Towards a revolutionary Nile front

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

Destruction Alert: Villa Casdagli

On the first of February the long-abandoned and unused Villa Casdagli on Simon Bolivar Sq. was looted and its staircase was set on fire. The following day I visited the building after reading news that it was “burned to the ground” and found the fire department finishing its job in controlling the isolated fire. The building was standing strong but it had been stripped of any removable valuable ornamentation, or as the fire department officer called it, the building was “peeled.”  What happened at Villa Casdagli is hardly something new nor does it have anything to do with revolution or the “security vacuum.” Historic buildings, particularly those from the 19th and 20th centuries have fallen victim to organized looting, vandalism and even official cover for their subsequent demolition by people as high up in the state as previous prime ministers (directly requesting the removal of buildings from heritage lists). Following this particular incident there has been no official response from the state and its institutions responsible while the most visible response from the cultured elite has been one of despair.

The latest incident at Villa Casdagli reveals the failures of the state in safeguarding and capitalizing on heritage as well as the failures of Egypt’s heritage society to take a leading role in creating awareness, creating proposals and offering alternatives to the fate of Egypt’s modern heritage and most importantly in making the heritage issue relevant to a wider audience outside the privileged few. Also, the incident makes certain the failure of Egypt’s professional cadre of engineers and architects who have not developed the professional environment and practices that prepare them to handle such heritage buildings regardless of their state in order to bring them back to life.

[As the burned and discolored plaster surface peels away it reveals a new modern, clean stone wall. This building is ready for a new life.]

The villa, which was built in 1910, under all the ornamentation, plaster, gilded frames, and wood floors is a masonry structure built with brick, stone and the floors and ceilings are of iron and concrete, hence it was little damaged structurally in the latest snafu.

The building had recently received some journalistic attention for its apparent neglect and need for restoration. Hidden behind trees, the villa had gone unnoticed to unknowing pedestrians until clashes in Tahrir Square spread to the nearby Simon Bolivar Sq. and led to the subsequent erection of a second wall on that square blocking off the street leading to parliament (the first wall was already erected blocking the street leading to the US embassy). The erection of the second wall had turned this important junction into a dead end and pedestrians had to get around the wall to go to their work in the area which led pedestrians to cut through the garden of the villa to jump its wall to make their way around the obtrusive obstacle course of walls. This was an unintended consequence of the road block wall, but it made the villa accessible and visible.

Of course not everyone was unaware of the building, it had been eyed for renovation, potentially paid for with a $5 million USAID grant to transform it into Cairo’s first Institute for Museology.

Government bureaucracy and conflict between the ministries of antiquities and education (the former tenant of the building until around 1999) delayed any possible progress in the status of the building which continued to be vacant and unused.

Then suddenly there was a night of renewed clashes on the last day of January during which a truck was loaded with large gilded frames, marble fireplace mantles, and extremely heavy ironwork that once lined windows and balconies. By morning the clashes had magically ended and the villa was “peeled.” This isn’t the first of its kind, the Villa Ispenian in Haram was given the same treatment recently. Looted items end up on the market for antique dealers and much of it ends up outside the country where it can be sold for a higher price. Whatever wasn’t removable was vandalized but with the exception of the staircase the building survived intact. Apparently the Education Ministry already has some kind of report of the incident.

Now what?

This isn’t about this particular building, rather this recent incident could have been an opportunity for all those involved and those interested in heritage to raise pertinent issues that have been needing resolution for years: Why are such buildings, particularly those in state ownership and use, allowed to sit unused and allowed to deteriorate? How can the state capitalize on the historical and heritage value of this real estate? What is wrong with the current laws and regulations regarding heritage/historic buildings particularly those from the 19th century to the present? What are some proposals for legislation that could remedy the situation and save what is left and what are the benefits and who benefits? Villa Casdagli could be a visible and easy to understand illustration of why these are important questions to raise as part of a wider conversation that brings in a wider audience beyond the small group of heritage enthusiasts.

Additionally, once the fate of the building is saved from a potential demolition permit, the work should be carried out by a local firm, one that demonstrates that Egyptian practices are ready and capable of carrying out such work. Often such projects go to international architecture firms, denying Egyptian firms from building a portfolio of successful experiences of renovations/conservations of modern heritage buildings. One such local company more than ready to do this work is Takween, a group of talented young architects and planners who have experience working in Egypt in various contexts and with heritage sites.

This building was a victim not of the latest clashes, but of thirteen years of neglect following forty years of misuse. There is a cause here that needs to be perused regarding Egypt’s modern heritage buildings, but this cause will only be advanced if activists and heritage enthusiasts jump on an opportunity such as this to highlight the problem to a wider audience and to offer alternatives and make more people dream about the potential of these properties and their significance to the economy, to history, etc.

The building lost some of its decorative elements, but that hardly means it is “destroyed.” Think of post-WWII European cities, they were destroyed, and they have been rebuilt like new, some tourists never realize that many of the seemingly medieval city squares and surrounding buildings are in fact fifty year-old reconstructions. So, no one should put their hands up in despair because we lost a wooden staircase and some mirrors. With $5 million, if that money is still available, this building could provide a much needed institution such as an Institute for Museology, but it could also provide an excellent case study in architectural conservation in Cairo.

Destruction Alert: Villa Ispenian

Last month a historic villa from the early twentieth century with unique architectural eclecticism and which was filled with antiques and a rich art collection was looted and destroyed. Below is an article by Nevine El-Aref which first appeared on Al-Ahram Weekly on February 8, 2013.

Safe as houses? Not under the MSA

The luxuriously furnished villa of Kevork Ispenian on the Pyramids Road was looted and destroyed despite being on Egypt’s heritage list. Nevine El-Aref mourns the early 20th century edifice

At the Giza Plateau end of the Pyramids Road, near the Mena House Oberoi Hotel, the neo-Islamic villa of Kevork Ispenian stands wretchedly, its Mamluk and Ottoman features revealing the extent of the damage to this beautiful, historic house.

The destruction is over; the house stands in ruins. The garden, once laid out with an immaculate lawn and decorated with rare species of plants and trees and graced by a ceramic mosaic fountain, is now embellished with lumps of limestone and fallen bricks; littered with Mamluk mashrabeya (wooden lattice work) that formerly covered the windows and balustrades. Rubble and rubbish are scattered over the ground among the dead trees and palm trunks.

The house itself is in no better condition; on the contrary it is in a terrible state. Heaps of rubble and sand are piled on the floors, making it hard to tread on and walk through the rooms. Parts of the walls and decorated marble rails and slabs were scattered all around, while wooden doors engraved with foliage and geometrical decorations and beautiful mosaics that once decorated the arcades are broken and missing.

“What a loss!” Ahmad Al-Bindari, a researcher and photographer at the Centre for Documentation of Cultural and Natural Heritage (CULTNAT), told Al-Ahram Weekly sadly. He went on to say that the villa, constructed and designed by architect Charles Aznavour in 1935 as a rest house or weekend retreat for the Armenian father and son team of Kevork and Paul Ispenian, both collectors, was a great piece of heritage and its loss was tragic.

As befitted the house of collectors, several Mamluk and Ottoman artefacts, including those belonging to French architect Ambroise Baudry, were woven within its interiors. Baudry moved in 1871 to Egypt where he spent 15 years, during which he received many commissions, both private and royal. He constructed the Matatia edifices at Ataba in Downtown Cairo, which was demolished during the 1990s. In 1873 Baudry was given responsibility for the decoration of the interior of the salamlik (men’s quarters), the façade and the marble staircase of Khedive Ismail’s palace in Giza.

Baudry built a very distinguished residential villa for himself in Abdel-Khalek Tharwat Street in Downtown Cairo, which he decorated with authentic Mamluk and Ottoman artefacts. By the turn of the 20th century, Ispenian had bought Baudry’s genuine collection along with others when all the villas in Abdel-Khalek Tharwat Street were demolished and replaced with huge apartment buildings as part of a plan to convert the area into a commercial and residential zone.

According to Al-Bindari, the Ispenian Villa stayed in the possession of the Armenian family until the 1960s when it was then sold to the Abdel-Nour family, who in their turn sold it to the Supreme Council for Antiquities (SCA), now the Ministry of State for Antiquities (MSA). Meanwhile, the house contents were put on Egypt’s Islamic and Coptic Heritage List after that the house was abandoned. The doors were sealed in red wax, meaning that it was forbidden to enter and whoever stepped inside and removed the wax would be subjected to the law.

“I used to visit the house every now and then, but I have only seen it from the outside,” Al-Bindari told Al-Ahram Weekly. He added that during his tour of office he had grown fond of the house and its distinguished architectural elements, and had even invited his friends to come so he could show them its wonderful design. “But sometimes the wind doesn’t blow the way we want,” he said. Last spring, when Bendari went for his usual visit, he found the Ispenian Villa was not the one he used to admire. The iron gate lay on the floor, broken in two pieces. The structure was partially demolished, and the house and garden were a total mess and in the worst possible condition.

Al-Bindari was told that the house, like many other monuments and archaeological sites in Egypt, had been looted during the January 2011 Revolution when security in the country was almost non-existent. However, he told the Weekly that there was no way of knowing for certain what had happened or how the destruction had come about.

“Whoever stole the contents knew what he was doing,” Al-Bindari insisted. “It was systematic. Everything from the ornamented roof, the ornamental screens, the marble floors and even a historic column supporting the balcony have been stolen. They took their time and took everything apart.”

Bendari pointed out that the condition of the villa was not unusual by any standards. “These things happen all the time because of negligence,” he said.

So what did happen to the villa? Why was it possible for it to be subjected to so much looting and destruction? Is it the property of the antiquities department or not? If so, where is the new antiquities law and its amendment? Why is it not being implemented? One of the law’s articles is one that prohibits any encroachment and destruction of archeological sites and a prison term for offenders.

Mohamed Abdel-Rehim, head of the Islamic and Coptic monuments section, told the Weekly in a telephone interview that the building was not on the Egyptian antiquities list and that the villa was still owned by Abdel-Nour family. It was not a historic house which must come under the jurisdiction of the Historic Buildings law affiliated to the Giza governorate, nor did it come under the antiquities law or the MSA. He insisted that the building was not a listed monument.

Meanwhile, archaeologist Ahmed Taha, an inspector at the Giza section of the MSA, laid all the blame for neglecting the building on the Tourist and Antiquities Police (TAP), who failed to protect the house even though there is TAP station not 10 metres from the Ispenian Villa. He also said that during the tenure of former MSA minister Zahi Hawass there was a project to convert the historic villa into a museum for Islamic art, but no steps were taken to implement the plan. Taha’s statements are verified by an MSA official, who required anonymity. The official said that the collection of the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) in Bab Al-Khalk was stored in the Ispenian Villa while the museum was under lengthy restoration. Some objects from this collection are now on display in the MIA while others were transported to MSA storage rooms in the Salaheddin Citadel.

Mokhtar Al-Kasabani, professor of Islamic monuments in the archaeology department at Cairo University, who was the MSA consultant for Islamic monuments during the Hawass tenure, also supports Taha’s statements. He says the house is an MSA property and should come under the new antiquities law and its amendments.

The empty 30 feddan plot neighbouring the Ispenian Villa is owned by former minister of tourism Mounir Fakhri Abdel-Nour, who was willing to sell it to the MSA for a mega development project.

As a member of the committee who was in charge of the project, Kasabani said that the whole site in this prime area overlooking the Giza Plateau was earmarked to be transformed into a resort for tourists. It would include a small museum of Islamic art, a motel, bazaars selling replicas and souvenirs, a cafeteria and a bookstore for archaeology and art books. A parking area and a cinema would be also built as part of the complex. However, Kasabani said that regrettably the revolution had put the plan into jeopardy and it had been abandoned. The villa, he went on, was looted during the revolution and some of the mashrabeya and the mosaic fountain that once decorated the garden were missing.

“The current government and the MSA don’t care enough about Egypt’s history and its culture,” Kasabani told the Weekly. He added that a few months ago a contractor damaged the Ottoman warehouse and grist-mill of Madash-Merza in Boulaq Abul-Ela, and that even though he was caught red-handed he was set at large with a fine of only LE500. This contractor, he said, returned to Madash-Merza and resumed the demolition, and nobody moved a finger to save this great Ottoman monument, not even the MSA. Now he had built the first floor of his new building. What made things worse, Kasabani pointed out, was that all antiquities crimes were no longer prosecuted under the new antiquities law and its amendments which had priority on the court roll. Instead, they came under the usual criminal law, according to which a case can take years to be solved.

Kasabani suggests that to protect and rescue Egypt’s cultural and antiquities heritage, the MSA might be converted into an Independent Egyptian Authority affiliated directly to the president’s office rather than a ministry within the government echelon.

Destruction Alert: Mohamed Ali Shubra Pavilion

One of the corners of the recently restored historic pavilion of Mohamed Ali in Shubra, has collapsed. A 55 million Egyptian Pound ($9 million) restoration took place 7 years ago and the building was “reopened” to much fanfare. In reality the “restoration” was a botched job using cheap materials (including low quality paint) and utilizing the services of contractors inexperienced in historic preservation/conservation. The Ministries of Antiquity and Culture both have a dismal record when it comes to successful restoration work and have failed to protect much of Egypt’s heritage under their auspices. Often “restoration” projects such as this become excuses for public funds to be squandered by officials, consultants and construction firms. A recent fiasco at Ministerli Palace in Manial revealed how corrupt the system is when scaffolding was put up, closing the palace for years, only to be removed after the beginning of the revolution revealing that no work had been conducted.

It is important to note that in 2009, after the pavilion “restoration,” rare paintings of members of the Mohamed Ali family were stolen from the Shubra Pavilion and the incident received nearly no press coverage and no officials were held responsible. This predates the theft of the Van Gogh painting from another Ministry of Culture museum in 2010.

The Mohamed Ali Shubra Pavilion is a unique structure combining late Ottoman, French and Italian as well as Egyptian influences in its odd design centered around a pool with an island and seating areas around its perimeter.The square building was a separate structure built in 1820 near a Shubra Palace which was built in 1912 by architect Pascal Coste and which was located along the Nile in Shubra and had been destroyed by its owner in the 1930s. Samir Raafat has the complete story:

Marveled by all who visited it during his reign, Mohammed Ali’s Shubra Pavilion consists of an artificial marble-lined pool with as a whimsical centerpiece, an elaborate octagonal Carrara marble balustrade surrounding a fountain-islet sporting marble statuettes; the whole resting atop 24 raised marble crocodiles spraying water out of their menacing jaws.

Surrounding the pool is a raised wide square gallery fronted by moresque wrap-around veranda with 104 slender load-bearing bronze-based marble colonnades.

Overlooking the pool from the interior of the gallery are 112 low-lying windows with bronze railings.

The gallery built in wood and plaster has four corner salons (diwans or kiosks). As though standing sentinel on these salons are four water-spouting marble lions.

Not unlike the interiors of contemporary palaces built in the Citadel complex including the Bijoux Palace (1814), the Harem Palace built in 1827 (now military museum) and the Daftarkhana (1828), the Shubra palace and its annexes included a melange of styles ranging from faux oriental to gaudy European.

[The central pool area of the pavilion, the corner which collapsed is one of the four partial dome structures such as the one shown in the background of this image]

[to see the pavilion in action, click on the above screen shot to watch a scene from the film Cairo 30, which depicts a party taking place in the pavilion in the early part of the twentieth century]

Although the collapse took place around July 2012 news of the disaster has been muted. An investigative report was published by Al Ahram months later and another critical piecewas posted on the news site Masress. More recently the story was published in the heritage news section of Al-Rawi, Egypt’s heritage review magazine.

The piece posted on Masress is particularly important because it puts the Shubra disaster in within a larger context of corruption by officials in the ministries of culture and antiquities.

د. عبد الفتاح البنا الأستاذ بكلية الآثار جامعة القاهرة يري أن انهيار احدي القباب التي تغطي أحد القاعات الركنية بسرايا الفسقية بقصر محمد علي بشبرا بعد أقل من 6 سنوات من استلام القصر من مقاول الترميم بتكلفة معلنة 55 مليون جنيه يضاف إليهم ماهو غير معلن من أعمال تكميلية قد تتخطى هذا الرقم، هي بمثابة كارثة ولن تكون الحادث الوحيد بل سيتكرر ذلك كثيرا ولن ننسي منذ أربعة أشهر ما جري لشارع المعز لدين الله الفاطمي الذي غرقت آثاره في “المجاري” وكم السرقات التي تحدث جهارا نهارا لوحدات أثرية بالمساجد والدور والأسبلة الإسلامية وكل هذا يجعلنا في إطار حملتنا ضد الفساد في الآثار بصدد فتح ملف مشروعات ترميم الآثار خاصة ما كان في حوزة السجين “أيمن عبد المنعم” وزملائه سواء من سجن معه أومن هم مازالوا طلقاء لم تقتص منهم العدالة حتى وقتنا هذا !! لاسيما وأن حواس وغيره تغنوا بإنجازاتهم المزيفة في وقت كان الفساد والزيف هو السمة السائدة.
صندوق التنمية الثقافية أو “مغارة على بابا ” في وزارة الثقافة كما يطلق عليه د. عبد الفتاح البنا، كان يتولاه أيمن عبد المنعم، هذا الشاب اليافع الذي تحول لمليونير خلال سنوات قليلة، ويتردد أن الشركة التي اتهم بتقاضي رشوة منها بأعمال الديكورات فيها وتأثيثها بأثاث جيد، شمل قطعا من السجاد الإيراني وتحفا نفيسة، هو كان المسئول عن مشروع تطوير القاهرة التاريخية، ورسميا تولى أيمن عبد المنعم إدارة صندوق التنمية الثقافية الذي يسمونه بالإضافة إلى أكثر من 10 مشروعات أثرية أخرى.

The Tower: symbol of corruption

البرج | El Borg from Gehad abdel Nasser on Vimeo.

Gezira Tower, a cylindrical 166 meter tall building in Zamalek is seen by some as an eyesore, by others as a symbol of failed development and by others as a visible reminder of Egypt’s corruption and defunct governance. The building was developed in the late 1970s and was intended to be a hotel and Cairo’s tallest skyscraper. The developer was given approval on a personal basis from president Sadat, and later he faced difficulty completing the project also because of personal conflicts with other businessmen and government officials. The building was never completed and never inhabited. This is a story of a building which symbolizes all that has been wrong with Egypt’s development, economy and government since the 1970s when a new moneyed elite was ushered in to control the country and to open it to international markets.

The short documentary above (Arabic) includes interviews with the building’s developer, residents of Zamalek and shows images from the building’s unfinished interiors. Last May journalist Bradley Hope entered the building and interviewed its developer and published an article in The National.

Whether the Tahrir Square “revolution” was a success - or even whether it was a revolution at all - now hinges in part on whether a new, democratically elected president and parliament can begin reforming a sclerotic, graft-ridden economic system that has left Egyptians such as the 81-year-old Mr Fouda shaking their heads in disappointment, disgust and cynicism.

“It’s a very long story,” said Mr Fouda in his Zamalek apartment as he began describing how a building that was conceived as a crown jewel of a president’s vision for a new, modern Egypt is today an eyesore. “It will probably get longer.”

Mr Fouda bought the land on which the Gezira Tower sits in 1968 during the presidency of Gamal Abdel Nasser. But it was under Anwar Sadat, who introduced reforms to overturn his predecessor’s socialist ideas and open the economy to the world, that the idea for the tower took off.

Read the full article, click here.

AN URGENT APPEAL: SAVE DAHSHUR RESERVOIR

This scene photographed above may not last much longer if the state does not act to protect it. The ministries of interior, tourism, environmental protection, antiquities must act immediately

The following is an open letter posted by Youssef Abagui of The Sycamore - Al Gemeza eco lodge retreat and self study center

The Minister of Tourism
Mr. Hisham Zaazou
Subject : Dahshur - A World Heritage site.

Dahshur is not only an important heritage site constituting three of the oldest pyramids - prior to the Giza pyramids - The Royal lake - an ancient water reservoir that has remained so far as a one of the last vestiges of Egypt’s agricultural ingenuity - and until recently a spawning ground for migratory birds. The antiquity of this area is one of the least officially explored sites and contains some of the crucial clues to Egypt’s past. All this is surrounded by superb palm grove countryside.

In the absence of security forces and lawlessness the area lately has seen drastic changes. Mass antiquity thefts of the plateau east of the Pyramids by local sponsored gangs and in broad daylight. The ease of usurping non guarded antiquities land; by digging wells and planting trees on what could potentially be of paramount importance hence left to oblivion.

In addition, the degradation of the countryside by local land prospectors is in agreement with local officials who have little or no foresight, except for individual profit at the cost of the ruination of pristine irreplaceable nature.

The lake too, that once filled in September - a paradise for bird watchers, has been left fowl for three years as part of a plot to ruin it, then buy it as land for an imaginary tourist project - thus ending a six thousand year old tradition of migratory birds that found it an ideal winter home.

This rapidly degrading situation brought about in the name of ‘tourism’, is associated by unchecked corruption of some of the local officials - the neglect of the police, or the turning of a blind eye to infringements, and not to go so far as aid.

The situation has become drastic, as acres are being torn down actually, for two roads that are least needed; these will accelerate ecologic degradation. Local sand and stone quarries nearby are beneficiary - and they have increased profusely in the area too close to the monuments - causing a vast amount of trucks to pass and damage the ecosystem of such a special place. In fact it was the lack of large roads, and traffic, that had kept Dahshur beautiful and clean.

Roads have lead to obsolete gas stations in the midst of greenery that gradually ruin the land around them like a cancer - and giving a pretext to more of the thousands of tire shops and car mechanics - least needed in that area supposedly a World heritage site.

In the past decades - the state’s attempts to “over sophisticate” tourism sites has had contrary effects - the ruination of those very sites. The continuation of heavy handed tourism is no longer compatible with this day and age - especially that such examples are already set and hard to compete with. On the contrary - a more eco friendly tourism is paramount - a gentle approach - where Egypt’s image is that of a romantic journey in time - something few countries can offer, but certainly not one that has great roads or concrete hotels.

We the inhabitants of the area, see the urgency of an action to stop all works immediately, and to send an independent investigative team - that can see for itself the transgressions - and thus bring the issue to your close attention.

The prime assets we have as a nation are our ecology and our heritage, and to preserve those we need the full cooperation of all state ministries for that crucial purpose.

As a quarter of a century inhabitant of Dahshur - facing the lake - having passionately loved the place, and known it intimately - I can’t begin to tell you what we are on the verge of losing as a nation - ‘Magical mysterious Egypt’.

Surely no one should take that chance - therefore we the undersigned, will stand hand in hand with all local authorities as responsible citizens to preserve our heritage from extinction.

Youssef Abagui - 16th of October 2012.

Share this and spread till the authorities know we and the tourists watch nature not concrete.

Is Cairo’s Railway Museum lost?

[Top floor of the Railway Museum photographed in 2009, before renovation]

[The museum in 2012, note the removal of the original 1930s light fixtures, as well as the removal of the original floor tiles which were in near perfect condition.]

In 1933 Egypt hosted the international railway conference. Egypt’s national railway history goes back to 1854 when Alexandria was linked to Cairo. Muhammad Ali had initially planned earlier in the 1830s to link Cairo with Suez but those plans were not realized. By 1933 Egypt was already celebrating nearly 80 years since the inauguration of the Cairo-Alexandria railway line. The museum, established for the occasion of Egypt hosting the 1933 conference, was the first of its kind not only in the region but in the world (Britain didn’t get its railway museum until 1975).

The museum consisted of two floors in a building attached to Cairo’s main train station at the end of platform 1. The bottom floor contained 3 restored steam locomotives and royal train cars in addition to models depicting railway networks. The top floor housed a large collection of photographs, posters, adverts, and architectural models of various train stations across the country such as Alexandria’s, Tanta’s among others. The museum also had a library and documents kept in bookcases out of public reach but potentially available to researchers. Other documents were put on display such as the letters between Khedive Abbas and Robert Stephenson about the construction of the Cairo-Alexandria line. This museum is not only of national significance but also significant in the history of railways worldwide.

Not only did the museum beautifully document and illustrate the history of the railways in Egypt from the mid 19th century well into the 1960s but it also displayed items pertaining to urban rail transport and aviation. Urban trams in Alexandria and Cairo were well documented in addition to the early years of Egyptian aviation.

[architectural model of the Tanta train station built at the turn of the century. The model is built for the museum in the early 1930s]

The museum was built by a state and railway company that were proud of Egypt’s railway history and sought to document and exhibit the company’s accomplishments. Alas, since the 1970s the museum fell out of the picture as local tourism dwindled and international tourism was directed away from sites that document Egypt’s modern advances and towards Egypt’s ancient history. The museum, like many others such as the postal and natural history museums, was frozen in time, preserved as an antique curiosity. It was still there at the end of platform 1 for anyone who wanted to see it until last year when the railway company decided to renovate the station. 

The museum was ignored, forgotten and unmaintained but at least it was still there. In 2010 when train and railway enthusiasts complained about the conditions of the museum, the railway company decided to renovate the museum along with its renovation of the station. This has led to the overnight disappearance of this wonderful time capsule as the contents of the museum were removed to an unknown location, the original lighting from the 1930s seen in the picture above (installed at the tops and middle of the columns) was removed and air vents were installed on the ceiling which was painted a dark gray color. The beautiful and once perfectly intact original 1930s floor tiles were removed. Since then there has been no progress in the construction and renovation of this museum.

The questionable renovation of the station is already problematic because it altered the aesthetics of the station’s architecture rather than actually improve services. In addition the quality of the renovation construction work is embarrassingly off. Although it was opened last year, the station still looks like a work in progress with many of the building’s sections incomplete, and parts which are completed already look like they need a renovation. In this context the fate of the Railway Museum is not looking good. It is still unclear what the plan is for the museum, if professionals in museology are involved (doubtful), if historians are involved (doubtful) and if the unique collection is safe.

The railways have had a significant impact on the development of Egyptian national culture, economy, society and identity. Moreover, Egypt’s network being the first in Africa and the Middle East and one of the earliest national railway networks (not colonial, such as Pakistan or India) internationally makes it of major significance to the history of railways in general. The loss of this treasured museum which was fully intact until recently is a national catastrophe. This museum was taken apart by a decision from the heads of the railway company, the same heads who agreed to allow the disaster of a renovation that ruined the historic character of the capital’s main train station. If the country wasn’t experiencing so many other tragedies this story should have been a scandal as it underlines the problems with how Egyptian public institutions are managed but also how low Egypt’s cultural management has gone and further how Egypt’s modern history is being erased.

There is no set date for the museum’s reopening.

Comparing numbers: Cairo’s terminal 3 and Istanbul airport extension

Below are the numbers for Cairo International Airport’s terminal 3 (built between 2004 and 2009) and Istanbul’s Atatürk Airport’s extension (built between 2002 and 2006). Both airport terminals were constructed by TAV Construction, where the following numbers were obtained.

CAIRO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TB3 TERMINAL

Terminal design capacity: 11,000,000 passengers per year
Terminal building area : 200,000 m²
Total Construction Site Area : 500,000 m²
Passenger boarding bridges : 23 units
Check-in islands : 6 units
Check-in counters : 110 units
Elevators : 63 units
Escalators : 51 units
Travelators: 2,364 linear meters (50 units)
Baggage claim carousels : 7 units
Baggage handling system capacity: 4,800 baggages / hour
Total construction period: 36 months (est.)

Project Cost:
US$ 347,000,000

ISTANBUL ATATURK INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT (terminal extension)

Terminal Design Capacity: 20,000,000 passengers per year
Total Construction Site Area: 500,000 m²          
Terminal Building Area: 264,000 m²                          
Auxiliary Structures Area: 135,000 m² 
Car Park Area: 179,000 m²            
Car Park Capacity: 7,076 vehicles
Airport Hotel Capacity: 85 rooms
Passenger Boarding Bridges: 23 units
Remote Boarding Gates: 12 units
Check-in Islands: 7 units
Check-in Counters: 224 units
Elevators: 57 units
Escalators: 29 units
Travelators: 2,060 linear meters (35 units)
Baggage Screening X-Ray Machines: 40 units
Baggage Claim Carousels: 11 units
Total Construction Period: 27 months

Project Cost:
US$ 306,000,000

Both airport projects were built by the same contractor, roughly during the same period. Cairo’s terminal is meant to handle 11 million visitors while Istanbul’s extension increased its capacity to handle 20 million. Also both projects (Cairo’s terminal 3 and Istanbul’s terminal extension) are roughly the same size, although Istanbul’s extension is 64,000 m² larger and includes more services such as a 85-room hotel. While Cairo’s construction took more than 36 months, the slightly larger terminal extension in Istanbul was complete in 27 months. However, when comparing the numbers of these two projects, the biggest question mark arises in regards to the project cost: While Cairo’s terminal cost $347 million, Istanbul’s extension (with larger construction square footage and services) only cost $306 million. Important to note the stark difference in worker wages between the two countries.

In addition, Istanbul’s airport is connected to the center of the city via public transport with a metro bringing travelers to the city and linking with trams. Cairo Airport continues to be accessible only by taxi or private car. Although plans are in place for the city’s third metro line to reach the airport, the projected date for this essential step isn’t until 2020, deliberately far behind, especially in a country with a massive potential for tourism.

Furthermore, for Egyptians looking to welcome their loved ones arriving in the new terminal they must pay an entry fee of LE5. The fee is perhaps designed to limit the number of Egyptians entering the arrivals hall especially poor Egyptians welcoming back their family members working abroad.

Al-Ahram Weekly reported in 2010 plans for Aero City, a LE950 million development including five-star hotels and an aqua park to be built within the airport complex. At the same time a LE500 million contract for a 330 room hotel opposite Cairo’s terminal 3 was signed with the Bin Laden Construction Group, which Egypt has contracts with for airport construction in other cities including Alexandria and Assiut and Sharm El Sheikh. The hotel was to be done in 30 months.

Last March civil aviation employees protested and complained about massive corruption in the construction and management of the airport, as Al-Ahram Weekly reported. The most significant difference between Istanbul’s airport extension and Cairo’s new terminal is the way in which the money needed for these projects has been paid. While Egypt simply borrowed a massive loan from the World Bank, keeping an indebted Egypt on its knees, Istanbul paid for its airport by allowing TAV a concession to operate it for 15.5 years at $3 billion, after which it will be transferred to the state at no cost.

Save Bulaq General Hospital!

Difficult to photograph as it is surrounded by trees, Bulaq General Hospital was built in 1936 as a robust red brick streamline modernist three-story structure near the Nile in Bulaq. The hospital is among a series of what could be called “historic hospitals” that were built by the state in the first part of the twentieth century which have been decaying for decades and neglected by the state. Some of these hospitals have also been targeted by corrupt officials who have permitted the destruction of such hospitals and are selling the properties to real estate development (no health official should be able to so easily sell state property for use by private investment!). The most recent of those incidents was the Coptic Hospital in Alexandria.

Bulaq General Hospital was part of a hospital building program that took place during the reign of Foad and Farouk when the health ministry, which was also tasked with supervising urban development to ensure healthy living conditions, built hospitals throughout the city to service its inhabitants. Bulaq’s hospital was to serve Bulaq and Gezira (Zamalek). Today the building is nearly abandoned. The collapse of the state’s health services and the dominance of private and charitable medical providers coupled with the hollowing out of Bulaq (mass evictions and relocations have been occurring here since the 1970s to make way for international hotels of tourist developments) have led to the institutional collapse of Bulaq Hospital. The building, however, appears to be in near perfect condition, judging by its exterior. It is certain that the functions of the hospital are in desperate need for overhaul. This building must be saved for its architectural and historical value but also because Cairo needs more, not less, hospitals and medical facilities.

The building is located in the now prized location within the government’s (read business elite) plan to entirely redevelop Bulaq as a tourist and business hub. Directly across the street from Bulaq General Hospital is the construction site of the mammoth St. Regis Hotel. North of the hospital is another state-owned “public service” facility (كلية الاقتصاد المنزلى) that appears to share the hospital’s fate. Directly east of the hospital are two historic and registered sites (from among 15 registered historic sites in Bulaq): the sixteenth century Sinan Mosque (1571) and Tikiya Rifaiya (1774).

In July 2010, Al Ahram reported the plans to demolish the hospital to make way for real estate development:

كان المستشفي يعد من أفضل المستشفيات علي مستوي الجمهورية, وكان يسمي مستشفي المجموعة لتميزه بمجموعة من التخصصات الطبية, لكن الوضع الحالي أصبح يثير الجدل في عدد من المحافل المعنية ويثير كثيرا من الشائعات حول الخطط الموضوعة للاستفادة من موقع المستشفي المميز.. لأهداف استثمارية بحتة!!
في البداية يقول عبدالباقي أحمد عبدالباقي ـ من أهالي بولاق ابوالعلا ـ إن الفقير يستطيع أن يتحمل آلام الجوع لكنه لا يقدر علي أن يتحمل آلام المرض, لذا فإن تدهور حال مستشفي بولاق أدي إلي تدهور الحالة الصحية لكثير من مرضي المنطقة خاصة أنه كان يقدم الخدمة العلاجية, ويوفر الدواء بالمجان للآلاف لكنه يفتقر الآن لأبسط أنواع العلاج حتي أنابيب الأوكسجين وعبوات الجلوكوز منذ عدة أشهر وأصبح شعار لا يوجد هو الشعار الذي ترفعه أقسام المستشفي بداية من الطواريء إلي غرف العمليات والتحاليل والأشعات غير المتوفرة!

According to the report, there has been intentional negligence at the hospital since 2002 in what appeared to local residents as preparing the stage for dismantling it and taking it off Cairo’s list of hospitals. The institutional collapse of the hospital has had dire effect on the health of local residents. One resident is quoted as saying “It is easier to deal with hunger than to deal with the pain of disease and illness.”

The report also confirms the Health Ministry’s plans to sell the hospital property to a developer. The sale, it appears, has no preconditions for replacing the existing hospital with a new one to serve the area. Hospital staff amounted to 200 doctors and 150 nurses in addition to other staff, all of whom (until the publishing of the Ahram article) had no other job assignments if Bulaq Hospital becomes nonoperational.

ولأن العلاج حق دستوري للمواطن ـ يتابع ـ فنحن نناشد وزارة الصحة ـ رفقا بالغلابة والفقراء من أهالي بولاق ابوالعلا تطوير وترميم المستشفي بشكل فوري.

The Health Ministry signed a LE40 million contract with a construction company in 2003 to begin “renovation” and in 2004 the company destroyed an annex building which was built in 1995 and included 18 kidney dialysis units. Medical equipment was removed from the hospital buildings to begin the “renovation.” Nothing has come from the LE40 million contract since then. The government issued a demolition permit sometime after which was halted as local representatives and the community reacted against the demolition. Although the community was able to halt the demolition, the ministry has abandoned the hospital and has not included it in its annual “investment” budgets. The hospital is the main medical facility for the poor areas of Imbaba, Bulaq, Sahel, and Rod al-Farag.

يؤكد محمد حمدان ـ عضو مجلس محلي حي بولاق ـ لن نرضي إلا بتطوير وترميم المستشفي وإذا كان هناك مخطط آخر لاستثمار الأرض وبيعها لأحد المستثمرين كما يـشاع فسوف نقوم بالاعتصام داخل المستشفي.
إن هناك العديد من التساؤلات التي تطرح نفسها علي الساحة أولها كيف وصل المستشفي إلي هذه الحالة المتدهورة في ظل وجود هيكل إداري وطبي وأجهزة رقابية من وزارة الصحة؟ من المسئول عن قرار الهدم وعدم البناء مرة أخري؟ ولماذا لا يتم صرف المخصصات التي تم رصدها لتطوير المستشفي؟

Al-Ahram, a state paper, was not allowed access to photograph the inside of the hospital nor allowed to review the government’s or ministry’s proposal for the site.

This beautiful 1936 building is testament to a government that aimed to improve the lives and health of its citizens in a way that contrasts with today’s government response to the health and wellbeing of Egyptians, especially the poor. The building, so far, has survived, even though it has been hollowed. But Bulaq Hospital must be saved to fulfill  its intended function. While the six star St. Regis hotel rises across the street, Bulaq General Hospital sits empty and ignored. Millions of dollars are poured into an exclusive facility that will cater to birds of passage. Not a penny from this or other investments benefit the community, not even towards fixing the hospital across the street.

 [building detail: a stair]

[A side view of the hospital with the World Trade Center in the background]

[old sign on hospital fence: Planned Parenthood unit]

Alexandria: Forced Evictions “as if we’re in Gaza”

At 6am on April 3rd, residents of Ezbet Elamrawy woke up to the sound of gun shots and bulldozers. They were evicted by the forces of the army in uniform. Dozens of buildings which have been inhabited since 2005 were partially or fully destroyed. The residents claim they received no warning and they also claim ownership of the land. Forced evictions by the army such as this have been routine throughout Egypt for the past decade and they occur throughout the country. These evictions are typically in favor of businessmen with close ties to the military or military generals who have interests in certain development projects. Ezbet Elamrawy is near Montaza and Ma3moura districts in Alexandria, on the eastern edge of the city with access to beach areas. One resident featured in this video says “it is as if we’re in Gaza, and this is not our land and this is not our country.”

For more information on this case with further pictures, click here.

Ahram Gardens

Construction on Cairo’s forth metro line is due to begin. The line will begin from its western-most station at the beginning of 6th of October desert city at DreamLand (a gated compound) and head east. The second station will be at Ahram Gardens, a vast area that is larger than the entire city of Cairo around the year 1900. The area of Ahram Gardens when super-imposed on the center of Cairo at the same scale includes: All of “Islamic Cairo” including the Citadel and Azhar Park, Garden City, Sayyeda Zeynab, all of downtown, Abdeen, El Zaher, part of the Shaf`i cemetary and the northern tip of Roda Island.

Besides the area’s emmense size, it is also notable that its name “Ahram Gardens” or Hada`iq al-Ahram refers to the Giza Pyramids directly next door. Despite this incredible location, Ahram Gardens are more of the same government commissioned housing blocks found anywhere across Egypt. Despite the scale of the development (if it can be called that) there seems to be no clear urban plan whatsoever. And despite that it was, like other desert deveopments, built on a clean slate, what has been built recreates the urban jumble, ad hock planning and lack of vision found in any government plan since the Sadat-era. This is, clear and simple, an urban planning crime and a violation of many standing laws and regulations. In addition, Ahram Gardens forever ruined one of the world’s most unique locations, the Giza Plateau.

David Sims sheds some light on this project in his Understanding Cairo (AUC Press, 2010). Sims refers to Ahram Gardens as “off-plan desert schemes” which he describes in chapter 6 of his book. Here is a bit of his short description of this particular urban snafu:

The oldest and perhaps most outstanding example of such desert land grabs is Hada`iq al-Ahram, or the Pyramid Gardens, subdivisions which began in the late 1970s. At that time a group of influencial persons formed a housing cooperative and somehow gained development rights over a huge 420-hectare site along the Fayoum road just beyond Midan al-Rimaya. This site was just two kilometers from the Giza pyramids area, hence its name. The land was subdivided into large building lots. It is understood that when Anwar Sadat heard of the project, he ordered it cancelled, and for years it remained simply a collection of empty lots with only traces of a street network. However, slowly but surely, investors bought parcels from the original cooperative members and construction of large villas and garden apartment blocks began. Today the site is perhaps half developed, utilities are in place, and land prices have soared to astronomical levels. The fact that the scheme is next door to the iconic Pyramids of Giza does not seem to bother anyone.

This massive area is essentially a land grab by officials. In addition, it is an infringement on a national treasure. The buildings are not occupied and like much of Cairo’s real estate developments, these buildings stand as place-holders where a select few officials, military generals and police officers are waiting for their property to gain value in the future for their own or their children’s benefit, certainly not for Cairo or Egypt.

To make matters worst, Ahram Gardens sits between the Pyramids and the new (and terribly sited) Grand Egyptian Museum. The museum under construction is meant to be the new home of the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square. The main concept of the winning design was direct and uninterrupted view from Museum galleries to the pyramids. Now police officer housing sits between the future museum and the ancient monuments. If the idea behind the new museum’s location is to generate an urban development boom in the area (a kind of Bilbao effect) then Ahram Garden is the museum’s testement to failure before it is even constructed.

Finally, these blocks are far more “informal” and random than the dense urban areas that are referred to as informal. However these kinds of “developments,” and there are many, are government backed and supported using state resources for the benefit of a few crooks. Ahram Gardens isn’t about solving a housing shortage (they sit empty) and it isn’t about developing Cairo and expanding it logically (there is no logic to this). It is about personal benefit and personal investments built on stolen land. These buildings are a true catastrophy because not only are they built on stolen state land (just because corrupt officials in the past accepted their sale does not make these sales legitimate) but also because they have utilities which many of Cairo’s dense urban areas (where people actually live) are deprived from.

A financial citadel

A massive construction site along Salah Salem Road, just below the Citadel, has been sitting idle for a couple of years now. The construction competes with the Citadel in a battle over size and visibility. The stalled constrcution is the Cairo Financial Center, a project that aimed to create a financial and touristic hub where the stock market would be relocated from its downtown location. Major banks were also to have headquarters in the complex. It appears the design had gone through several itirations due to pressure by UNESCO and Cairo’s heritage activists. The Citadel is a world heritage site and the massive constuction would have threatened to take the site off the heritage list as well as obstruct views and radically transform (read uglify) the location.

Here are some facts about the project from Emporis.com:

·       The layout of the project broadly resembles the figure “8” with eight conjoined office buildings forming the two cores and the hotel building at their intersection.

·       The 8 office towers will total a gross building area of 280.000 square meters.

·       The 400-room 5 star hotel will be elevated on two columns 15 meters high with a span of 80 meters above the two inner courtyards.

·       CFC will include 50.000 square meters of retail space and a 10,900 square meter exhibition center.

·       222,000 square meters of underground parking.

·       The CFC will also house the new 10,000 square meter Egyptian Stock Exchange.

According to Skyscraper City the project is to include a shopping mall and a 16-screen cinema. Saladin’s Citadel and Muhammad Ali’s Mosque will have to compete with a multi-plex and a mall.

Although a massive concrete structure has been built on site amid the controversy, it is unclear which design is being implemented. The project had undergone through various designs, specifically two publicized variations, both of which look like 1980s student designs. Perhaps the very concept of the project was already doomed. As cities around the world, particularly in the West, are rediscovering their urban centers and aiming to rejuvinate them, the planners of the project seem stuck in a 1970s planning mindset.

The changes done to the two designs are shallow facade treatments. The building structure which seems to arbitrarily make twists and turns does not attempt to be contextual in its form (nor its function). Contextual design doesn’t mean changing elevations from glass and steel to rough-cut stone or adding some pointed arches. This project is a-contextual in every way and there is no turning back.

In September 2007, Al-Ahram Weekly reported on the project regarding its infringement on a heritage zone:

After four months of wrangling, plans for the 26,000 square metre Cairo Financial and Tourist Centre (CFTC), located next to the citadel, will now be redrawn. Since plans for the CFTC were first unveiled in February 2006 the development has been the focus of controversy, with the Ministry of Culture, the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) and archaeologists ranged against the developers, ALKAN Holding Company (AHC), and its Chairman Mohamed Nosseir.

Work on CFTC began in 2006 without the permission of the SCA’s Permanent Committee for Islamic and Coptic Antiquities, which had twice refused to license development of the site, first in 2001 and again in 2005. The proposed scheme, said the SCA, constituted an encroachment on the citadel complex and violated Antiquities Law 117/1983.

Read full article, here.

In June 2008 Daily News Egypt reported on the involvement of a US firm to redesign the project and give it a context-friendly appearance:

Accordingly, a bidding competition began whereby five architectural companies submitted designs for the CFC. Finally, in December 2006, OLC — a US consulting firm based in Denver — won the competition and is now serving as the architect of record on the design of the CFC.

“The idea behind the competition was to come up with a design that complies with the UNESCO’s requirements that [necessitate] preserving the historic nature of the site and [does not block] the view of the Citadel or Mohamed Ali Mosque…to tourists coming from Salah Salem Street,” El Sheikh explained.

Not only does the OLC design not obscure the historic view, El Sheikh added, it also blends in with the Mokktam Hill rise in terms of gradual stepping of the site’s height.

“To address design constraints imposed by its proximity to historic Cairo and to avoid competing with or imposing upon the nearby Citadel, OLC used the context of the Mokattam Hill surrounding the location as inspiration for the facility’s design,” he pointed out.

“The project will blend into the hill with a stepping approach that also allows unobstructed views of the historic scenery.”

Read full article, here.

The current status of the project is shrowded in mystery but the very existance of this abandoned massive concrete structure in such location, an unfinished eyesore and an unwanted intervention, raises questions about the legal processes for building in Egypt. How did such project get official approval and how can it simply change design after approval and who has the right to sell land within a heritage zone? And How can the public be left in the dark? Many more questions and observations can be made, but the readers can make their own.

Bread and Urbanism

العيش و العشوائيات: العلاقة بين رغيف العيش و النمو العمراني في المدن المصرية

Egypt, once the breadbasket of the Mediterranean, is the world’s biggest importer of wheat and grains. Egyptians are the world’s biggest consumers of bread per capita. Over the years Egypt’s dependency on imported wheat has steadily increased with no sign of reversal.

Egypt’s population , currently 81 million, is growing at 2 percent a year. By 2025, its population could reach 104 million, and by 2050 it population could be close to 140 million, an increase of 70 percent.

Rising population will mean less land available for agriculture, and if upstream usage of Nile river water increases, as appears likely, there could be less water for Egyptian farmers in the years ahead. Egypt’s dependence on imported food will likely grow.

This population growth also means more need for housing, and more need for land to urbanize. The informal urbanizing process, which mostly follows the patterns of agricultural lands rather than follow plans devised by urban planners, resulted from government misguided planning policies but also a decrease of value in agricultural land. Some of the world’s most fertile land is worth ten times more if urbanized than if farmed. This imbalance in land value is directly related to the state’s subsidization of imports and inclination to import a foreign product rather than invest in local farming. Thus there is a direct relationship between the simple loaf of bread and the urban growth of Egypt’s cities, particularly Cairo.

The speed of urbanization of agricultural land is not only due to the decreasing value of agricultural land but also due to the lack of a real market dynamic in the Egyptian real estate business. The market is constantly looking to “exculsivize” development leaving behind large segments of the population who are left to their own devices. Because there are no real market dynamics, populations constantly create their own new market, so to speak, by urbanizing land that was previously unavailable for building (agricultural land). This means that as the market supplies less and less properties accessible to the majority of the population, that population will simply create its own properties on already devalued agricultural land. Thus Egypt is loosing large swaths of its precious agricultural land while the real estate market and cities suffer from this ad hoc and uncontrolled speculative process. The result is a bizarre situation where there is a housing crisis, there is massive speculation and building, the majority of the population lives in self-initiated/self-built so-called informal areas and there are hundreds of thousands (a conservative estimate) of empty developments including state planned desert communities (empty because the government still doesn’t understand that planning doesn’t simply mean building a few concrete towers in the middle of nowhere).

Flying over the Nile Delta, one is shocked by the ratio or urban to agricultural land. Once small rural villages and farming communities deeply entrenched in an agricultural tradition are urbanizing at a fast pace to maintain a livelihood. Middle class urban values that were once the material for 1980s and 1990s soap operas have become the life standard by which millions of rural Egyptians wish to emulate.

There are many intermingled issues here such as governance, land ownership, national policy, zoning laws, housing policies and administrative boundaries (the fact that Cairo can keep growing virtually for tens of miles and still be considered Cairo). However, There are two main issues: 1. The low value of agricultural land due to importation and government subsidies of imported wheat and grains. 2. The lack of real market values that determine what gets built where, for how much, etc.

1. The high dependency on imported wheat and grains made agricultural land worth ten times more if it was urbanized than if it was farmed. This one to ten value ratio, the product of government policies, makes it increasingly difficult for rural communities to hold on to their farms in the face of creeping urbanization. A process of reversal is needed immediately to wean Egypt off imported basic food stuffs and to preserve the country’s irreplaceable agricultural land and the culture, economy, society that comes with it. Considering Cairo is surrounded to the north and south with agricultural land, this reversal will funnel development, formal and informal in the East-West axis into the desert (which is already the direction of the rather exclusive developments, but not the low income ones). The reason agricultural land is easier to develop informally is because it is already plugged into basic infrastructure (water and electricity), whereas desert developments need governmental large scale planning to extend such services for future developments (except this is only done for high end developments).

2. Real Estate market: The market in Cairo is a total mess. Typically the value of real estate is tied to location, amenities, transport options, near by park/public space, distance to shopping options, etc., in addition to factors pertaining to the actual property: quality of construction, functionality of utilities, cultural/heritage value. With this logic, a building on Talaat Harb Street and Huda Shaarawi in downtown (close your eyes and imagine if this was the real world: there is a park near by at Azbakiyya, a big open square at Tahrir, charming historic buildings, metro stops within ten minute walk, shops, cinemas, museums… wow, this must be the most expensive real estate!).. WRONG! This logic may work in New York, London, Paris, Tokyo, Rome. Here, the burgeoning middle class with their petty bourgeois values have actually reduced the value of the “real thing” and raised the value of the bad attempt at copying it superficially (gated communities with faux classical stumpy buildings with no transport options, no cultural venues, no public space and no community).

Therefore the center despite where it should be (at the top of desirable real estate) had there been real market dynamics is devalued. Then there is the informal ring then the highly-valued disconnected dystopias. This imbalance in the market is partly due to the possibility for the city to expand forever, into the desert or into agricultural land. Frontier urbanism, where the closer one is to the ring road, rather than the center, the more value. Hence government plans to build an even bigger ring road (to add value of land speculation and potentially destroy massive amounts of agricultural land north of Cairo due to development). But also this market imbalance is due to opaque deals and mysterious land ownership contracts, and irregular corrupt government. The army and the rail road company, for example, own massive swaths of land in and around the city and they may dispense of those lands as they wish. In order to raise the value of such lands massive infrastructure may be put in place such as a highway connection.

In short, there is a direct relationship between the bread we eat and the city we live in. policy towards more self-sustained agriculture will have a positive impact on the dynamics of urban growth and development within a city that must be defined with fixed boundaries.

Historically, there has been a symbiotic relationship between Egypt’s urban and rural economies. One simple example of that relatively successful relationship was the Awqaf system, where profits from agricultural land, which fed both urban and rural societies, were used to maintain urban properties. All the land on Cairo’s west bank (Giza) was Awqaf land that paid for the maintenance of Cairo on the other side. That system has been canceled since the 1952 regime took over and new urban areas were planned on that land such as Muhandeseen. With the right global and local politics Egypt has the potential to feed itself and at the same time control its urban development patterns.

The constant need for more agricultural land and the need for more housing means that planners and politicians need to devise an urban model built on density that allows maximum number of people to occupy less land. This can be done in ways that do not replicate the sometimes unhealthy extreme high density conditions found in some of the informal areas. However all current government planning is aimed at creating extreme low density (sub)urban environments, a model that has failed around the world and which is not sustainable considering Cairo’s population growth. High density environments not only reduce the amount of “waste land” but also have proven to provide safer living (safety in numbers, consider the fact that during the Jan 28 release of prisoners and thugs to frighten populations, low density areas were more prone to attacks and theft than high density ones) but also healthier social networks. High density urban planning also requires planners to consider mass transit, another essential that is overlooked by Cairo’s planners. In Egypt’s conditions, high density planning is the most sustainable environmentally, economically and socially, and it will help preserve much needed agricultural land to feed the population. (In addition to the endless potential for urban agriculture/rooftop farming, which can easily be implemented in Cairo if politicians know what they are doing)

Decentralization of Egypt’s development, investment and population is essential. Less imports, more planning, more transparency in real estate markets and trade deals.

Note: except for the first image, all images are screenshots from Yousef Chahine’s short film, Cairo/Le Caire/القاهرة منورة بأهلها