Posts tagged urban studies

CUIP: Introducing the Cairo Urban Initiatives Platform

The Cairo Urban Initiatives Platform is a project by CLUSTER. CUIP “is a bilingual Arabic/English online directory and a shared calendar of events for the multiple art, culture, architecture, advocacy, urban development and interdisciplinary organizations/initiatives addressing issues related to the city, the urban environment and public space in Cairo. CUIP offers an expanding index of organizations and initiatives operating in Cairo, and an overview of events in categories including academia/research, advocacy, architecture, urbanism, crafts, cultural development, film, heritage, literature, music, networking, performing arts, photography, public space, sustainability, technology and visual arts.”

The online platform uses an attractive interface that is easy to use and navigate. For the first time Cairo has a tool that allows us not only to list in one place but also see on a map the various initiatives and arts spaces, creating a sense of perspective that was missing until now. The list of institutions, initiatives and groups is a work in progress, although most are already listed on the platform. The site is meant to be user-generated allowing persons/initiatives to create a new listing by filling an online application and creating a user name and login to maintain their organization’s events up-to-date. Organizations are then shown on the map and color coded. Upcoming events show on the map and they become animated (flashing) to attract attention. The color coding system while attractive at first impression doesn’t immediately translate into a clear distinction of theme or function (meaning it may not become obviously clear what the difference is between light blue and dark blue coded initiatives). However there is a tab on the interface that allows users to choose by name, by type, by focus, by activity and by resource.

In the absence of a comprehensive city-wide guide that provides listings and events CUIP will prove to be an essential tool for those interested in Cairo’s cultural/urban/architectural events and happenings. It could also help organizations coordinate to avoid overlapping events and conflicting calenders.

Like any map, however, CUIP while it makes certain spaces and initiatives visible it also makes invisible other potential spaces for arts and culture, namely the official establishment. It would be useful to include perhaps another color-coded category for official museums and other state-managed cultural spaces some of which sit empty and could potentially be used for events and programs by independent initiatives. The current map perpetuates the invisibility of this latent potential by only highlighting the active and energetic independent arts and culture scene.

CUIP is an important initiative of its own that is much needed in a city where sometimes it seems that nothing is happening at all and at other times it seems everything is happening at once. The platform helps us in navigating the clutter of facebook invites and email invites to separate events and spaces that are now listed and visible in one resource and calender. The success of the platform depends on the active participation of the various initiatives listed on the site who must use their login access to maintain their profiles and update their events.

For the how-to guide for using the site (pdf) click here.

CUIP is currently managed by Amy Arif, contact at: info@cuipcairo.org

Event: Parallel Practice

Towards a revolutionary Nile front

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

Event: Learning from Cairo, April 12-14

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

Friday, April 12th, 2013 
Public Plenary sessions

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

Program

(Arabic and English translation will be provided)

9:00 - 9:30 am Coffee and Registration

9:30 - 10:00 am Opening Remarks

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

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

Discussant:
Mohamed Elshahed, Cairobserver

12:00 - 1:30 pm Lunch and Prayer

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

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

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

3:30 - 4:00 pm Coffee Break

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

Tours end with a joint lunch in Al-Azhar Park

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

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

Coffee and Registration:

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

Morning parallel sessions:

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

Session 1. Mapping Informality

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

Discussant: Mohamed Elshahed, Cairobserver

Session 2. Evictions and Urban Citizenship

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

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

Session 3. Design Innovation and Urban Development

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

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


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

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

Session 4. Community Activism and Avenues of Participation

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

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

Session 5. Security, Segregation and Borders

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

Video presentations and panel discussion

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

Session 6. Research/Design Interventions and the Informal City

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

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

Closing Session, Oriental Hall

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

More information to come.

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


Additional sponsorship by

info@clustercairo.org

Ahram Online: Experts examine Egypt’s informal housing crisis

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Design Process- a project for Ard el Lewa

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

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

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

CURL: Introducing the Cairo Urban Resource Library

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Event: Informal Areas after 25 January 2011

*scroll down for English

Concepts in city branding

المراجع المختارة Selected References

Anholt, Simon . 2009. Places: Identity, Image and Reputation. Palgrave Macmillan.

Dinnie, Keith . 2011. City Branding: Theory and Cases. Palgrave Macmillan.

Florida, Richard. 2008. who’s Your City? Basic Books: New York.

Florida, Richard. 2002. The Rise of Creative Class. Basic Books: New York.

Frank. 2009. Place Branding: Glocal, Virtual and Physical Identities, Constructed, Imagined and Experienced. Palgrave Macmillan.

Kotler, Philip. 1993. Marketing Places. Free Press.

Moilanen, Teemu and Rainisto, Seppo. 2009. How to Brand Nations,Cities and Destinations: A Planning Book for Place Branding.

Muhammad Ali Street and the shifting symbolism of Cairo’s cityscape

[the arcades in Muhammad Ali Street.]

By Joseph Ben Prestel

For many passers-by, the Southeastern edge of Ataba Square might be marked by the hustle and bustle from a myriad of shops selling electronic gear, household amenities, and other essential goods for everyday life. In this neighborhood with buildings packed densely next to each other, the view up Muhammad Ali Street is surprising. As if unimpressed by its crowded surroundings, the street runs for about two kilometers straight towards Sultan Hassan Mosque. Looking up from Ataba Square, the dome of the mosque is visible at the very end of the thoroughfare. This perspective bears witness to the building initiative that Cairo went through in the second half of the nineteenth century, when Khedive Ismail (1863-1879) ruled the country. Yet Muhammad Ali Street dodges the “Paris on the Nile” narrative often used by travelogues and guidebooks to describe this period. Instead, the street carries a multiplicity of meanings that have been attributed to the urban environment over time. Allusions to it associate the street with a range of topics, from nineteenth-century Paris to Egyptian folk music.

Construction of Muhammad Ali Street was completed between 1872 and 1874. The street was part of the large urban renewal program under Khedive Ismail, whose aim was described by his minister of public works Ali Mubarak as making “the streets and buildings ready for the expansion of trade, to align the cityscape to the prosperity of the country.” Whereas Ismail’s building spree focused mainly on new quarters of the city, such as Ismailiyya or the area around Bab al-Luq, Muhammad Ali Street was one of the few interventions in the old part of town. The street was designed to provide an important shortcut between the eastern and western parts of the city. Prior to its construction, Cairenes had to cross at least five other neighborhoods in order to get from the then thriving quarter of Azbakiyya to the citadel. After 1874, Muhammad Ali Street offered a direct connection between these two centers of urban life. With a width of twenty meters, the new thoroughfare meant a tremendous intrusion in an area in which streets had up until then not been wider than six meters. The project required cutting through two kilometers of densely populated neighborhoods. According to some statistics, the construction of the street resulted in the destruction or partial destruction of about 700 buildings. A few structures on Muhammad Ali Street still show traces of this process today. In order to make way for the new street, the front part of the fourteenth-century mosque of Qusun was destroyed. The remainder of the building, however, was left intact and only a new facade was added, leaving behind evidence of the demolition process. With its unique view, its arcades, and a boulevard-like width, Muhammad Ali Street represents to some scholars a prime example of the kind of intervention that urban historians associate with late-nineteenth-century Paris. To them, the street is merely a Cairo version of the famed Rue de Rivoli in the French capital. Often, such accounts deplore the present state of the street, implying that Muhammad Ali Street lost some of the grandeur it held in the past.   

[Screen shot from the movie Sharia al-Hubb (1958), in which the street and its arcades are depicted.]

Yet the symbolism of the street was never reduced to a seemingly apparent allusion to Paris. Instead of turning into a mark of French-inspired urbanism, Muhammad Ali Street soon acquired an ambiguous reputation as a center of musical entertainment. As early as 1880, police reports warned that it attracted dubious women from the entertainment industry. At the same time, brass bands such as the Hasballah group started settling on the street. By the middle of the twentieth century, Muhammad Ali Street was well known as a center of Egyptian folk music. The street appeared in numerous cultural productions, such as the 1945 movie Sharia Muhammad Ali. In the 1958 blockbuster Sharia al-Hubb starring Abd al-Halim Hafez and Nagwa Fouad, the street serves as the backdrop for a story of social ascent. Through his musical talent, the poor Abd al-Munem finds his way to love and fortune, ultimately moving from Muhammad Ali Street to the opera house. The movie, which opens with a long shot of the street, exhibits Muhammad Ali Street as the place where musicians live, gather, and are contacted by potential customers, such as the hyped-up foreigner “Christo” who hires Abd al-Munem to teach music at a club for young ladies. According to studies on female dancers in Egypt, the entertainment industry on the street began to decline in the 1970s. Yet scholars  were still referring to the street as a center of folk music into the 1990s. In his Mass Culture and Modernism in Egypt, Walter Armbrust wrote: “Muhammad ‘Ali Street is famed as the street of traditional entertainers. Even today, when most of the entertainment business has moved to Pyramids Road in Giza, or other newer glitzier neighborhoods, Muhammad ‘Ali Street is thick with shops selling lutes and other musical instruments.” The number of music shops might have dwindled further since the publication of Armbrust’s book in 1996, but the name still conjures images of Egyptian folk music. Three years ago, a Cairo-based TV station produced a program teaching belly dance under the title Sharia Muhammad Ali.

 It might be  a telling irony that this street, which some historians like to refer to as Cairo’s Rue de Rivoli, is popularly known as a center of Egyptian folk music, thus linking characters as diverse as Eugène Haussmann and Nagwa Fouad. To the superficial observer, none of these references are immediately apparent. Today, Muhammad Ali Street is packed with furniture shops. Rather than recalling lutes or nineteenth-century Paris, it appears more like a place where you would buy an armchair along with a three-piece suit. Looking at Muhammad Ali Street from different historical perspectives illustrates that there is more to the streets of Cairo than meets the eye. Instead of one essential meaning, its history reflects the multi-layered symbolism attached to streets, squares, or buildings. Despite the intentions of political groups or planners, the meaning of these urban spaces can hardly be fixed.