World Multidisciplinary Civil Engineering- Architecture – Urban Planning Symposium – Prague – Czech Republic
Violent and nonviolent changes in the images of cities in the Arab Spring Countries
Yehya M. Serag PhD June, 2017
Photo credits: Dan H, 29 January 2011 - Cairo
Arab Spring Revolutions: 2011 --->
The revolutions started in Tunisia then Egypt, Libya, Syria and Yemen reshaping the whole region and sending it into a state of unrest. In Syria, Yemen and Libya the revolutions turned into armed conflicts.
Research Aim Following these revolutions, several transformations in the images of the Arab cities that hosted them took and are taking place. Such transformations vary from one city to the other and in some cases from one situation to the other within the same city.
The research proposes a general classification to identify : violence caused transformations and nonviolent transformations to the image of the city. Focusing on: Aleppo
Cairo
Syria - 2014
Egypt - 2011
Violence caused transformation in Syrian cities It is argued that the major transformations in the images of Syrian cities are due to the ongoing armed conflict and the acts of Urbicide against cities. Further changes are argued to take place with the possible scenarios of post-conflict reconstruction strategies to be applied in the affected areas. The Syrian version of the Arab Spring revolution started as well in 2011, but it gained critical momentum starting from 2012. What started as a revolution evolved into a civil armed conflict that is still ongoing in 2017.
(Right) The level of damage in districts of Aleppo city. (Left): damaged neighbourhood in Aleppo and the damaged caused to the Umayyad mosque in Aleppo. Source: UNHABITAT, 2014
Violence caused transformation in Syrian cities The question that is raised at this point would be : " how would the image of the city be like after the post-conflict reconstruction?". Three possible scenarios: (Kassouha, 2014), 1) to reconstruct the city as a replica of its past ďƒ¨ difficult to realize as it requires enormous funding 2) to renovate the remaining existing buildings of the city while relaying on the residents for self building ďƒ¨ possible, but the state won't be able to control the rebuilding and renovation process 3) rebuilding the city from scratch after demolishing what is left standing from its buildings. ďƒ¨ the city most likely will be considered as an investment zone and set for reconstruction and rebuilding by the private sector. (Aljundi, 2016)
Beirut 1975
Beirut 2015
Souqs 1975
Malls 2015
The last scenario is similar to the reconstruction of Beirut after the civil war, as it was assigned to a private sector company.
Violence caused and nonviolent transformations in Cairo The brief period of violence that took place both during the January 2011 revolution and the June revolution 2013, sparked several transformation actions in between the two incidents and extended to the years that followed.. Looking mainly at the Cairo, its image is defined by: -
its organization of spaces its skyline and silhouette its patterns and architectural styles of its buildings, the forms of transportation and traffic flow lines within the city.
Many of these elements where affected in Cairo because of the events that took place during and after the revolutions.
Tahrir Sqaure is taken as the main example as well as other examples from different places in Cairo and Egypt.
Cairo: Changing the silhouette / skyline of Tahrir square
Social earth, 2011
Cairo: Changing the silhouette / skyline of Tahrir square
NDP Building
Vacant Land possibly future park
Vacant Land
Steigenberger hotel
Underground parking
Construction site
AUC Library 2011
AUC garden 2017 Further down: Tahrir gate
The spatial and physical transformation of Tahrir square between 2011-2017. Source: google earth with adaptation by the author.
Cairo: Changing the silhouette / skyline of Tahrir square Demolition of the National Democratic Party (NDP) Building
Cairo: Changing the silhouette / skyline of Tahrir square Demolition of the National Democratic Party (NDP) Building
Cairo: Changing the silhouette / skyline of Tahrir square Demolition of the National Democratic Party (NDP) Building The building was constructed in 1958, its last function was the NDP headquarters. The building was heavily damaged in 2011 and stood deserted until it was torn down in 2015
2015
2017
It is argued that possible political disputes, between opinions calling for erasing the memory of the NDP, or those arguing that this was done to erase the memory of the 2011 revolutions eventually led to the demolition of the building and changing the image of the city.
Cairo: Changing the silhouette / skyline of Tahrir square Construction of Steigenberger Hotel
Cairo: Changing the silhouette / skyline of Tahrir square Construction of Steigenberger Hotel
Cairo: Changing the silhouette / skyline of Tahrir square Construction of Steigenberger Hotel This transformation in the image of Tahrir square is triggered by the events that took place in it , making it such an iconic place. Hosting two revolutions gave the square an overwhelming attractiveness and importance, providing a great incentive for economic investment to benefit from its historical importance.
In the 1920s the site hosted the villa of Egypt’s feminist leader Hoda Sharaawy's Villa, it was then demolished later and the site remained vacant for more than 40 years until Steigenberger Hotel opened in 2017 in the same site, changing the skyline of Tahrir square.
Cairo: Controlling the Spatial Settings of Tahrir square The gate to Tahrir Square In the post 2011 revolution, Egypt witnessed a long period of political unrest that was manifested in the form of protests that occasionally turned violent. Since Tahrir square is very close to many governmental institutions and ministries in downtown Cairo, the government tended to introduce barricades that varied from simple barbed wires to building walls to block streets, with the aim of both dispersing potential protests and creating buffer zones around the public buildings
The wall erected to block the entrance to Tahrir square in 2012, after acquiring a touch of graffiti.
Cairo: Controlling the Spatial Settings of Tahrir square The gate to Tahrir Square The emplacement of such gate, which for now does not seem to be removed soon, had contributed in transforming the image of this part in Downtown Cairo. The perception of space, has changed to the sense of being controlled instead of that of normal free movement. The use of similar gates in other places in Downtown Cairo in streets that lead to governmental buildings, is still tangible and was used to replace the temporary walls.
The iron Gate to Tahrir Square that replaced the wall in 2014.
Cairo: Concrete Blast Shields in Cairo In 2014 and 2015, several Egyptian security buildings were targeted by terrorist bomb blasts. Until these dates minimum security surrounding these facilities made them vulnerable to such attacks.
Bomb crater in front of Cairo’s police headquarters, 2015
Cairo: Concrete Blast Shields in Cairo This led to the installation of the concrete blast shields to surround the main security headquarters and some important governmental institutions. The introduction of such shields was also accompanied by setting a buffer zone around such buildings, while building high walls in the case of some police stations in Cairo.
Installed concrete blast shields on the periphery of a governmental building near Tahrir square and around a police headquarters in a secondary city in the North of Egypt, 2015
As such, in several locations in Cairo the perception and image of spaces were transformed slowly in such a way. The transformation as such was triggered because of violent actions. The installations made came out of fear from terrorist actions and in themselves are nonviolent measures responding to violent actions.
Demolition of Heritage and Historical buildings in Egyptian Cities The ban of demolishing heritage buildings relaxed after the 2011 revolution since there was no real comprehension of the preservation policy itself and was rather associated with key figures in the former regiem, who once gone, several buildings were removed from the demolition ban list and demolished to allow for the construction of modern residential towers to benefit its land owners.
Part of the waterfront skyline in Alexandria, showing the original skyline (in color) and the most recent transformed skyline in the foreground (in grey), which was accelerated after 2011.
Conclusion Violence caused and nonviolent transformations in the image of the cities in Syria and Egypt are totally different from each other. The findings also cannot be generalized to other Arab Spring countries unless being validated in such contexts. The Syrian case was subject to extreme violence and war ravaged cities that resulted out of that. The Egyptian case witnessed far less levels of violence, however, because of subsequent political events to the revolutions, some changes and transformations took place in the image of its cities. In the Syrian case, the discussion is about the future image of the cities in the postconflict era. There are several scenarios that will impact such future images and whether the intention will be: - to replicate what was once existing, -
or to preserve some iconic elements to preserve some characteristics of the cities
- or ultimately replacing the old ruins with new planned cities.
Conclusion Despite the low levels of violence in the Egyptian case, still violence was responsible in triggering spatial changes in the cities. Most actions taken after the revolutions were non-violent, but they came as a response to other factors that were triggered by the revolutions and in some cases, were associated by violence. From the cases discussed the following classification for non-violent transformation can be made: -
Nonviolent transformation that came as a consequence to a violent act and affected by the political environment in the country. Nonviolent transformation that came as an investment action to reflect the increasing historical and cultural value of the place that witnessed the revolutions. Nonviolent transformation that came as a reaction to violent and terrorist actions and out of fear and precaution for similar future violent actions . Nonviolent transformation, yet devastating to the city image in terms of the changing skylines. This action came as a result of relaxing the laws banning the demolition of such buildings.
Discussion Email: yehyaserag@gmail.com Email: yehia.Mohamed@fue.edu.eg