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Private Initiatives versus State Interventions in Downtown Cairo: An On-Going Debate Questioning the Sustainability of Newly Pedestrianized Streets. The Cases of Kodak and Al-Alfi Passageways
... However, over the last 50 years, the district has deteriorated into a chaotic area affected by congested main streets and street vendors occupying the other routes including passageways. As a result, in the 1990s, the Egyptian government and private developers were aware of the need for intervention to restore the contemporary commercial center [21]. Also, the attention has been driven to the importance of the pedestrian zones inside the city center that are then created in the passageways spaces, in order to improve public life [8,22]. ...
... Furthermore, the significance of space activities and appropriation has been emphasized by many researchers. Exploring the relationship between the space quality and the use of passageways spaces will help to understand better the physical as well as the social structure of the city [8,20,21,[24][25][26][27]. ...
The spatial environment of our cities is the result of a continuous negotiation among the built environment, bodily experience, and urban policy processes. Thus, many urban spaces are challenging these constraints and become in continuous transformation such as city streets, squares, and passageways. This research explores critically Downtown Cairo passageways through the lens of production of space theory. Aiming to understand the multiple aspects that may help to read the un-noticed everyday spaces inside the city center, Henry Lefebvre’s theory was interpreted into a theoretical framework to be contributed to empirical work in order to present an alternative dialogue including socio-spatial aspects for passageways. While several researchers studied Downtown Cairo different urban spaces, the passageways have only been briefly addressed through physical investigation. Accordingly, two pedestrian passageway zones in Downtown Cairo were selected as study areas. Methodologically, the qualitative approach was adopted and the data collection was based on observations with behavioral mappings, photographs, and field notes. The findings were steered to conceptualize the production of Downtown Cairo passageways through the practices of everyday life by understanding the connections between the three aspects of space production; physical space, everyday life, and the role of the authority. The research revealed three conceptions that were incorporated into Downtown passageways narratives. First, the spatial qualities and official planning approaches were addressed. Secondly, the life on the passageways was analyzed in order to understand the everyday practices and their connection to the physical space in each study area. The third part addressed the flexibility of the passageways environment through individual and collective appropriation practices. In conclusion, the study highlights that there is a constant tension between the everyday space and the power of authority in Downtown passageways which affirms the state of ‘in-between’ of such urban spaces inside our city centers.
... They provide equally temporary spaces on short-term time for musicvideo clip shoots, workshops and showcases. They've also completely restored the iconic Cinema Radio, and working on characteristic pedestrian walkways as the Kodak Passageway (Ashour & Braker, 2020), the renovation of the old French Consulate, and the launch of its latest project Consoleya ( Figures: 9-11). In 2018, al-Ismaelia Company, for the development and revitalization of the heritage Downtown Cairo's buildings, won the International Centre for the Preservation of Architectural Heritage Award in Italy. ...
... Straight wide boulevards of Khedivate Cairo. (Source:Ashour and Brake (2020).) The preliminary design was led by SOM. ...
Traditional Arab Islamic urbanism has been ignored for decades, and Arab architects have been unwilling to revive traditional features and they are complying with the new urbanism movement. Since the late nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century, the style of big Arab cities has become substantially westernized, historic Arab cities transformed from traditional to modern Western urbanism led to a loss of Islamic cultural identity, many factors led to the transformation of the urban structure of these cities including social, economic, legislative and functional which leads to loss of local identity by introducing new architectural and urban forms. This paper will focus the scope of study on old Islamic Cairo, Khedivate Cairo and The New Administrative Capital (NAC) and will analyze the transformation happened to the urban structure using the comparative analysis methodology to reach the research aim and know why the conventional urbanism of Arab Islamic cities has been ignored? And also to show how other Arabic cities like Doha in Qatar and Masdar in UAE tried to overcome the same problem by using the contemporary interpretation trend.
Durant la révolution, un art contestataire s’est déployé dans les espaces urbains du Caire, en particulier dans le centre-ville. Contribuant à la politisation et à la conflictualité dans les espaces publics, ces œuvres et événements artistiques révolutionnaires sont remis en cause depuis 2013 à la suite d’un renforcement de l’autoritarisme avec une augmentation de la répression des opposants politiques et de la sécurisation dans le centre-ville. Le régime autoritaire cherche à asseoir son hégémonie sur les espaces physiques et à monopoliser l’image dans et de la ville menaçant le droit à la ville et à la centralité pour certains artistes qui ne peuvent plus produire d’images ou d’événements alternatifs à ceux du régime. Le maintien d’un art passe alors par des adaptations qui favorisent des acteurs privés ayant des ressources financières et participant à un centre-ville gentrifié, pacifié et contrôlé.
In her book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jacobs identified four urban preconditions for creating streets as active public spaces: high densities of population and activities; mixtures of primary uses; pedestrian-friendly blocks and the retention of old buildings mixed in with new. A fifth element however, ought to be considered, "accessibility control". I first went to explore Hussien Al-Mimar Street in Downtown Cairo back in 2008, when I heard about a vibrant cultural complex called "Town-house" full of activities and art performances. The street was the living manifestation of Jacobs' four elements. Chaotic mechanic garages were next to a theatre; a traditional cafe opposite a library and a residential building facing a modern art gallery. It was a bohemian thoroughfare frequented by activists, artists and politicians meeting to discuss issues related to economic difficulties and substantial ideas. During the uprising in 2011, the street served as a refuge for protestors, leading it to be under several attacks by the state since then. The 'open street' became 'militarized' by the police in the name of security. This paper investigates Al-Mimar Street as it evolved from an active public node into a restricted unsafe space. The objective is to discuss to what extent Jacobs theories can be applied on cities under state restrictions like in the Middle East.
Urban regeneration has been an accepted strategy for reviving city centers around the globe in Western Developed settings and in developing cities for decades. In Cairo, post January 25th Revolution, the Egyptian government sought an approach to upgrade several sites in downtown classical Cairo, to set new conditions for use of public space, to redistribute the power of authority and re-define the rules for the claim of public space of the city. The Cairo Governorate officially launched many projects within the same period; mainly focusing on refurbishing squares and streets, facades face lifting, controlling vendors' trespassing and regulating car parking space among other regulations within Downtown area. However, having accepted and acknowledged the governmental intentions of the regeneration projects a question poses itself as to 'How the community perceives and cherishes those initiatives?' More important questions are raised regarding the regeneration of Al Alfi Street, the case study that addresses the governmental attempt in down town Cairo in 2015. It brings to light the dynamics enacted between different stakeholders. A research is conducted by adopting participant observations, surveys, questionnaires, and interviews with the local community and different stakeholders to understand their perception and appreciation to the '2015' urban regeneration attempt. The findings of the paper set the urban regeneration principles in a discussion aiming at assessing the stakeholders' involvement versus their goals and measuring their satisfaction with the outcome of the project, while still posing the question of the meaning of urban regeneration to the local community and to alternative scenarios that could yield more successful outcomes.
In this piece, I argue that the city of Cairo has witnessed unprecedented urban transformations for the past 4 years, owing to urban wars and confrontations during the two regimes that followed Mubarak’s ouster. Street politics, although mesmerizing, have been highly exhausting. With the reemergence of the army in civil life, after the ousting of President Morsi, street activism is becoming hazardous and highly costly in terms of human life. Whether Egypt is witnessing the persistence of a counter-revolutionary moment, firmly marching toward the uncompromising neoliberal city, exemplified in Dubai as a model and planned prior to 2011, will be difficult to answer, precisely because Cairo is not Dubai. Experts on Arab revolutions have spoken of the emergence of new “subjectivities” that have opened novel mental, visual, and physical interactions in the city, perhaps encouraging optimism in the long term.
Abstract A case study is here presented in which the design perspective in the redevelopment of public spaces is overturned: instead of designing the area and then verifying the results in terms of effective liveability of the new spaces, the results of the analysis of the present comfort conditions become the tool to address the design operations. In particular, the bioclimatic analysis of the system of central squares of the small town in Sant’Ilario d’Enza (Italy) becomes the base for the design of a new liveable space among buildings of limited historical and architectural value. The ENVIMET fluido-dynamics software is used to assess the present outdoor comfort conditions in the different times of the year and to identify the critical elements to be modified. The indications for the insertion of new green spaces suggest a symbolic return to the rural past of the area, elaborated with a contemporary design, taking also into account the flexible uses nowadays required by these common spaces. Other recommendations are focused on the external façades of the buildings, thus allowing to improve both the internal energetic balance and the effects on the external urban environment. The attempt is to insert some quantitative elements in a field – the redevelopment of urban public spaces – which is usually rather qualitative and subjected to personal judgment, improving at the same time the aesthetics, the usability and the liveability of these spaces in a sustainable way.
Since The social logic of space was published in 1984, Bill Hillier and his colleagues at University College London have been conducting research on how space features in the form and functioning of buildings and cities. A key outcome is the concept of ‘spatial configuration’ — meaning relations which take account of other relations in a complex. New techniques have been developed and applied to a wide range of architectural and urban problems. The aim of this book is to assemble some of this work and show how it leads the way to a new type of theory of architecture: an ‘analytic’ theory in which understanding and design advance together. The success of configurational ideas in bringing to light the spatial logic of buildings and cities suggests that it might be possible to extend these ideas to other areas of the human sciences where problems of configuration and pattern are critical.
This chapter focuses on the issues in current city planning and rebuilding. It describes the principles and aims that have shaped modern, orthodox city planning and rebuilding. The chapter shows how cities work in real life, because this is the only way to learn what principles of planning and what practices in rebuilding can promote social and economic vitality in cities, and what practices and principles will deaden these attributes. In trying to explain the underlying order of cities, the author uses a preponderance of examples from New York. The most important thread of influence starts, more or less, with Ebenezer Howard, an English court reporter for whom planning was an avocation. Howard's influence on American city planning converged on the city from two directions: from town and regional planners on the one hand, and from architects on the other.
Good cities are places of social encounter. Creating public spaces that encourage social behavior in our cities and neighborhoods is an important goal of city design. One of the cardinal roles of the street, as public space, is to provide a setting for sociability.
We know as architects that the ability to measure human response to environmental stimuli still requires more years of work. Neuroscience is beginning to provide us with an understanding of how the brain controls all of our bodily activities, and ultimately affects how we think, move, perceive, learn, and remember. In an address to the American Institute of Architects convention in 2003, "Rusty" Gage made the following observations that set the core premise for this book: (1) The brain controls our behavior; (2) Genes control the blueprints for the design and structure of the brain; (3) The environment can modulate the function of genes, and ultimately, the structure of the brain; (4) Changes in the environment change the brain; (5) Consequently, changes in the environment change our behavior; and (6) Therefore, architectural design can change our brain and our behavior.
Since The social logic of space was published in 1984, Bill Hillier and his colleagues at University College London have been conducting research on how space features in the form and functioning of buildings and cities. A key outcome is the concept of ‘spatial configuration’ — meaning relations which take account of other relations in a complex. New techniques have been developed and applied to a wide range of architectural and urban problems. The aim of this book is to assemble some of this work and show how it leads the way to a new type of theory of architecture: an ‘analytic’ theory in which understanding and design advance together. The success of configurational ideas in bringing to light the spatial logic of buildings and cities suggests that it might be possible to extend these ideas to other areas of the human sciences where problems of configuration and pattern are critical.
Exposición que rastrea las principales teorías del diseño urbano surgidas a lo largo del siglo XX y ofrece un análisis de los espacios pérdidos o usos inadecuados del espacio que son parte de la crisis urbana finisecular, con apoyo de estudios de caso detallados de las ciudades de Boston y Washington, D.C., Estados Unidos; Gotemburgo, Suecia y Newcastle, Inglaterra.
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