Cairo Regeneration

Cairo: Revitalization of Urban Heritages through Creative Activities
2021-03-08 ICCSD
Located in the Egyptian capital, Cairo Province, Downtown Cairo, with a history of
thousands of years, is one of the world's least war-damaged ancient cities. In 1979, Cairo was
added to the UNESCO World Heritage List with a large number of well-preserved historical
sites. On 31 st October 2017, Cairo was awarded the "City of Crafts and Folk Arts" by
UNESCO and became a member of the Creative Cities Network for its exquisite traditional
crafts and its development of cultural and creative industries.
Cairo's transformation to a vibrant and creative city is inseparable from the reconstruction
and upgrading of Downtown Cairo. In the early 20 th century, Downtown Cairo was a
prosperous and vibrant world-class upscale city, integrating life, shopping and leisure
altogether. Since the 1970s, urban areas have been occupied by the elderly, intellectuals,
artists and left-behind foreigners, and with the absence of government management, it
developed stagnantly and gradually declined. In 2009, at the request of the World Heritage
Committee (WHC), UNESCO launched a renovation project for Downtown Cairo (Urban
Regeneration for Historic Cairo, referred to as URHC), and it had been advancing since 2010
with the assistance of the Cairo authorities. However, the process was put on hold in 2011,
affected by public protests and parades. And with the steady restoration of political order, the
reconstruction of Downtown Cairo was re-launched. In 2015, the Cairo Lab for Urban
Studies Training and Environmental Research (referred to as CLUSTER) organized "
Creative Cities: Reframing Downtown Cairo " themed international conference on the role of
culture, art and innovation in urban renovation, followed by a series of renovation measures
to revitalize the old town in the light of the conference programme. It has promoted the
development of local tourism and cultural and creative industries, laying the foundation for
Cairo's stride towards a creative city.
1.Recreate urban space through innovative design
The streets of Downtown Cairo were intricate, the boundaries between public and private
spaces were blurred, and the main streets were occupied by vendors, leaving little public
space. In order to solve this problem, the municipal government conducted a series of
transformation measures, including transferring street vendors, prohibiting parking on the
main streets, removing walls that had graffiti on them, etc. At the same time, in order to build
urban public space, partnered with the Danish Egyptian Dialogue Institute and the Centre for
Culture and Development in Copenhagen, CLUSTER organized a seminar with designers and
artists in Denmark and Egypt. At the seminar, they delved into how to create a transition zone
between public and private space and made the final decision: built the Passageway.
Targeting at congested streets of the old town, through the redesign and transformation of
neighborhood parks, floor tiles, benches, street lights and other elements, and according to
different themes, Passageways are public space integrating life and leisure. Kodak and Philips
were two of the first to be remodeled. Kodak Passage, with the theme of "The Green Oasis",
was renovated in many different aspects, including renovating the road, adding plants and
flowers, using recyclables like plastic bottles and colored paper to decorate the streets. After
renovation, the Kodak Passageway connected Adly Street and Abdel Khalek Tharwat Street
and became a beautiful pedestrian street, with idle shops on both sides becoming cultural and
artistic activity space. CLUSTER won the Cairo Design Award 2017 for its creative
transformation of Kodak Street.
The Philips Passageway, featuring "The Light Oasis", is an L-shaped passage connecting
Sherif and Adly Streets. The main functions of this passage are for retail, food, entertainment
and other leisure services. In addition to Kodak and Philips, many abandoned or chaotic
streets have been renovated with this concept into completely new passages, with roads clean
and bright, and stalls in order, creating cleaner and more orderly road space for the city. And
the measure was widely recognized by street merchants.
2. Protect Heritage and Build a Symbiotic System
of ancient buildings, the first of which was carried out after the 1992 earthquake, such as
strengthening foundations, upgrading electrical and sewage systems and clearing
groundwater; the second of which was mainly to repair paintings on the facade of buildings;
and the third of which was carried out in 2014 by maintaining extensive buildings.
ing effort. Protecting historical buildings is the basis of inheriting Islamic historical
civilization and ensuring the sustainable development of the Downtown Cairo, and it is also
the prerequisite for the tourism development in Downtown Cairo. To date, Cairo has carried
out three large-scale restorations
As the "City of Handicrafts and Folk Arts" , Cairo's traditional crafts are exquisite and
diverse. The Cairo bazaar is home to many traditional crafts workshops, such as copper, iron,
gold and silver jewelry workshops, stained glass, weaving, leather goods, carpet workshops
and so on, and the masters and apprentices in these workshops still pass on their skills and
crafts in the oldest way. So, the bazaar is the priority if we want to protect these traditional
crafts. In the process of the transformation of the downtown, the sanitary environment,
business order and management in bazaar are constantly improving. Built in the 14th
century, the Khan el-Khalili bazaar is home to a large collection of traditional craft
workshops, and its long history, a full range of crafts and orderly operation make it a symbol
of Cairo's ancient culture, popular with foreign tourists.
The Historic Cairo is not just a collection of buildings, but a complex of many interwoven
elements, including religious architecture, Islamic culture, traditional crafts, and the people
who live there. These elements are inseparable and harmonious in the same ecosystem, so the
city is able to release its unique charm to the world.
3. Introduce More Activities to Increase the Artistic Atmosphere
Building a creative city cannot be achieved without the participation of artists, and it is
equally important to build art venues, carry out artistic activities, and activate the local
cultural and artistic atmosphere. CLUSTER's main measures in this regard are to create a
separate art space in the city, introduce cultural and artistic activities, bring abandoned
buildings to life, and bring contemporary art back into the city centre.
There are many dilapidated and uninhabited buildings in the city centre, about 30% of
apartments are empty and 20% locked, and land agents have remodeled them to build art
space such as theatres, cinemas, galleries and cafes to attract people. The Bab Saada
Performing Arts centre, which began planning renovations in 2012, was converted from an
abandoned cinema. In addition to renovating old buildings, the number of new art space is
increasing. For example, the Cimatheque-Alternative Film Centre, dedicated to filmmakers
and enthusiasts, demonstrates the diversity of film development in various regions, with the
aim of providing a venue for filmmakers and audiences to watch, discuss, learn and create
films, so that more people can understand the art of film.
At the same time, Cairo has actively introduced and frequently hosted a wide range of
cultural activities, such as art festivals, film festivals, art exhibitions, book fairs, etc., to
attract artists and residents of the street to participate, so that the interaction between arts and
the public can be strengthened. For example, the Downtown Contemporary Arts Festival (D-
CAF) is Egypt's only international multidisciplinary contemporary art festival, which aims to
popularize art to all. In 2017, D-CAF began to hold arts grants to provide free tickets and
transportation to poor individuals and communities. According to statistics, in 2017, a total of
1,325 people received free tickets and participated in theatre, music, dance and film events
during D-CAF.
Transforming neglected places in the city into art space and increasing the number of cultural
venues and events are important forces in promoting the development of local films,
exhibitions and other creative industries and propelling the transformation and upgrading of
Downtown Cairo.
4. Promote Urban Transformation through Multi-participation

The transformation and upgrading of Downtown Cairo cannot be achieved without the joint
efforts of all parties. Throughout the process, the government is the guide, private enterprises
are important investors, artists are creators, and citizens are important participants.
In order to propose an accurate and reasonable transformation plan, CLUSTER, as the

official implementation organization of the project, invited representatives of relevant
international organizations, international Creative Cities, academic institutions, government
researchers, architects, business representatives and other personnel, organized seminars in
urban renewal projects, and put forward practical transformation plans. At the same time, it
also published publications, established a database of downtown access and urban heritage
building maps, etc. to introduce the project in detail to the public. In addition, CLUSTER was
focused on the creative arts and has developed the Creative Initiatives Toolkit, which helps
researchers, business owners, cultural workers and funders assess the current state of the
cultural and creative economy in Cairo by measuring audience spending.
As for enterprises, many of them have been involved in the early stages of the transformation,
contributing to the protection of Cairo's cultural heritage, urban governance and the
construction of Creative Cities. Misr Real Assets Estate, a privately owned real estate
company with 62 buildings in central Cairo and Attaba, worked with the Cairo government
and the National Organization for Urban Harmony (NOUH) to take charge of the downtown
renovations of the exterior and interior of buildings, including pipes, carpets, etc., and have
now finished about 20 of them. In addition, throughout the process, residents also actively
participate in the protection of monuments, maintenance of street order and artistic activities
because cafes and bazaars are located here, and their lives are inextricably linked to the city.
Their participation is influencing the city's development.

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Cairo: Revitalization of Urban Heritages through Creative Activities

1.Recreate urban space through innovative design

2. Protect Heritage and Build a Symbiotic System

3. Introduce More Activities to Increase the Artistic Atmosphere

4. Promote Urban Transformation through Multi-participation

In order to propose an accurate and reasonable transformation plan, CLUSTER, as the

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