SUMMER SCHOOL in CAIRO 15-26 June 2013: The tangible and intangible Heritage of Downtown Cairo

A visible City: The tangible and intangible Heritage of Downtown Cairo

SUMMER SCHOOL in CAIRO 15-26 June 2013

APPLY NOW! until the 10th of May

IF YOU WANT TO…
Get in touch with the real DOWNTOWN
Discover (your) CAIRO
Learn how to recognize a plan typology
Learn about oral history methods
Learn how to deal with interviews
Eat the best chocolate dates in town
Produce the first architectural guide of Downtown
Work in an intercultural/intergender group
Get in touch with other students
Listen to the most updated researchers
BE WITH US!

THE SUMMER SCHOOL IS OPEN TO
> 10 students from Germany from the faculties of Architecture, Urban Design, Urban Planning, Landscape architecture.
> 10 students from the Architecture and Urban Design Program of the German University in Cairo (GUC).
> 8 students from Cairo from the faculties of Architecture, Urban Design, Urban Planning, Landscape architecture. Particular attention will be given to choose students from different Universities.

WHO CAN APPLY:
Students who already completed the fourth semester of Architecture, Urban Planning or Landscape Architecture studies.
HOW TO APPLY:
With a short cv, a letter of motivation and a selection of three previous projects (6 pages A4, pdf-file, max.10 MB). It is not mandatory that the projects are related to architecture. Language of the application is English.
Please send your application via email to:
architecture@guc.edu.eg
Deadline is the 10th of May 2013.
The selected participants will be informed at beginning of May.
Join us on facebook: summer school_DOWNTOWN
GRANTS:
The grants will cover flight costs and accommodation for the 10 students coming from Germany. Infrastructure and food for all students will be assured. All students will work both at the GUC Campus and on field.

AIMS and CONTENT
The summer school aims at raising awareness for the tangible and intangible heritage of Downtown Cairo, initiating and reinforcing the link between students, academics and inhabitants towards the histories and the built heritage of the old quarter of Ismaelia. This link will reinforce the feeling of proud towards the city, which is the necessary basis for any action of maintenance and restoration.
In mixed groups, students will implement schematic plans of the standard floor of different buildings; analysing it and classifying them in typologies. At the same time, they will interview the inhabitants, to collect their histories related to the buildings. A guide on the tangible and intangible heritage of Downtown will be published.

PROJECT TEAM
> German University Cairo – GUC
Prof. Barbara Pampe, architect
Prof. Vittoria Capresi, architect

> University of Stuttgart, D
Prof. Arno Lederer, architect
Carla Schwarz, architect
Leonie Weber, architect

> DAAD (Cairo University) / German Archaeological Institute DAI, Cairo
Ralph Bodenstein

> Alia Mossallam, historian

> Studio Matthias Görlich
Matthias Görlich, graphic designer

and the participation of :
> Ahmed el Bindari, CULTNAT, Cairo
> Omar Nagati, CLUSTER, Cairo
> Xenia Nikolskaya, Freelance Photograph, Cairo
> Yasmine El Dorghamy, Al Rawi, Egypt Heritage Review, Cairo
> Karim Ibrahim, Takween Integrated Community Development, Cairo
> May al-Ibrashy, Megawra, Cairo
> Mohamed Elshahed, Cairobserver, Cairo

IN COOPERATION WITH
Al Ismaelia for Real Estate Investments
DOCOMOMO Cairo
CLUSTER Cairo
MEGAWRA Cairo
German Archaeological Institute – DAI, Cairo
DAAD Cairo
Cairobserver
Takween Integrated Community Development, Cairo

The Summer School is initialised and organised by the Architecture and Urban Design Program of the German University Cairo GUC in cooperation with the Faculty of Architecture of the Technical University Stuttgart and fully financed by the German Academic Exchange Service DAAD.

CONCEPT: BALADILAB 2012

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.

Landmark: Tiring Department Store

Visible slightly to the north from the narrow overpass that links Opera Square to Azhar Street is a corner building with four kneeling Atlas statues lifting a glass globe. This was the Tiring Department Store, one of Cairo’s many houses of early twentieth century shopping and consumption of modern goods.

The store was founded in 1910 by Victor Tiring, an Austrian merchant born in Istanbul who specialized in Turkish tailoring. The Tiring family had built its first store in Vienna in 1882. The building was designed by Oscar Horowitz, a Czech architect who studied in Vienna and who designed similar shopping destinations within the Austro-Hungarian sphere. The Tiring Store in Cairo was completed in 1912 and when it opened it was the city’s premier shopping destination for imported luxury goods. With the events of World War I, the British occupation in Egypt had deemed all Austrians and Hungarians as enemies and forced their departure from Egypt. The Tiring department store was only in business for few years and its business was interrupted due to pressure from the colonial administration which forced it into liquidation by 1920.

The five-story building was designed with open floors and an airy feel fit for modern shopping and it would eventually become the desired property by other department store owners but complications due to ownership led to it being abandoned. Shortly after the demise of the short-lived Tiring, the building became home to squatters, primarily small-business and workshops who set up shop in its vast floors. It has been used since by a variety of people for a variety of activities, there was a bar, a mosque, full-time residents, clothing workshops and a cafe occupying the building at one time.

This is the story of many buildings, perhaps hundreds in Cairo and other cities. At first it may appear that the main obstacle confronting any effort to save Tiring building is related to ownership. However, another building not far away, fronting Opera Square and the remaining parcel of Azbakeya Garden is the former Continental Hotel which is also occupied by small workshops informally, yet it is owned by the state. Other buildings around downtown and the surrounding districts have been undergoing a process for decades aimed at intentionally removing links to original owners. Those were the properties of owners who fled the country, were forced out either by the British or subsequent regimes, or properties where heirs immigrated and entrusted the property to a lawyer or anyone who later illegally sold it to themselves and obscured links to the original owners. This has led to legal disputes and often buildings have been “frozen” with no one to claim them as their own and thus they fall for squatters or idle eternally. What I am trying to argue, the Tiring Building brings attention to the legal dimension complicating the potential regeneration, maintenance and reuse of such properties. And this calls for a legal framework and carefully drafted policy.

The Tiring Building was built a century ago, yet it was used by its original owner for its intended use for less than a decade. Despite this, it has become part of the urban heritage of Cairo and its iconic Atlases and glass globe have become a landmark referenced in works of art, literature and seen in film. The building, and others like it, is part of Cairo’s cityscape and it presents us with a challenge of dealing with its complicated history, ownership issues, accommodate/legalize its current users, maintain its architectural heritage, make it economically sustainable and make it accessible to the public.

The building should also be seen in its urban and social context. It sits at a unique location linking old and new Cairo and near Attaba Square where other key buildings such as the fire department and the original post office stand. Near by is the Attaba vegetable market, one of downtown’s central markets, and surrounding streets are bustling with commercial activity. There is massive potential in this area to organize, develop, accommodate current commercial activities while diversifying the uses and users by inserting new ones. However, the scale of needed development in Cairo’s central districts needs new strategies that move beyond the approach of focusing on individual buildings and seeking the needed funds to restore them without considering their relationship to context and their potential new uses. Many of the historic buildings which have been restored by the state following this approach have sat empty for years or have been transformed into “cultural centers” where no real activity takes place.

The Tiring Building is desperately screaming for attention for the entire district to be revitalized in cooperation with its current users. However, with the current governance structure which does not align with community structures in the city there will be no revitalization. Communities in Cairo are full of buildings around which the various districts can develop, whether the Sakakini Palace in Sakakini or the Tiring Building in Attaba, those buildings can act as the starting point in a community-driven, government-led approach that integrates buildings of historic significance with the communities that live in and around them in ways that protect the architectural heritage, stimulate economic development and provide new opportunities. Such efforts need sound policy and such policy needs to build on a political structure that empowers communities rather than treat them as mere squatters to be removed.

Take a coffee with your heritage!

Bottom up approach to communicate heritage: a project in Downtown Cairo

How would it be possible to link the everyday users of the historical city with the tangible values of the building heritage?

Downtown Cairo is the district developed under the Khedive Ismail at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. The city plan was inspired by the streets and squares pattern introduced by Haussmann in Paris, and several European (and Egyptian) architects built palaces and apartment buildings using a rich stylistic vocabulary. Nowadays Downtown is the main lively heart of the city, hosting small shops, offices, houses, cafes and restaurants in a complex social, religious and functional equilibrium. A general lack of regulations regarding how to deal with the heritage and an old rental system are the main reasons for the neglect of the architecture and numerous demolitions of the old Ismaelia buildings. Some studies and projects started surveying and analysing the architecture and the intangible heritage (oral histories) of Downtown, but the main problem still remain the lack of interactions and communication between these scientific works and the inhabitants of the historical buildings:

The first step for the conservation is knowledge.

This project has the main purpose to start and encourage the communication between specialists and inhabitants in both directions, developing and supporting the awareness of everybody towards the architecture of Downtown. The coffee shop in Mohamed Mahmoud Street was selected to introduce small modification in the objects of daily use with a corporate design based on images of buildings and information about Downtown. It becomes the location for activities related to the architecture of the area. On the other hand, the project team is collecting the memories and stories of the inhabitants related to the places to document and to share the link between the tangible and the intangible heritage of Downtown.

The Downtown project is initiated by Vittoria Capresi and Barbara Pampe - Architecture and Urban Design Program GUC - and financed by the German Academic Exchange Service DAAD.

More info: www.baladilab.com

UPDATE November 22, 2012: The launch event on November 27th has been canceled.

UPDATE December 13, 2012: “Take a coffee with your heritage” launches TODAY!

Athar Lina: connecting people with heritage

Whose Monument: Participatory Design Project for Monument-Street Buffer Zones

A collaboration between the Ministry of Antiquities and the Danish Egyptian Dialogue Institute. The project is a series of workshops, debates and meetings to discuss the relationship between the monument and the surrounding neighborhood, the entities responsible for it and those with a vested interest in it or even those inconvenienced by it. We discuss who owns it, who protects it and improves it and who puts it at risk. The objective is to provide a environment of communication of the different points of view of the three main stakeholders: residents, government and civil society. 

In participatory design all stakeholders are involved in the decision making process in all its details and stages. This is to narrow the gap between the monument and the community and allow it to assume ownership of the monument and to protect it through use. 

This general issue is discussed through a specific case-study; the monument-street buffer zone and in a specific area; al-Khalifa Street between the mosque of Ahmad ibn Tulun and the shrine of al-Sayyida Nafisa.

The project consists of five phases, to find out more details visit the project website.

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.

The Arab Republic of Delete

[Faten Hamama at Studio Misr, 1949]

Over the past several weeks there have been at least three situations that further illustrate the continuous attempts to jeopardize the integrity of Egypt’s cultural landscape. State institutions are the culprits. The result is the erasure of old as well as recent cultural memory.

1. Rotana Zaman was a television channel part of the Rotana Network, owned in part by Rupert Murdoch and Prince Alwaleed, which showed classics of Egyptian cinema 24/hrs a day. Several weeks ago the channel morphed into Rotana Classic showing a combination of classic Egyptian films and television programs in addition to classic American films and television programs. Now you can watch a 1950s Egyptian film followed by an episode of the American series Dynasty, a 1980s American drama about suburban life and the newly rich.

There is a problem here: Rotana owns the originals and airing rights to over 4000 Egyptian films. After the company acquired those films Rotana Zaman became the exclusive television network where these films can be viewed by the general public in Egypt and across the Arab world. Classic Egyptian cinema, films created from the 1930s to the 1960s, is evidence of Egypt’s cultural development during those decades and many of these films document Egyptian attitudes, customs, representations of the self and of segments within society in addition to testifying to an era of serious engagement with the art of filmmaking. Classic cinema to this day continues to be consumed by the general population and it has not retreated to the niche of “classic film lovers” or “film connoisseurs” because of their mere age, to the contrary many Egyptians continue to watch 60 year old films. By keeping this memory alive Egyptians had a window into the past as it was portrayed by Egyptian actors and directors. Egyptian cinema from that era also exported Egyptian cultural norms and colloquial language to Arabic speaking audiences from Morocco to Kuwait. This is part of national heritage and it should have never been sold without any conditions.

[Faten Hamama classic film, do3a2 el karawan (The Nightingale’s Prayer) 1959]

By slowly reducing the dosage of accessibility to Egyptian classic cinema, Rotana is depriving younger generations of Egyptians access to the remaining tangible evidence of a different Egypt, with its social and cultural norms, its politics, its fashion, architecture and its technique. Today, after watching Faten Hamama in the classic “The Nightingale’s Prayer” one might be confronted with an episode of Dynasty, a drama that may appeal to suburban residents of Cairo who have been lured to reproduce suburban failures from 1980s Texas, or Denver Colorado. If Egypt can not reclaim ownership of its filmic heritage, in five to ten years the children of the residents of New Cairo will not know who Fatan Hamama was and the cast of Dynasty might become more familiar. In April members of the Freedom and Justice Party proposed legislation that allows the state censor to edit out scenes from classic films deemed “inappropriate.”

Rather than protect one of the world’s earliest film industries, invest in cinema infrastructure such as theaters, renovating old cinemas, capitalizing on the touristic value of Egypt’s classic film studios, establishing a cinemateque with a museum, library and exhibition space to celebrate the memory of Egypt’s cinematic tradition, instead of all this the state sells and debates cutting and editing whatever is left.

2. Order for demolition (Alexandria): Last month, Mohamed Adel Dessouki reported on his blog “walls of an exhausted city” yet another unexplained direct order from the prime minister for the demolition of a listed building. Does the prime minister have nothing better to do than order the removal of buildings from the heritage list? There are many implications here about governance and why a prime minister, especially in Egypt during a “transitional period,” has any say in a matter that should be the concern of local municipality, Culture Ministry or the SCA. But what is significant here is that the PM is facilitating the process of erasure of Egypt’s cultural memory or editing of history. The state has continuously refused to protect Egypt’s modern heritage and by targeting villas and residences of Egypt’s upper classes from the early and middle of the twentieth century, a heritage that has not been thoroughly documented, the state is directly participating in denying nearly 80 years of Egyptian modern history, as if it never happened.

These are the houses where many of the scenes of Egypt’s classic cinema were shot. These were the houses where the society that produced and consumed Egypt’s classic cinema from the 1920s to the 1960s lived. The cinema was sold and the houses demolished. Documents of a recent history no longer with us, how will this history be remembered by future generations when the documents have been intentionally destroyed, the evidence deleted?

Conservatives in Egypt can care less about Egypt’s cultural production including film, architecture, music and literature from the “liberal period” (1920s-1950s) just as Western conservatives never recognized this heritage to be an accurate representation of Egypt and Egyptians.

3. The whitewashing of murals in the vicinity of Tahrir Square at the end of May was yet another example of a deletion, denial, and the state’s emphasis on controlling not only history but also commemoration.

Everyday there are many more incidents that amount to a systematic assault on Egypt’s historical memory both modern and contemporary. Egypt is suffering from state induced amnesia. Here we are in a country “of 7000 years” yet the state seems hell bent on erasing traces of the last century and where collective national memory is constantly deleted or heavily edited.

Who should save Egypt’s archives (arabic)

Cairo Heritage Interview

On heritage landscapes (Arabic)

On heritage landscapes

[Sign this petition demanding an immediate response from government to the ongoing onslaught on Egyptian heritage. Click here.]

In the last ten to fifteen years there has been a growing literature on heritage, memory, cultural landscapes and their relationship to contemporary identities. This literature largely focuses on case studies in the European and North American contexts, where for the past several decades there has been a concerted effort by states and business elites to shape contemporary identities through the manipulation of cultural heritage. Manipulation may be a strong term here, but essentially these efforts involve a variety of modes of producing, editing, reconfiguring historical heritage and cultural landscape in hopes of inculcating certain ideas about the nation (or a smaller community within the nation), and ultimately about the self (the spectator/observer’s self identity). These are highly political processes and often involve large sums of capital.

Post-WWII culture and heritage production in “western” contexts was closely tied to the shifting political landscapes. Identities had to be created, communities had to be united and powers had to be assigned in the wake of a world war and the emergence of new global dynamics. Monuments had to be created, holidays celebrated, parades planned, cities preserved and rebuilt, museums established, narratives constructed. Although Greeks or southern Italians may have much in common with Egyptians, they had to be reoriented as Europeans who supposedly have more in common with Germans than Egyptians. Mediterranean identity between the north and south was severed and an European identity was solidified.

But how does a place like Egypt fit into these processes? The early years of the republic featured some classic national level cultural and heritage constructions. The military regime held parades, created monuments, edited history books, established a ministry of culture that was called in Arabic وزارة الارشاد, or Ministry of Guidance. The implication here is that the ministry’s mission was to guide Egyptians, in a new political landscape towards a newly defined cultural and national identity, one which relied on a certain reading of past heritages and Egypt’s cultural landscape. The state invested in cultural programming, restored certain monuments, curated festivals and built culture palaces in the provinces to export Egypt’s new cultural landscape as it was conceived in Cairo.

This was the case in the Nasser era, and in many ways these practices were hardly unique to Egypt and were present in similar or different forms in other contexts within a variety of political frameworks. We may disagree with the policies and uses of heritage by that and previous regimes, but the point here is that heritage was seen as an essential component of public discourse, and a central element in the construction of Egyptian identity. But what about Egypt’s cultural and heritage landscapes since the 1970s under Sadat and Mubarak? What has been the relationship between Egypt’s heritage, politics and the construction of identity narratives since 1970?

What is clear is the tremendous sense of loss and negligence. what is tangible is the growing gap between Egyptians and their cultural and heritage landscapes. Memories and identities have been shaped by these recent changes. Institutional support for the documentation, preservation, and presentation of cultural heritage have been weakened or ended. A sense of defeat has been fostered among Egyptians who have accepted that everything that is wrong with their country is because of themselves. This sense of defeat was broken last year and I would argue was the greatest threat to the regime. For the past 15 months the regime has attempted repeatedly to undo the sense of empowerment that the January revolution inspired. In the meantime, culture and heritage have managed to remain outside of popular discourse. This has allowed for even more to be lost and forgotten and it maybe past due to begin a process of rediscovery. There is the potential for a process of cultural rediscovery that is not based on the authority of the state or a business elite who maybe interested in manipulating culture to their interests. But work must begin immediately as Egypt is quickly losing what will be unrecoverable once it is gone.

Our photographic, filmic, and built heritages are at great risk and the official institutions in charge are obsolete. Egypt has no museum dedicated to its history of photography, no museum dedicated to its impressive cinematic heritage, Cairo doesn’t have a museum or research center to help Egyptians understand the history of their capital, document its history and participate in its development. Most importantly buildings and entire neighborhoods are disappearing due to government ill-conceived decisions or the greed of an uncontrolled market. History, memory and identity are at risk here. These issues are widespread beyond Cairo and stretch from Aswan to Alexandria. There is an urgent need to undo forty years of concerted efforts to erase the features of Egyptian heritage, particularly its modern heritage, which I argue is the most relevant and the richest.

Heritage value isn’t only about economic or even artistic value. Artistic value is subjective and what maybe worth saving in one person’s eye is worth destroying in another’s. Accordingly economic value is created, if society agrees that a certain type of building, or object, has economic worth then the market will emerge to correspond with that assigned value. In many cities around the world, older structure with not the best plumbing, with sloped floors and with mediocre decorative qualities have been made into some of the most expensive real estate, mostly because of their heritage value. These buildings are documents that tell us about the histories of our community. Therefore the argument that is made repeatedly in Egypt as an excuse for destroying 20th century buildings is that “they aren’t all that special” has now led to a situation where there is nearly no evidence of early 20th century middle class Egyptian society with its cultural references, its economic and societal conditions and its domestic spaces. If all we save are palaces and grand mosques then we loose the real spaces of our history, the very fabric of the city we live in, our neighborhoods, our homes and the memories attached to them.

There will be subsequent short posts “On Heritage” commenting on photography, cinema, architecture and food. Please use the comment section below to suggest ideas of how to begin this process of reversal without relying on the coming regime, or on capitalist interests to shape the fate of Egyptian identity.

I suggest establishing volunteer watchdog groups in every city, led by students of fine arts, art, architecture, music, etc. These لجان or committees should be able to define their goals and interests and assign tasks. The overall goal is to document, research and promote Egypt’s varied heritage, especially what has been most ignored and is at most risk: modern heritage.

Photography and documentation: up to the 25th of January if an Egyptian took out a camera to take a picture on a typical street, s/he would have been approached by security and stopped, or at least it would have been considered odd to be taking pictures in a non-touristy place. Today photography is everywhere and one way to begin the process of recovery is to encourage everyone from students and heritage enthusiasts to everyone else to walk the streets and document the urban landscape as they know it, particularly endangered buildings and places of social or personal significance. Places of memory. This record will help us create an archive of what was lost.

*Pictured above is the main hall in the Greek Club in Ibrahimeya district of Alexandria. Photo by Emad Maher. The club was a social space used for generations and it is set for demolition on April 21.

[Sign this petition demanding an immediate response from government to the ongoing onslaught on Egyptian heritage. Click here.]

Redefining Heritage

ُThis article is available in English, here.

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.