Regarding Cairo, the objective is to define the terms of use and behavior in public spaces and especially in public parks and the downtown, both “invented” in the nineteenth century by an urban reformist movement (this work therefore addresses also the morphology of places and their history).
These include the changing nature of public space in an Arab city, Cairo in particular, the invention of some of these places as public parks, and use that have Cairenes (of course, distinguishing between different types of uses and users). Thus, these two types of spaces are - in terms of its current popular users - in a process of “democratization” and at the same time - from the perspective of former bourgeois users (before turning 1960-1970) - in full degradation (and at the same time patrimonialization now that these spaces are beyond their control). The work is done primarily by observations and interviews with an anthropological methodology and a more bookish approach in its historical dimension. In addressing what I call “small urban natures” in my work on Cairo, is there a radical disconnect between the city of Cairo and the distant Siwa?
– See especially these pages:
– Some Public Spaces in Cairo: the Parks.
– The Giza Zoo: Re-Appropriating Public Spaces, Re-Imagining Urban Beauty.
– Have please also a glance at the keyword “urban”.
(Deutsch: Ansicht von Kairo, Ägypten, mit Blick auf das Moccatam-Gebirge. Im Hintergrund mittig die Zitadelle, sowie rechts die “Totenstadt”. Fotografiert aus einem Ballon aus ca. 800m Höhe).
January 30, 1904; first published in Spelterini, E.: Über den Wolken/Par dessus les nuages, Brunner & Co, Zürich 1928, p. 83.
By Eduard Spelterini, (1852–1931), Swiss pioneer of ballooning and of aerial photography.
Source: Wikimedia Commons.
