EXCURSION & WORKSHOP, SS 2014
Dr. Somaiyeh Falahat, Dr. M. Reza Shirazi

Cairo: Formation, Deterioration, Regeneration of unplanned neighbourhoods

Cairo is a megalopolis of contrasts: Islamic Cairo, City of the Dead, Nile, Pyramids. Although this city has a long history, its growth and transformation during the 20th century has been outstanding and significant. This growth, however, did not follow any comprehensive plan, but was more the result of unplanned development. Roughly 70 per cent of the city’s inhabitants live in informal settlements encroaching into the agricultural fields of the Nile delta and the surrounding desert. In this sense, informality was not an exception, but the mainstream. Dealing with these settlements has been, for a long time, a main task of the government as well as international cooperation efforts initiated by GIZ or UN Habitat.

The excursion will focus on the study of bottom-up, community-based urban regeneration in inner-city neighbourhoods in Cairo. An introductory teaching block will be held to provide a theoretical overview to the subject. This will be followed by a 7-day field study excursion to Cairo (7-14 March 2014) in which the master students of TU Berlin together with a group of master students of Cairo University will visit ongoing regeneration projects and conduct field work in distressed neighbourhoods.

This excursion is supported by Participatory Urban Regeneration Programme (ZTG/ TU Berlin), organized in cooperation with Habitat Unit and Cairo University. Travel cost to Cairo will be provided to a limited number of TU Berlin master students who are required to send a motivation letter and CV to Dr. Somaiyeh Falahat/ Dr. M. Reza Shirazi.