Destruction Alert: Villas in Heliopolis and more

Egypt’s modern architectural and urban heritage, arguably the country’s most relevant to contemporary history and most prolific, has been under attack for over five decades. Throughout the country thousands of historic apartment buildings, villas, public buildings from the 19th and 20th centuries have been destroyed since the 1970s. The official government apparatus has failed miserably to effectively stop this destructive process which has been fueled by government policies and laws. Such laws were exploited by the development and real estate industries. Several organizations have been created but they only function within the government structure which they need to fight on behalf of public good and society at large.

Since January of 2011, many more properties of historic or architectural value have been deliberately destroyed either by their owners, inheritors or by squatters. The loss is irreplaceable. Many elaborate techniques have been deployed to destroy these sturdy structures by injecting the structure with acid, leaving running water to damage foundations, cranking the floors at the corners to loosen joints or even by using illegal explosives. The country’s rich architectural character which reflects great advances in design and social mobility in Egypt’s recent past are being systematically erased.

Pictured above is a villa in Heliopolis on al-Qubba street. It has been destroyed only in the past week. If this trend continues, there will be little left of Egypt’s modern heritage.

Cairobserver is renewing an earlier call for the creation of an independent organization with the mandate to effect change, perhaps modeled on Egypt’s own and now defunct Comite de conservation building on the experience of successful organizations elsewhere such as New York Landmarks Commission. Cairo’s organization would do the following, learning from New York’s Landmarks Commission:

• Safeguard the city’s historic, aesthetic, and cultural heritage.
• Help stabilize and improve property values in historic districts.
• Encourage civic pride in the beauty and accomplishments of the past.
• Protect and enhance the city’s attractions for tourists.
• Strengthen the city’s economy.
• Promote the use of landmarks for the education, pleasure, and welfare of the people of Cairo

A new group has been created on Facebook called Treasures of Egypt at Risk, find it here.