The City and the Public | New Modes of Urban Intervention in Cairo since Jan 2011

A breakdown of the security apparatus in Cairo in January 2011 has since generated new modes of informal urban interventions in public space that in both kind and measure would have been previously unimaginable. The revolution has also posed challenges to professionals and academics alike, rendering former modes of practice and established frameworks of pedagogy increasingly irrelevant, and calling for alternative models for education and practice.

The presentation is intended to share with the audience some of the experimental, process-oriented urban design studios in Cairo’s central districts, using modeling and critically engaging questions of public space. The second part presents some examples of informal interventions taking place in the city during the period when the state is vulnerable or entirely absent. It finally attempts to offer a working hypothesis of alternative modes of urban development “from below,” whereby individuals and communities take the initiatives, then invite the state—increasingly weak and incapacitated—to take part in the formalization and legitimization process.

Omar Nagati: is a practicing architect and urban planner. A graduate of Cairo University, he studied and taught at University of British Columbia and University of California Berkeley, with a specific focus on informal urbanism. Nagati adopts an interdisciplinary approach to questions of urban history and design, and engages in a comparative analysis of urbanization processes in developing countries. He teaches Urban Design Studio at the Modern Sciences and Arts University (MSA), and as a guest instructor at Cairo University. Nagati has recently co-founded CLUSTER, a new independent platform for urban research and design initiatives downtown Cairo.