوده, و ما بولاق الا حلقه فى سلسله متصله لمحو ذاكرة أمه بفصل المكان عن الزمان.

نعم للتطوير لا للتهجير.

لقاء مع أهالى بولاق

صوره من مخطط القاهره 2050

جميع الصور لمنطقة بولاق من تصوير كاتب المقال على محمد احمد

Walking the city: an interview with Nabil Shawkat on the pleasures of exploring Cairo on foot

Walking is a fundamental part of experiencing the city. Until 1900, Cairo was a compact dense walkable city, by 1950 the city stretched out to the south, north-east and cross the Nile but it was also serviced with an extensive tram network and it was still a very walkable city. Besides simply being a means of getting from one point to another, walking can be a social experience, it can be exploratory or even contemplative.

With the increase in personal cars, the decrease of quality in public transport, the expansion of the city into the desert, the exodus and continuous self-segregation of the upper classes, with the lack of investment by the moneyed class into urban lifestyles and old districts, deterioration of civic pride and finally the policies of neglect by the state, walking has lost its appeal to many of the city’s residents. Walking for pleasure, for exploration or walking as a social experience in the heart of the urban core seems like a novel idea in today’s Cairo. The poor conditions of the streets and sidewalks don’t help either.

But for those who are willing to venture out for the pleasures of (re)discovering the city on foot, it can be a very rewarding experience. Naturally, the best time to walk around Cairo for fun is early Friday mornings. Everyone can start exploring the city on foot starting next Friday, it is an important step to see through the dust and the massive anti-Cairo sentiment so many of the city’s residents have come to accept and to find the interesting, hidden, historic, and pleasurable potentials of the city. No need to go far, you can start by exploring your own district regardless of what or where it is, it will be interesting.

Linguist, baker, freelance writer and Cairophile Nabil Shawkat has been leading walks almost weekly with a group of Cairo residents and the occasional visitor. Cairobserver asked Nabil some questions about walking in Cairo.

When did you start your Friday walks as a group activity, and how did it all begin?

We never planned to form this group. It all started with Jim Antinou’s wonderfully illustrated book A Walk Through the Islamic City. I loved this book and wanted to do the walk, so I told friends at a party that I need fellow walkers. We did a walk, I was satisfied, and didn’t plan more walks. But the next week they called and demanded another walk. Then called again, and so it all started. This was back in 2008 and we have been doing the walks on and off since then. The group has changed since then, some people left for other countries, new people joined. In all, about 8 to 10 people show up for the walk. The perfect number is perhaps 5 or 6. When we are more than 10 people we have to be more careful because we become too visible to ignore, and the narrow back streets (which are our main interest) become harder to negotiate. Also when the number gets too big, we tend to waste more time looking for each other and waiting for the stragglers.

Describe a typical walking day (where you begin, how you choose a destination or route, what you look for along the way…)

We don’t have an itinerary planned ahead most of the time. We just leave the coffee shop (near Tahrir Square) and in the following minute or so take a quick vote and go with the majority.

Having said that, the areas worthy of our interest are really well defined. We cover everything that the tourists don’t usually cover. Residential buildings from 1850 to 1950 take most of our attention, as well as the usual mix of mosques. We are also in love with saint shrines, especially the little known ones in the back streets.

Some of us have an interest in architecture; Michael in particular has an amazing eye for old lanterns from the early 20^th century or earlier. I love the 1967 brick walls that were built supposedly for urban warfare or bomb protection in front of buildings, and we always photograph these when we find them. Dana who is a professional photographer has an interest in cats and several of us tend to take photos of shop displays when they are unusual. Political posters and elections posters seem to attract our attention as well.

What does walking reveal about the city that other means cannot offer.

I am interested in architecture and therefore can lose myself in the architecture and forget the people in the streets. But I discovered that this cold attitude is untenable, simply because people want to interact. The areas we visit are often outside the tourists’ beaten track and the inhabitants invariably say jokes about it, on the assumption that we don’t speak Arabic, or offer to show us interesting buildings, or offer us tea in their homes. The natural reaction of people is to claim ownership of their turf by interacting with these foreign elements (anyone who has no business such as buying or selling or visiting acquaintances). The interest takes two forms: hospitable and aggressive. I would say that bashful interest is the usual reaction, when people comment to each other and just eye us from a distance. Then there is engagement when they come and talk to us or make a suggestion. It gets choppy when the interest, legitimate as it is, takes an aggressive form. Then you can get a self-appointed vigilante denouncing the walkers as visitors interested only in shaming Egypt (because they take pictures of what seems to be decrepit houses or even garbage – for some reason a lot of interesting doors and walls have heaps of garbage in front of them.

This is the soft accusation (tarnishing Egypt’s image), and it is very common, perhaps once every two walks. The harder accusation is that of espionage, but this is thankfully less often (perhaps two or three times a year).

I am often stunned by the amateur historians whom I run into. Most people know very little about their neighborhood, but every so often someone, in any profession, from teacher to car panel beater, would simply blow you away by a detailed account of the history of the area, including details of dignitaries who lived there and even some Mamluk history. There is a mechanic in Birket al-Fil (Helmiya) who told me the entire history of Birket al-Fil citing an old history book that his uncle had. There is a car painter in Sayyeda Zeinab who mentioned the names of a dozen families of ministers and writers who lived nearby. There is a man on Haret al-Saqqayeen who gave me his phone number because he wanted to tell me all about the neighborhood. All these volunteer the information, and notice us immediately and are thrilled to have someone else appreciate the beauty of the hood.

Another thing that stunned me is that pedestrians tend to stop and look up whenever we are admiring an old building. They would stand beside us and look in the same direction and try to figure out what makes us interested in what seems to them like an old style and low rent building. There is a particular woman near Bab al-Wazir, dressed in black and all, wife of a local merchant perhaps, or daughter of a baker, and she really wanted to know what is it that we were admiring in an 1880 two story stone house with no apparent decoration. (When the house is decorated with reliefs the locals tend to appreciate it, but if there is no relief, the fact that the house is a rare example of nineteenth century architecture doesn’t really register). I told her that this style of building is extinct today and that even if I wanted to build a similar house I wouldn’t have the skilled artisans to do so. She was very satisfied with this answer.

The funniest bit is when people assume that we are “lost”. So they tell us that we can go to Husein and al-Azhar and look for a street called Moezz where the REAL cool stuff can be found.

Sometimes people get defensive, especially when their homes are close to antiquity sites, for they fear we may be antiquity officials looking into a way of “clearing” the area for tourists. We had at least one unpleasant encounter when we were looking for traces of Cairo’s northern wall in Faggalah. We were taking photos of one bit of an old wall that appeared from inside a shop and a man challenged our right to take photographs, and within minutes we were labeled spies, etc. This was disheartening, and I tried to check my temper and tell them a bit of the history of the area, but it took about ten minutes of threatening, and I erased the photo in front of them, before we were able to proceed. What makes such behavior outstanding is that just a minute before a local amateur historian had noticed out interest and was offering to lead us to a house inside which there is still a bit of the wall. This man simply disappeared when the confrontation ensued. So we missed one chance to see and record an interesting piece of history.

You often walk similar routes through central Cairo, does it every get redundant? Are there surprises? Give an example

I don’t know how many times we did Rowei الرويعى to fowatiya street and suq al-Zalat شارع الفوطية وسوق الزلط

And every time there is always a new surprise. There is this fuul restaurant near the Red Mosque that I can visit everyday if I lived nearer. Both sides of Clot Bey streets hold amazing surprises. For example, a few week’s ago I got a chef’s jacket (40 pounds) from one of the shops on Clot Bey that is specialized in special outfits. This shop sells military style suits (Latin American style) for children. There is another shop that sells outfits for the church. Forget it, it never ends. NEVER! You can do the same route twenty times and you’ll always find surprises. People who invite you to their homes, people who want you to export their stuff abroad, people who worked for the rich and famous, and people who lived in America and Europe. Everyone has a story and they love to tell it to a complete stranger.

I walked up and down Taht al-Rab’ تحت الربع perhaps thirty or forty times, and only last time I talked to the man who sells furnaces in the middle of the street and asked him if he has baking sheets. He went inside the shop and brought three different sizes for me to choose. I got two, each for 12 pounds, not something I can buy in a main street downtown, let alone in Zamalek and Garden city. And forget it when it comes to vegetables. I buy my olives every year in Megharbilin المغربلين  and the seller is always patient enough to tell me how to pickle it. Sometimes I get two recipes, one from the seller and one from the nearby shop owner who REALLY knows how it is done!

Why do you think Egyptians of a particular class frown on walking, particularly in the parts of the city you walk through?

I don’t blame them, for not everyone is aware that great cities, even those in disrepair (and perhaps especially those), offer endless forms of entertainment. Fifteen years ago, I hadn’t yet started reading about Islamic architecture and was walking with an architect friend and he explained the difference between Ayyubid and Mamluk and ottoman minarets and I was stunned to know that people can actually date a mosque by looking at it. It is like football, if you know the players and their skills you’ll appreciate the game. If you don’t know the first thing, the best game is boring. So we appreciate this walk because we had some basic knowledge of things to look for, and we kept building up this knowledge. Sometimes we are joined in the group by specialized architects and architecture writers, people like Shaimaa Ashour, and Yasmine Dorghamy and Mohamed Elshahed. This immediately doubles out enjoyment, for we grill them about what we see. Without knowledge there is no enjoyment. We were lucky to have just enough knowledge to see the beauty in the perplexing variety of Cairo. Should schools include architectural styles in their curricula, I am sure the quality of city life would improve.


This isn’t a touristic walk, or could it be? What draws the line between tourism and what you do? Do you think the state and tour companies should be expanding tourism mentality in Egypt to include experiences such as these?

Tourism is limited by the tiny amount of time the tourists have, so this is not for the average tourists. But for architecture students and photographers and artists I would have liked a program of residence in Cairo. And I know of a top painter in NY and a writer in Texas who would have joined in a second, just to make the point. There are several friends abroad who are following the walking maps regularly and write back to me with great adulation. There are often friends who grab a foreign visitor to the walk, and the visitors are thrilled. It’s not for everyone, but the attraction exists. With modern media offering people some knowledge about the basic sites in every city, and with traveling becoming more common all the time, people are looking for a new experience. I often pass by buildings in back streets, residential buildings that were once one family mansion, or extended family dwellings, and I know that they are due for the wrecking ball, in a year or two perhaps. And I am convinced that there is an international demand by writers and artists and just normal folks to live in these areas, not in the mundane high rises by the Nile.

You mostly focus on downtown and surrounding areas, but would you say that this exploratory walking could be done in any part of the city? 

One is really limited by history. The reason downtown is interesting to me is not the Belle Epoch areas, but because there are some pockets of history hidden around it. As you approach Abdeen Palace the narrow streets to the west of the palaces get irregular. The reason is that these are the remainders of old villages that the planners of Khedive Ismail forget to bulldoze when they were trying to do a Haussmann surgical transformation of Cairo. These are the parts I love. So look into the map of Cairo, if you see diagonal streets and grid patterns, there is perhaps less for you to see. If the streets are narrow and irregular, these are the remains of old harat (neighborhoods, sometimes gated, of medieval times). My main interest is the harat, and they are everywhere from Midan Lebnan to Shobra. The problem is how to get inside these winding streets, with the dead ends, without rousing local hostility. I sometimes look into the map, memorize the name of a street or a mosque, and when someone asks me where I am heading, I mention that name. This immediately defuses the tension. You have to develop some “disarming” techniques for the locals to accept your visual curiosity, or they’ll chase you away. The narrow streets are very private; sometimes you are walking at eye level with people’s bedrooms. And this is when one of your group stops to take a picture of a cat, and you’re just praying to god the woman inside is not going to come out and chase you with a broom. Most of the times they don’t, but you cannot bet your life on it.

So for the urban adventurers, the brave walkers, the intrepid city adventurers, a lot of fun awaits you. Get some mapping device, or book, and head out to Shanan Street in Boulak, Sweqet al-Lala in Sayyeda, Darb al-Gamamiz in Helmiya, Qerabiya Street in Taht al-Rab’. Do the tourist stuff and get it done with, then the real fun starts.

You can see some of Nabil’s previous walks on maps and with photos by clicking here.

Ahram Online: Experts examine Egypt’s informal housing crisis

Ahram Online’s Nada El-Kouny’s report on the one day workshop held last week at CEDEJ on informal urban development and government policies of evictions, among other related topics.

In an attempt to tackle the issue of informal housing in Egypt, primarily following the January 25 Revolution, a joint workshop initiative was held on Monday by the French Centre for Social, Judicial and Economic Documentation (CEDAJ), UN-Habitat and the German Agency for International Cooperation’s (GIZ) Participator Development Programme in Urban Areas.

The workshop, held at the French Cultural Centre in Mounira, Cairo, was attended by approximately eighty people, including urban planners, architects, sociologists, economists, and government representatives, all dealing with the issue of informal housing in Egypt.

The ‘Egypt Urban Futures’ workshop tackled the issue of informal housing—more commonly referred to as ashwaiyat (random) settlements—from a number of different perspectives.

Regina Kipper of GIZ said the main objective of the workshop was to launch a new platform on the urban future of Egypt and its challenges since 2011, by promoting dialogue between civil society, private and public institutions and academics in attempting to work towards sustainable development.

Dina Shehayeb of the Housing and Building National Research Centre provided a brief overview of informal housing in Cairo, stating the phenomenon goes back to the 1950s when there was a major wave of urbanisation, mostly due to the dismantling of the agricultural economy and the increased industrialisation.

Shedding light on more recent statistics, urban consultant David Sims, the author of Understanding Cairo: The Logic of a City Out of Control (2011), stressed there had been an exponential increase in the rate of informal housing in Egypt in recent years. For example, in Geziret El-Warraq in Giza the post-revolution rate of population growth has increased four and a half times compared to its pre-revolution rate, Sims said.

Moreover, the encroachment on agricultural land has increased at a much higher rate. In many villages in Egypt’s Nile Delta farmers have found construction more profitable than agriculture. Referring to a telling statistic, Sims stated that according to the Ministry of Agriculture, 29,486 feddans of agricultural land in approximately 700,000 separate cases, had been built on since the January 25 Revolution.

Conflicting outlooks were presented on the mechanisms used to deal with informal and unsafe housing since the January 25 Revolution, which led to some heated discussions.

Nahed Naguib of the General Organisation for Physical Planning said the issue of informal housing was caused by economic and social problems and her organisation’s work focused on containing the growth of informal settlements. New housing units were being created by the Ministry of Housing and municipalities, Naguib added.

Ashraf Mohamed, head of the informal housing department in Cairo, said: “Just like the Aswan High Dam was built to contain the flooding of agricultural land, we have to stop the increase of ashwaiyat.”

Providing a critique of such a view, Yahia Shawkat, architect and informal housing specialist at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), said the biggest threat to such communities “is the state itself.”

Shawkat also noted that the “real entry point to such a debate has to take into account the agency of these self-built communities that will continue to grow.”

He highlighted a number of cases of forced evictions from informal settlements. He mentioned Qorsaya Island, which has recently experienced violent clashes between police and residents who the army attempted to evict by force, claiming ownership of the Island, despite many residents living there for decades.

Likewise, the government has a controversial “Cairo 2050” plan to clear slums and develop the land. An example of this is Ramlet Boulaq behind the Nile Towers, which planners hope will be replaced with more lucrative projects.

Urban planner Omar Nagati provided a more holistic view on the issue:

“While government officials have attempted to reduce informal neighbourhoods and demolish them, it is important to rethink the way we talk about ashwaiyat. Today, all of Egypt is becoming informal, starting with the street vendors, microbuses, toktoks, etc.”

Link to original article: http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/66652.aspx

Talk by Jason Hilgefort “Urban regeneration: beyond the building”

Urban regeneration is natural and necessary, but given current development demands, an often nasty process. Referencing works in Turkey, India, Morocco, Cypress, etc; the discussion will focus on issues of cultural heritage, public space, policy, and dirty daily contemporary urban realities in search of alternative methods of operating.

Jason Hilgefort studied urbanism at The University of Cincinnati and architecture at UBC in Vancouver. His works range from New York to Bombay. He is a project leader at Maxwan A+U, and has his own office Land + Civilization Compositions. He is also a contributor to uncube magazine.

The Talk will be held at MEGAWRA on March 28 at 7pm.

Event: Downtown Contemporary Arts Festival, 4-28 April, 2013

Press Release:

D-CAF is coming back to Downtown Cairo,

opening its doors to the public from 4-28 April 2013

Egyptian contemporary artists and performers will be joined by leading international names in a month-long calendar of independent music, performing arts, film, visual arts, street performances and workshops.

For information on D-CAF 2013 program please visit: www.d-caf.org

and d-caf blog: www.d-caf.org/blog

[Alice, a play presented as a world premiere in this year’s D-CAF, by the Lebanese Sawsan Bou Khaled and Hussein Baydoun]

The Downtown Contemporary Arts Festival (D-CAF) opens its doors to the public for the second year, from 4-28 April 2013. After the successful launch of the festival last year, D-CAF is back with a rich program of contemporary performances and visual arts to be shown in historic locations and outdoor spaces in downtown Cairo.  D-CAF is currently Egypt’s largest international contemporary multi-disciplinary festival and, throughout the month of April, Cairo audiences will enjoy a wide variety of independent theatre and dance performances, music concerts, visual arts exhibitions, film screenings and workshops.

D-CAF 2013 will feature some of Europe’s leading independent acts who will perform in Cairo - many for the very first time - alongside artists from Egypt and the region.  For organisers this broad diversity of art forms and performers is what makes this festival unique: ” At D-CAF, we’re not presenting a single art form or a single trend. Rather, we’re trying to give Cairo audiences a snapshot of what is available, worldwide, in contemporary art today,” says Festival Director, Ahmed El Attar. “We’re trying to make the experience as varied as possible to cater to the widest possible audience”.

As a result of this focus, D-CAF’s month-long program of events will this year encompass around 130 international and Egyptian artists presenting work in a variety of art forms: this includes the D-CAF performing arts program which will include several internationally acclaimed acts such as Algerian Director, Kheireddine Lardjam’s play “End/Igne” performed by Compagnie El Ajoud and Anatomia Publica, a contemporary dance piece choreographed by renowned French choreographer, Tomeo Verges, who will also stage two original dance creations with Egyptian performers specially created for D-CAF. Dutch Theater Group, Hotel Modern, is also among acts featured and will bring their iconic theater piece “The Great War” to Egypt and the Arab world for the very first time. The D-CAF music program this year celebrates modern sounds representative of the streets and the revolution in a series of Thursday night concerts, throughout the duration of the festival. A star-studded line up of music acts will include America’s celebrity DJ Khadafi Dub, Tunisia’s Emel Mathlouthi and Egypt’s Dina el Wedidi and SADAT.

[The Dutch company Hotel Modern’s piece: The Great War.]

Building on the success of last year, D-CAF will once again present its Urban Visions program, a rich calendar of contemporary dance and performances taking place in the streets around Tahrir Square. These include the Netherlands Dance Group, 100 Hands who will be performing in Egypt for the very first time.

The festival’s visual arts program is this year curated by Cairo-based independent arts institution, Medrar for Contemporary Art, who will be exploring the digital frontier of contemporary visual arts through a series of collaborations between Egyptian and international artists.  The D-CAF film program will explore underground and resistance cinema with a special focus on Contemporary West African Cinema. Meanwhile, the Edutainment program will offer a series of public seminars and workshops, including workshops for artists and for children delivered by Britain’s renowned Bootworks Theater Collective.

According to Ahmed El Attar: “We want to use D-CAF as a platform to attract, into Egypt, regional and international performers who are shaping the world of contemporary art but whom Egyptian audiences rarely get to see. The Festival also hopes to create opportunities for collaboration and cross-fertilisation between these international names and Egypt’s own thriving independent arts scene.”

Design Process- a project for Ard el Lewa

Cairobserver is looking to share architectural and urban designs by professionals and students.

This student work comes from Professor Nabil Elhady’s Public Buildings Studio at Cairo University. The aim of the studio is a reconsideration of public buildings in Egyptian cities and exploring the ways in which public buildings can have a positive contribution to the improvement of quality of life. Each semester the studio focuses on a very particular urban context, the first time it was taught students had to confront the urban challenges of the Gamaliyya district in historic Cairo, the second time the site was the Continuing Education building at AUC’s Tahrir Square campus and the last the course was taught in cooperation with architect Omar Nagati and brought students to the space separating the so-called formal and infmal parts of the city at Ard el Lewa.

The design problem: to design a public building that responds to the local context, local needs and acts as a link between two seemingly separate parts of the city.

CURL: Introducing the Cairo Urban Resource Library

The Cairo Urban Resource Library is a project initiated by Omar Nagati and Beth Stryker (CLUSTER) and is supported by the British Council. The idea is simple: to create a publicly accessible architecture and urban studies library in a central location.

The library is located in the premises of CLUSTER, Cairo Laboratory for Urban Studies, Training and Environmental Research, at 43 Sherif Street, 3^rd Floor.

The library is a work in progress and is soon to be opened to the public. Architect Omar Nagati and curator/architect Beth Stryker believe having a well-stocked library of urban and architectural books available to architects, planners and students is an important piece of “infrastructure” that is lacking in Cairo. At present most of the books in the library are from Nagati’s private collection but they are looking to partner with others owning similar libraries willing to collaborate as part of the project. CURL will also accept book donations (email below for contact).

The library is being cataloged in Arabic and English and its cataloging system will be a parallel system to Rufoof, which is an initiative that aims to catalog Cairo’s many and separate art libraries. CURL aims to veer more in the direction of urban/architectural libraries using an especially designed system.

Cairo’s lack of public libraries and specialist libraries focusing on items related to the city or urbanism and architecture in general, makes CURL a particularly significant project. Another resource library for architecture and urbanism is available at the premise of MEGAWRA in Heliopolis. One of CURL’s objectives is to link architecture resource libraries across Cairo via the shared cataloging system. Also important to note that university libraries, including those in architecture departments, have limited collections and those which maybe more up-to-date, such as AUC’s or GUC’s libraries, are less accessible to the public and are far outside the city center. Thus, students of architecture seeking to further develop this knowledge beyond the classroom will need alternative and specialized libraries such as the one being built in downtown by CLUSTER.

CLUSTER already has plans to expand the library to include a maps section and to seek Cairo-specific works such as dissertations, student projects, development agency reports, etc. They are also looking to develop a lexicon of Arabic terminology to match with contemporary and recent terms and concepts that appeared in the professions of planning and architecture, which don’t have Arabic translations.

CLUSTER welcomes contributions to the library, including donations of books from publishers or individuals, pertaining to Cairo architecture and urbanism.

For further information or to inquire about how to join the CURL network, support this library or to donate books contact CLUSTER at: info@clustercairo.org

900KM Nile City: grappling with Egypt’s baffling urban condition

From February 17 to March 6 the Townhouse Gallery hosted an exhibit titled 900KM Nile City, a project by Atelier Kempe Thill, baukuh, GRAU and edited by Moataz Faissal Farid and Pier Paolo Tamburelli.

The scale of the project is ambitious, it describes in text, video, maps, and photographs the narrow stretch of land from Aswan to Cairo where a series of settlements comprise a Nile City measuring 900KM in length. “It is an accident. There was never the will or the wish to create it; it just happened. The Nile City is a new city type that was formed simply by rapid population growth.”

While Cairo takes the lion’s share of the attention of urbanists interested in Egypt, 900KM Nile City looks the other way, at the urban settlements south of the capital which have mushroomed over the past five decades around previously established towns and villages. It also charts the state’s failed response to urban growth with its “new cities” or “desert cities” built on the edge of the fertile land to house population growth away from the valley and its settlements. It is from these settlements, where the economy has nearly collapsed, that thousands of migrants head to Cairo in search of work opportunities. The new cities built by the state are largely vacant, unused and failed on the social and economic levels to respond to population needs in addition to failing to negotiate the relationship between peasant society, its relationship to the land, agriculture and economy and its transformation into a semi-urbanized society relying less on agriculture as the state favors international importation of basic food stuffs over supporting local farming economies.

900KM Nile City looks at the current situation “with optimism, but without illusion” in an attempt to understand the urban and environmental features of this unique strip of land in order to begin to propose visions for moving forward. This has led the team of researchers to work in collaboration with multiple partners ranging from Assiut University, Berlage Institute, Sohag Governorate, and others to collect data and identify typologies, and existing networks. This data was then translated into readable graphs, diagrams, drawings, and maps. This process of abstraction is one that belongs to the long history of the profession of planning: raw data claiming to reflect reality in numbers must be transformed into legible consumable images and representations. The resulting images and maps are remarkable.

The photographic element of the project includes works by Stefano Graziani, Bas Princen and Giovanna Silva. The photographs range from landscape to street scenes. The accompanying video “It’s Countryside” incorporates commentary from specialists along with interviews by locals and footage from Sohag Governorate, where the project zooms in to capture a piece of the 900KM City.

Beyond documentation, research and visualization, the project also presents a proposal, a way forward on how to mend the situation in anticipation for further growth of populations and continuous loss of agricultural land. The proposed solution consists of urban belts linking existing Nile Valley towns with their desert city counterparts. Although schematic at its current stage, the proposal falls short of providing a nuanced approach to solving the problematic current conditions. There is a certain naiveté of believing that design is capable of solving such complex urban problems, where in fact I would argue what is fundamental to confronting the situation is sound policy, not design.

The voices from the communities heard in the video are proof that the primary complaints and struggles these communities face are rooted in ill-conceived state policies that then impact the designs and appearances of towns and villages and dictate their urban growth.

The state with all its hegemonic power over matters of economy and development intervenes minimally and often relies on “experts” and consultants to legitimize its top-down plans and proposals. During the panel discussion accompanying this important project the state was not represented nor does it seem to care.

The panel discussion held at the Goethe Institute was a lively event where the project was presented by its creators who also invited Cairobserver and Professor Nabil Elhady of Cairo University to present a critical point of view. The project, exhibition and panel created an opportunity for an important discussion to take place about the role of architects and planners and their relationship to society and the state, as well as about the specificity and peculiarities of the Nile Valley urban condition, and many other topics this ambitious project sheds light on.

Visit the website of the 900KM Nile City where much of the project’s content is available.

Resident Perspective: Dokki

Resident Perspective is a series of standardized interviews with Cairo residents to get their views on the city and their neighborhoods.

Where in Cairo do you live?
Dokki, like the rest of the country, covers a spectrum of contradictions, whether in regards to its architecture, its residences, or the governmental services or sidewalks.

List the most positive and the most negative aspects of living there.
Positive: Quite central, but far away from problem zones. Close to Metro and main Microbus lines. Negative: Where I live is quite a walk away from any cafes or restaurants, so hopping out for a nice dinner or meeting someone for a quick bite is not always easy. There are no green spaces.

How do you move around Cairo (modes of transport) and what would you like to see different regarding the future of transport in the city?
Metro and on foot. I have not used microbuses in a few years, since harassment started really getting to me, (not just sexual, but the “hello welcome to Cairo” type as well). When traffic is not *too* bad, I sometimes take a Taxi. I only drive when leaving the City. I would love to see a Metro station in more central areas of Mohandesin, Zamalek and Heliopolis; it would make getting around much easier. A less hostile atmosphere in microbuses would also be very welcome.

How does your district fit within Cairo? What would you like to see changed in that relationship between your neighborhood and the city?
It is well connected and accessible from most areas of the City. El Gam’a bridge is a practical alternative artery to use when Tahrir or 6th October are closed.

What are your top complaints about Cairo and what would you suggest to solve those problems?

Complaints: 1) Traffic, ensuing pollution & stress. 2) Limited walking possibilities (decaying sidewalks, trash, men). 3) The centralization of everything, causing mass influx of non-Cairenes into the already choking city. Solutions? Decentralisation of as many institutions as possible, and providing the necessary facilities in other governorates and cities to keep people away from being lured to move into the Capital. Fighting against the culture that believes living in Cairo is all that prestigious. Is there really a solution to traffic? Better public transport, perhaps? But then you will have to provide safe transport for women (although I hate segregation), and fight the imaginary prestige that comes with owning a car. Is Cairo’s infrastructure able to accommodate transportation that will in turn accommodate all the commuters? Further, I find someone living in Heliopolis and commuting daily to 6th of October for work just absurd.

What do you like the most about Cairo and what are your favorite places in the city.

It is difficult to vocalize what I love about Cairo. It is home, it is who I am. My favourite places: 1) The walk on Qasr El Nil bridge is heaven for me. 2) I love the whimsical architectural gems here and there, so the walk on 15th of May bridge through Zamalek and then into Boulak fills me with happiness. And then I get angry about the state of things. 3) The side alleys. Any side alley. The balconies & the people sitting there, the kids on their bikes, the shop keepers having discussions with the people on the balconies, the breeze of cool wind in summer.

Do you relate to the historic heritage of your district or of Cairo in general? Do you think you have a good sense of history of the city? Would you say you are have “civic pride” or are proud to live in Cairo?

How does anyone relate to historic heritage? Yes, I have a good sense of the city and it is my pride.

Do you understand how the city is governed/managed? Do you think your community/district would be better or worst if residents from the community/district were involved in local government (محليات)?

Certainly, community involvement in local government would be great. However, it will filter down to one driven person doing all the work, and all the other neighbors not caring unless there is an issue affecting them directly.

In the context of Cairo, what comes to mind when you think of these keywords?

Green Space/Parks: dawsha, 3eyal bitigry, zibala. (noisy, kids running around, trash).

Gated communities: Waste of space and money. We need more affordable housing, less manzara 3ala omina.

Museums:  There are tons of museums with amazing collections (not just antiquities). They need to be revived and have a presence in their direct communities, and be accessible to visitors from all over.

Informal areas: People have to live, and they will do whatever needs to be done for them to have a roof over their heads.

Downtown: Remains of an era long gone, an era we should be not feel nostalgic about, because we never lived it, and our parents and grandparents only recall the good things about it.

If you could move to another district in Cairo where would you move to?
Nowhere

*If you would like to tell us about where you live and share your views on Cairo, fill the survey by clicking here.