GROUNDED URBAN PRACTICES

CAIRO/ AMSTERDAM ROTTERDAM

SUMMARY

GROUNDED URBAN PRACTICES (GUPs)

CLUSTER & NON-FICTIONJULY 2019

IN CAIRO AND AMSTERDAM/ROTTERDAM

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5 SUMMARY

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→ are projects, initiatives or offices who use space as a key agent of change→ are rooted in communities, social movements or local areas→ are critical of the status quo→ experiment with legal, financial and organizational models as well as strategies, methods and tools

Grounded Urban Practices (GUPs)

7 Researching GUPs

A wave of GUPs has emerged in Cairo after the 2011 rev-olution and in Amsterdam/Rotterdam during the 2008-2012 financial crisis. After almost a decade of experimental re-search and interventions challenging business-as-usual spatial production, many GUPs in both contexts face sev-eral difficulties today. In Egypt, the regime has managed to restore order, while in the Netherlands the economic upturn has ended some of the opportunities created by the crisis.

This study contains an in-depth investigation of the work of GUPs in both countries, based on an extensive research and several meet-ups with the selected GUPs in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Cairo. The research focused on 1) the roots and reasons behind their emergence; 2) their structure and legal, financial and organizational models; 3) the strategies, methods and tools that have been applied; and 4) the risks, challenges and opportunities shaping their current decisions.

8Cairo GUPs

During and after the 2011 Egyptian revolution a power vac-uum emerged, which suddenly gave individuals and com-munities in Cairo more opportunities to engage the city and public space. Existing social networks of spatial pro-fessionals, unsatisfied with the way architecture was being practiced and taught until then, seized the moment to de-velop new modes of practices and experimental initiatives. Soon, a new, coherent movement came into being that sought to reimagine Cairo in ways beyond conventional practice and business-as-usual urbansim.

In reality, the Cairo GUPs started to operate where the au-thorities had traditionally failed to provide, from heritage preservation, well-maintained public space to community services. While they experimented with a wide range of innovative practices and structures, a lot of effort has gone into evolving and adapting in parallel with the ongoing po-litical and legal context. By now, a ‘restoration of order’ gave way to the return of top-down decision making on spatial developments, which has considerably worsened the working conditions of GUPs on the ground.

9 List of Cairo GUPs

10Tooba is an interdisciplinary group that conducts research on the built environment in Egypt, with topics related to urban inequality, informality, housing, public space and service provision.

Bayt Yakan is a privately-renovated 17th-century house located in al-Darb al-Ahmar, which is now the headquarters of its renovator’s professional practice and NGO.

Cairobserver is an online platform open to public contributions, dedicated as an outlet for Cairenes to engage with urban and architectural issues.

CILAS is a liberal arts institute which seeks to make critical education accessible as an alternative to more traditional forms of pedagogy, with urban embeddedness as a core value.

CLUSTER is an independent urban research and design platform located Downtown Cairo with a strong focus on public space and informal urbanism.

DUCO is a company promoting street art, intervening in the urban landscape through wall painting.

House of Egyptian Architecture is a museum dedicated to Egyptian Architecture located in Hassan Fathy’s former house in Darb al-Labbana.

Lala Studio is a studio looking to provide community services in Darb al-Labbana, working mainly with volunteers, and making its practices close to that of a charity.

Madd is a non-formalized group of researchers and practitioners critical of top-down urban planning, who among others sought to create a participatory process for the Maspero area.

Megawra/Built Environment Collective is an NGO based in and concentrating its efforts on the Al-Khalifa area, seeking to achieve heritage protection through a context-based approach.

Shadow Ministry of Housing is an online blog critically discussing governmental policies pertaining to housing, such as rent, cost, and utilities.

Takween is an urban development company engaged in design, construction and research activities, towards a more integrated urban development approach.

Transport for Cairo is a company mapping Cairo’s public transportation network, triggered by the global trend towards the right to information through open data.

10Amsterdam/Rotterdam GUPs

The aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis brought many regular urban development projects to a halt, which result-ed in many abandoned properties and unemployed spatial professionals, and a shared need to do things different-ly. This appeared to be a fruitful ground for new kinds of initiatives, building on a long tradition of alternative or even radical urban practices. Many of them have been ex-perimenting with new models, from crowdfunding urban interventions to leasing buildings from large housing cor-porations.

As Dutch cities are increasingly becoming unaffordable and privatized, many of the GUPs work on obtaining con-trol over spaces (and sharing it with others), while others seek to add a certain complexity to an increasingly over-regulated and homogenous urban environment. For many of them, the personal investment of the founders, the ‘school of life’ such an initiative offers and smart partner-ships with various stakeholders have been key in making their work a success. However, the current economic up-turn has already proven to have a negative effect on the work of Dutch GUPs.

11 List of Amsterdam/Rotterdam GUPs

Cascoland is a collective of Amsterdam-based artists developing tools and interventions that empower people, communities and neighborhoods, and influence planners and authorities.

Jeanne van Heeswijk is an ‘urban curator’ organising long-term community engagement, empowering inhabitants to change their own environment themselves.

Non-fiction is a collective of researchers, designers, thinkers and curators, creating discursive reflections and temporary urban interventions allowing for different perspectives on the city.

Samen Wonen Samen Leven is a foundation creating new community hubs, recently winning the Amsterdam Architecture Award for their project in Amsterdam West.

Soweto is an alternative housing association, buying buildings to transform them into affordable, collective housing.

Stad in de Maak is a foundation aiming to take properties off the market in Rotterdam and create affordable spaces for living and working.

Stadsherstel is a company aiming to acquire dilapidated buildings (in particular monuments) restore and preserve them, and rent them out.

Urban Resort is a foundation temporarily renting abandoned buildings and converting them into affordable working (and housing) arrangements across Amsterdam.

Verhalenhuis Belvedere is a ‘home for immaterial heritage’ in Rotterdam’s rapidly changing Katendrecht neighborhood, where people can meet through food, storytelling, and exhibitions.

Vers Beton is an online magazine for Rotterdam, focusing on urban development, architecture, politics, arts and culture, providing a platform for discussion about urban issues.

ZUS is an office for architecture & urbanism, working worldwide but also in their immediate environment, where it is involved in the redevelopment of the area.

12GUPs Compared

Despite the clearly different contexts, the many similarities between GUPs from both countries are striking. In both contexts, GUPs seem to mature and develop in a similar way over time, sustained by a personal investment from the founders who often continue to self-initiate new as-pects of their practice. As the GUPs become more estab-lished, they have to remain independent to stay critical and constantly adapt to new situations, applying a certain ‘tac-tical cunning’.

That said, GUPs from Amsterdam/Rotterdam are generally more focused on obtaining control over space and adding a certain complexity in increasingly privatized and overreg-ulated urban environments, and have been able to exper-iment and innovate more in the process. The Cairo GUPs on the other hand have often engaged with making sense of an operating in complex, conflicted, contested urban environment, all the while filling the gaps where the state fails to provide adequate services.

13 What’s Next

While GUPs proliferated in Egypt and the Netherlands in the wake of economic and political crisis which happened more or less the same time, similar initiatives might have emerged in different places at different moments. In the near future, similar research projects in other European, North-African and the Middle Eastearn cities will be carried out, which will broaden the knowledge base on GUPs and expand the cur-rent network.

Organizing more encounters with GUPs across different contexts might result in the emergence of a modest social movement, which could at some point collectively intervene at larger gatherings of urban and architectural professionals. Training programmes or Summer Schools are another for-mat which could bring GUPs together, while at the same time handing their knowledge over to a new generation of critical and grounded practitioners.

Finally, the GUPs research and mapping project calls for the recognition of a new role for architects, planners and spatial professionals amidst a global neoliberal shift in our cities and urban conditions, whereby the line between technical exper-tise and advocacy is becoming increasingly blurred. This new mode of practice needs new and better institutional frame-works, legally, financially as well as in organisational terms.

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Cairo Team

The Cairo part of this study was carried out by members of CLUSTER:Principals: Omar Nagati Beth Stryker

Research TeamOmnia Awni Amin el-DidiMarina el-NajjarLaura MeynierMarwa Shykhon

Additional SupportEman al-HoufyMartina AbuAlam

We wish to extend our grat-itude to all those who have generously given us their time for our project. Many thanks to Ahmed Zaazaa, Alaa al-Habashi, Ali Labib, Hassan Ismail, Heba Safey el-Deen, Karim-Yassin Goessinger, Ka-reem Ibrahim, May al-Ibrashi, Mohamad Abotera, Mohamed Elshahed, Mohamad Hegazy, and Yahia Shawkat for sharing with us their story.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT and RESEARCH TEAMS

Amsterdam/Rotterdam Team

The Amsterdam/Rotterdam part of this study has been carried out by René Boer and Mark Minkjan, both partners in Non-fiction, with advice by Michiel van Iersel, partner and founder of Non-fiction.

We wish to extend our gratitude to all those who have generously given us their time for our project. Many thanks to Roel Schoenmakers, Judith Leijdek-kers, Jeanne van Heeswijk, Michiel van Iersel, Radna Rumping, Arif Kornweitz, Auguste van Oppen, Steven Kelk, Car-la Huisman Ana Džokić, Marc Neelen, Piet Vollaard, Paul Morel, Jaap Draais-ma, Wessel de Boer, Els Desmet, Teun van den Ende, Eeva Liukku, Elma van Boxel and Kris Koreman for sharing with us their story.

In addition, we would like to thank the following people for the organization, coordination and documentation of the Cairo Forum: Eman ElhoufyLojin el-DidiMaria Suescun Mary SpragueFarida Desouky Alia Abuelgheit

Diagram DesignAmin el-Didi (CLUSTER)

Graphic DesignAnastasia Kubrak

TypefaceMarguerite Grotesk by Charlotte Rohde