Architecture and the Urban Life of Cairo

When it comes to Cairo, there is a plethora of writing taking place amid its streets and alleyways. Trying to make sense of, and structure, such an immense output is quite a difficult task. However, this article aims to highlight some significant writings that would offer those interested in Cairo’s architecture an opportunity to learn more about the city and its built environment. My intent is also to expand the scope of the inquiry. Rather than simply focusing on specific buildings, I seek to include the broader urban context and also look at the socioeconomic conditions that gave rise to important structures. I start with a review of some major texts that have looked at the city from different perspectives and, in doing so, shed light on the city’s urban and architectural development. It is interesting to note that for the most part, authors in this section do not come from an architectural or urban-planning background. Instead they write from a historical, economic, and geographic perspective. Following this, I look at a variety of other sources and writings that have appeared in edited books and book chapters. I have also included journal articles, since they offer an in-depth examination of certain buildings and the city’s overall urban growth. In addition to writings about the city, I also sought to capture its “urban imaginary” (i.e., the extent to which its built environment has been represented by writers, filmmakers, and artists). To that end, a section is dedicated toward a review of key works and the extent to which they have shed valuable insights into Cairo’s past, present, and future. The city’s urban imaginary is also portrayed through the medium of film, which allows for a conveyance of a visual narrative that evokes the sight and sounds of the city. Here I review key articles discussing the representation of the city through cinema, which is then followed by a filmography of major movies released since the late 20th century. Last, I review online resources, offering researchers material about the city’s architecture and urban environment in the form of images, maps, and drawings, in addition to blogs discussing Cairo’s rich history as well as modern problems.

Memoria situada y endriaga en La oscura memoria de las armas

In La oscura memoria de las armas (2008) Ramón Díaz Eterovic explores the topics of memory, Chile’s dictatorship, transition, violence and truth from the perspective of Detective Heredia, who goes through the streets of Santiago elucidating a murder that, based on rumours and on a conscious of effort of not forgetting history, it deals with relevant topics that were not talked about on the time of the transition to democracy, where memories become an "endriaga" at the sight of the establishment of the collective memory, birthed on the streets of the city. A memory made of testimonies dripping with the horror, torment and silence that the dictatorship imposed over the inhabitants of Santiago and allows us to configure the urban imaginary of Santiago de Chile at the time of the transition to democracy, introducing a new character into the national literary imaginary: the victim of the dictatorship who seeks justice and revenge.

St. Petersburg as a Place of Belonging: Sticker Artists Inhabit and Imagine the City

The article approaches belonging using the conceptual tool of urban imaginary to demonstrate how a certain place can be represented in different ways, offering different scenarios for the emergence, explanation, and experience of belonging. Urban politics in St. Petersburg and Russia, in general, generate controversial imaginaries of the city and attach different meanings to belonging, forcing street artists to strike a balance between the hegemonic structures of governance and capitalism, local (national) and global (western), rebellion, and dependency, notably, to fulfill their ideas of belonging. Using sticker artists in St. Petersburg, based on ethnographic data, the article shows how young people assimilate several urban imaginaries and, following the logic inherent in each of these, position themselves and their activity in the city. Sticker artists are described as urban agents, who, by participating in place-making and transforming urban space using stickers, find their subjectivity and opportunities to wield microscale power.

Plazas e imaginarios. Una revisión tácita

Desde la [habitualmente] modesta plaza de barrio, hasta los parques lineales y/o de carácter metropolitano, este trozo de espacio público sigue resultando indispensable en el entramado urbano para uso y disfrute de la ciudadanía. A través de un cuestionario, aplicado a 100 personas, intentamos descubrir los factores implícitos en el imaginario urbano, sobre las preferencias en la utilización de una plaza o parque. Sobrepasando la mitad de los encuestados, la respuesta mayoritaria (54%) refiere a la “Cercanía” del enclave con respecto al hogar (42% corresponde a la plaza de la colonia, mientras que un afortunado 12% reside cerca de un parque de carácter metropolitano que es el utilizado por ellos). Además, tamaño y vegetación, son elementos clave que reafirman la predilección por el sitio, al realizar actividades tales como convivencia, descanso y ejercicio. Como dato curioso, tenemos que a la pregunta textual: “¿A qué plaza o parque va habitualmente?”, seis personas (6% de la muestra) respondieron que frecuentan una “Plaza comercial”. Esto alude a una transformación directa al imaginario colectivo a nivel urbano, pues el término “plaza”, normalmente asociado al espacio público, se imbrica con el “mall” privado, al que se visita también por cuestión de cercanía a la vivienda.Palabras clave: Plaza; imaginario, contextualidad. AbstractFrom the [usually] modest neighborhood square, to the linear parks and/or metropolitan character, this piece of public space continues to be indispensable in the urban fabric for the use andenjoyment of citizenship. Through a questionnaire, applied to 100 people, we try to discover the factors implicit in the urban imaginary, about the preferences in the use of a square or park. Surpassing half of the surveyed, the majority response (54%) refers to the "Closeness" of the enclave with respect to the home (42% corresponds to the colony’s square, while a lucky 12% resides near a metropolitan park that’s used by them). In addition, size and vegetation, are key elements that reaffirm the predilection for the site, when performing activities such as connivance, rest and exercise. As a curious fact, we have that to the textual question: "To what plaza or park do you usually go?” six people (6% of the sample) answered that they frequent a "shopping plaza". This alludes to a direct transformation to the collective imaginary at an urban level, since the term "plaza", normally associated to the public space, is imbricate with the private "mall", which is also visited due to the proximity to the house.Keywords: Plaza, Imaginary, Contextuality.

URBAN IMAGINARY: ВИЗУАЛЬНЫЕ МАРКЕРЫ ГОРОДСКОГО ВООБРАЖАЕМОГО

Статья посвящена изучению визуальных маркеров urban imaginary, которые обеспечивают аккумулирование и репрезентацию коллективных представлений о городе, а также структурируют процесс воображения города. Актуальность исследований функционирования urban imaginary подтверждается как повышенным научным интересом к тем феноменам, которые символически и ментально детерминируют городскую реальность, так и эпизодичностью исследований urban imaginary в России. Проблематика urban imaginary открывает возможность междисциплинарного взгляда на город как глобальный текст, порождённый в результате структурирования коллективного воображения и образуемый динамикой городских смыслов во времени и пространстве. В работе акцентируется внимание на том, что люди соприкасаются лишь с фрагментами города, а в условиях информатизации и цифровизации реальности город как целое существует прежде всего в воображении людей, которое приближает и редуцирует символический код города. Ключевым тезисом работы является утверждение о том, что важнейшим знаковым репрезентантом, благодаря которому структурируется urban imaginary в каждом конкретном городе, являются визуальные маркеры городского воображаемого, обладающие исключительным образным и генерирующим эффектом. Автор обращается к процессу конструирования urban imaginary, выявляет типологию и специфику визуальных маркеров urban imaginary российских городов, выполняющих роль символических медиаторов. Среди доминирующих в работе рассматриваются природные, символические, архитектурные, персонифицированные визуальные маркеры, которые могут принимать разную конфигурацию и по-разному структурировать urban imaginary. Результатом процесса визуализации urban imaginary, транслирующего коллективные представления о городе, становится городской образ. На основании утверждения символической и отчасти виртуальной природы urban imaginary подчёркивается, что процесс репрезентации города и его сконструированный образ сегодня нередко имеют больший вес по сравнению с тем, что представляет собой город на самом деле. Полученные результаты являются отправной точкой для дальнейших, в том числе прикладных, исследований urban imaginary. Они могут стать частью интеллектуального капитала, который может использоваться городскими элитами в символической борьбе городов за пространство и мобильные ресурсы, а также в решении проблем повышения конкурентоспособности российских городов.The article is devoted to the study of visual markers of urban imaginary, which provide the accumulation and representation of collective memories of the city, and structure the process of imagination of the city. The relevance of urban imaginary research is confirmed both by the increased scientific interest in the phenomena that symbolically and mentally determine urban reality, and by the episodic nature of urban imaginary research in Russia. Urban imaginary opens the possibility of an interdisciplinary view of the city as a global text, generated by the structuring of collective imagination and formed by the dynamics of urban meanings in time and space. The work focuses on the fact that people come into contact only with fragments of the city, and in the conditions of informatization, digitalization of reality, the city as a whole exists, first of all, in the imagination of people, which approximates and reduces the symbolic code of the city. The key thesis of the work is the statement that the most important symbolic representative, thanks to which urban imaginary is structured in a particular city, is visual markers of the urban imaginary, which have an exceptional imaginative and generating effect. The author addresses the process of urban imaginary construction, reveals the typology and specificity of Russian cities visual markers that act as symbolic mediators. The dominant markers considered in the article are natural, symbolic, architectural, personalized visual markers, which may have different configuration in each city and differently structure urban imaginary. The result of urban imaginary’s visualization process, which translates collective representations of the city, is an urban image. Based on the symbolic and partly virtual nature of urban imaginary, it is emphasized that the process of representation of the city and the constructed image today have more significance than the city really is. The results can be a starting point for the further urban imaginary research, including applied research. They are part of the intellectual capital that can be used by urban elites in the symbolic struggle of cities for space and mobile resources, as well as in solving the problems of increasing the competitiveness of Russian cities.