Project Overview

In the greater Cairo region, we often find ourselves isolated from the services we need. This is exacerbated in modern urban areas, such as new cities and new developments since there is a general lack of access to needed services within walking distance. Thus, residents are increasingly dependent on fossil-fuel-based vehicles to acquire their daily needs and services, either directly by using a private car or depending on delivery services that use fuel-based vehicles.

Even more alarming is that in many cases, we find that services do exist in neighborhoods but are often misaligned or not fitting with the specific needs of the residents. If we take, for example, an area like New Cairo, we find that the residential neighborhoods have been designed to include services within their core in the form of commercial clusters. However, in many cases, these commercial clusters are occupied by restaurants, commerce, shops, and cafes, which, instead of serving the residents, often cause direct nuisances to the residents due to the noise, light, and odor pollution these commerce locations emit, due to the added traffic caused by visitors from outside the vicinity. Indirectly, this decreases the sense of safety in residential neighborhoods, exacerbating the need to move away from the neighborhood to acquire access to safe and welcoming public spaces and services.

What can be done differently?

Now, take a step back and imagine if these neighborhoods can offer the local residents all their needed services within walking distance.

This is not a new idea, of course. One of the solutions that is proposed to address this is the superblock, where a larger block, larger than the typical, is designed to be surrounded by arterial roads, and within it all roads and services are planned to serve only the local needs. Cities around the world are increasingly adopting Barcelona’s superblock urban planning concept in their downtown areas. The superblock concept, pioneered by Barcelona’s urban planners, involves reimagining typical city blocks by combining several smaller blocks into a larger unit with restricted car access, prioritizing pedestrian spaces, greenery, and sustainable mobility options. The superblock model is aligned with the contemporary urban planning goals of promoting sustainability, reducing reliance on private vehicles, improving air quality, and creating more walkable and livable city centers.

The residents of 4 areas around Cairo have suffered enough from the lack of walkability and access to services. They want to reclaim their right to the city and their neighborhoods!

They came to our design studio asking for help studying how their neighborhood could transition into a “superblock-like” model by 2050, where they can walk or cycle to the services they will need in 2050 quickly while enjoying safe, green, and sustainable conditions. Their focus is not on the residential areas that they like, but mainly on the service and commercial cores.