Lessons From Cairo: How Small Scale Urban Initiatives can Improve a City (A. A. Mohamed)

Cairo, like many cities, is deeply wounded by fragmentation and heterogeneity. It is a complex city with a broken public realm. And while policymakers use lack of money as an excuse for not making substantial improvements, money has no relation with innovation and creativity. Inexpensive, short-term actions can give people the confidence that something is taking place.

Imagine a city as an urban envelope made up of floors, walls, roofs, and dwellers. How can these simple components, with limited capacity, make change?

Some recent small-scale Egyptian urban initiatives, when compared with the government’s expensive plans, are powerful in drawing people into spaces. These following initiatives are good ‘urban acupunctures’ that might heal Cairo. [...]

Coloring Cairo

Cairo is known for being one of the most crowded cities in the word. The city is usually covered with a grey cloud of dust and smog. But colors directly influence our health and mood. Can coloring the “grey city” reduce the frustration of local citizens and improve their mood, satisfaction and productivity? Two independent initiativeshave recently been launched to color Cairo:

Coloring a Grey City: A group of undergraduate students studying interior design at Helwan University’s Faculty of Fine Arts launched a campaign for colouring staircases, walls, and lamp posts in order to add comfort happiness and joy to the working-class in Cairo. The group roamed the city to add brightness to its streets and to introduce a touch that might change people’s live. The initiative aims to cover the whole country. Notably, governmental support was limited to granting permission to paint.

Cairo Dish-Painting Initiative: The Cairo skyline is covered with millions of dusty satellite dishes. This depressing view was a source of inspiration for the American artist Jason Stoneking who decided to change the face of rooftops in Cairo. He started painting rooftops in Ard-Ellewa – an informal settlement in the western part of Cairo where he lives. Many residents invited him to paint more dishes in Ard-Ellewa and in other places within the city. This innovative intervention might add brightness and dynamism to the townscape of Cairo.

Read the complete article + more information on the projects here.