Urban Development of Bab Al-Wazir at Historic Cairo
Work scope : Proposal & Preliminary Action Plan
Year : 2022
Year : 2022
Cairo, Egypt
The historic city is composed of successive links in society's cultural, urban, and civilized chains. We determine the entrance to develop this historic area based on its cultural and social heritage to find a modern discourse that we address to its society and the world, and we come up with a vision aware of the comprehensiveness and inevitability of sustainable urban development for the region, which is based on the following pillars:
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Upgrading society: It includes the improvement of social, economic, and cultural conditions as part of the urban development process. International research on historical cities that balances development trends with social and cultural dimensions. It also includes strengthening society's role and involving it in project upgrades to ensure sustainable development and the highest social return, considering sustainable development goals, and adopting international recommendations regarding historical urban areas that balance development trends with social and cultural dimensions.
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Preservation, management, and development of cultural heritage:This includes promoting the role of heritage in sustainable development, including tangible heritage such as archaeological and heritage sites, as well as intangible heritage such as customs, traditions, and crafts. It is concerned with improving the region's heritage structure's sustainable management and building on the exceptional values it contains in supporting other development pillars while considering international standards, charters, and recommendations related to the protection and preservation of Historic Cairo as a world heritage site.
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Urban development: It entails improving the built environment, infrastructure, roads, and facilities, as well as implementing environmentally friendly policies derived from the region's heritage structure and the development of inherited traditional knowledge that contributes to the improvement of the urban and natural environments.
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Economic development: It entails enhancing the region's potential economic role and its direct and indirect impacts on the local community and the national product, relying on heritage to attract investments in cultural heritage, cultural tourism, and various creative sectors, economic development that ensures the region's vitality and continuity through innovative activities appropriate to the place and the capabilities of the local community, and providing service annexed to the region.
If multiple cooperating and integrated parties, such as the government sector, private and public investment sectors, or non-governmental organizations, civil associations, and popular leaders from the same community, share responsibility for the region's urban development.
Specifically, the proposal for the development of the Bab al-Wazir area aims to create a vital axis for cultural tourism (Bab al-Wazir Street) due to its sequence of archaeological and heritage tourist attractions such as … Um al-Sultan Shaaban School, Aq Sunqur Mosque, Khayer Bey Complex … and others, in addition to the possibility of rehabilitating some sites to be attractive tourist centers with complementary services for the tourist axis. Examples of these sites include Bayt Al-Razzaz, Alin Aq Al-Husami Palace, Ibrahim Agha Mustahfizan Houses, and Tabbana Raba’… and other heritage buildings in the historical period between the eighteenth century until the beginning of the twentieth century, inhabited or uninhabited, that must be preserved and elevated in their visual and utilitarian fields to add value to the region and the tourist axis. Keeping in mind that the development of this tourist axis is intertwined with preserving the urban entity and social fabric of the region and its inhabitants, raising the standard of living for these residents, and visiting populations, and developing traditional crafts that exist in the region.
To know more about the project, you can read the complete project study in Arabic
The Complete Project Study