To this day, Cairo has a vibrant history, rich architectural culture, and heritage, which, from an outside perspective, is still the vivid and leading representation of the city. But what is today's Cairo beyond the capital of Egypt, the Nile, the deserts, the bustling streets, the museums, and the archaeological sites and historic buildings? The city has experienced a rapid urban transformation over the past few decades, acquiring a remarkably different character from the one recent and older generations remember from their youth in the streets, neighborhoods, and buildings of the city.
Cairo represents a population growth of 4 million in the 1960s to over 20 million today, while its urban footprint expanded by approximately 400% since the 1960s. The built-up area represents nearly half the metropolitan region, with an annual urban growth rate of 2-4% - much higher than the approximate 1% growth rate typical in countries like Canada, Germany, Japan, Italy, and Sweden. Due to this rapid urbanization, agricultural land now constitutes less than 10% of the total area of Greater Cairo. The city is a constantly evolving mosaic of over 50 distinct neighborhoods, each embodying its own unique identity and demographic composition, contributing to Cairo's diverse urban fabric.
From an inside and more nuanced perspective, Cairo has adopted an image of accelerated concrete structures, limitless city expansion, and an architecture that increasingly favors corporate real estate projects, government-led developments, and unwarranted high-rise and big commercial buildings. They tend to represent an uncoordinated urban plan and infrastructure growth, in the absence of addressing the population's high demand for affordable housing and protecting the city's historic chore. In contrast, investments are characterized by an obscure architectural language, inaccessible urban areas, and an expanded car-centric sprawl, that abolishes the natural environment, agricultural land, and heritage sites. Reoccurring terms in recent months and years have been 'Demolition' and 'Abandonment' of various historic sites and buildings, symbolizing a loss for some of Cairo's significant cultural narrative.
- Demolition of extensive areas and cemeteries of Cairo's City of the Dead: the metropolitan's oldest cemetery dating back to the seventh century, consisting of a series of necropolises located in the historic Old Cairo
- Demolition of the Darb Art Center: was a cultural beacon located in the historic Old Cairo, dating back to 1718. It was a creative hub for local and international artists and their works
- Abandonment and unsuccessful Restoration efforts of Villa Badran: a 20th-century residence designed by Gamal Bakry and located in Mohandessin. The organic house architecture represented modernist exploration and concrete expressionism.
Amidst rising economic pressure and a limited governmental emphasis on heritage preservation, architects in Egypt strive to protest this movement through small-scale designs, interventions, and complimentary architecture. These projects often revitalize the disregarded undervalued sites and aim to patch what has been broken, blending local identity with contemporary approaches and prioritizing Egyptian resources - many of which have been underutilized or disregarded in recent decades. While challenges persist, this growing architectural shift represents a revolutionary essence within the built environment. In bridging Cairo's past and present, architects continue to reshape the city, preserving its identity and offering a hopeful vision of sustainable, heritage-focused urban development.
