Place-Identity-Making for a Sustainable City

Aleya Abdel-Hadi (Fine Arts Cairo Helwan University)

Since places are iconic objects for identity, accordingly place-making is a mean for cultural identity creation and a determining factor for a better design of cities. In tandem with the United Nation Sustainable Development Goals (Goal#11): transforming cities into safer, more secure, economy generating; place-making was one of the suggested notions adopted by the UN Habitat and put to examination. Studies of the issue have much argued how such a notion contributes to the daily experience of cities, and its profound impact on the perception of cultural identity for city inhabitants. Cairo, a city of overlapping historic layers, indicates a long urban development process such as: formation, growth, development, change and transformations as well as diverse social interactions throughout time and place. This paper studies the characteristics, potentials and opportunities of existing built environments in relation to the notion of “place-identity-making” in Cairo. It aims to introduce a philosophical/theoretical reader of the concept through a compilation of diverse cases from the different layers (tangible and intangible) that study the problem between public and private uses in different areas of the city, along a chronological time frame (1950 s – 2010 s). The research adopts a theoretical examination of related articles and a participant observant narration and documentation, on the attempts and processes of place-making and place-appropriation and its relation to place-identity from an urban sociology perspective in different parts of the city: Historic area, Khedivial downtown, Heliopolis and the gated communities proliferating around Cairo. Analysis of the findings shows that place-making as a natural occurrence happens mainly in the leaks and loose spaces whilst place-making as an intervention is controlled in the gated communities. Finally, the study draws a hypothetical framework for an integrative model that would help achieve a sustainable quality of life in Cairo’s studied areas.