Re-Identifying Cairo's Center

The city of Cairo in Egypt is one of the biggest and oldest cities in the world with its foundation starting with the Islamic old city in 641–642 AD. Also it is counted as one of the richest in its culture as it has gone through many phases and expansions with varying identities clashing dating back to the Islamic age reaching to the colonial French and British era with everything else in between. Cairo now has expanded organically around its center by a great extent making it one of the biggest megacities in the world and one of the most populated with a population surpassing 21 million citizens. This chosen center of the city is Tahrir's square (Victory square). It is one of the main points that witnessed many revolutions and shifts of the city. But now the city has simply become too big, dense and diverse in its identity that it is in desperate need for a new center that fits its scale. This project proposes a new heart of the city in the Old Islamic Cairo and ways to revitalize the old city. This project was completed by the architecture students May Sherif and Mohamed Omar supervised by Prof. Rita Pinto De Fritas part of the design studio course in the German University in Cairo. This project has also won the 2nd place "The Luiz Conceição Architecture award" organized by ISMAT in Portugal in 2022 and published and exhibited in "Bayt Yakan" a cultural center in Islamic Cairo aiming to regenerate and revitalize the old city.