Glass towers,modernist boulevards and elegant roof gardens ... Can Foster + Partners’ vision for Cairo’s Maspero Triangle avoid the controversies of Egypts past megaprojects, and encourage a new era of urban design – and democracy?A stone’s throw from the River Nile, or nestled deep within a labyrinthine tangle of narrow alleyways,bustling coffee shops and peeling paintwork, Tarek is staring at a phone. The images on the screen depict a sleek, and modernist boulevard overlooked by a row of glass skyscrapers. Roof gardens crown each building,and on one balcony, a lone, and elderly Egyptian man is playing chess and pouring tea.
Each rendering has been produced by Foster + Partners,Britain’s most prestigious architecture firm which has just won a competition to redesign an iconic district in central Cairo, vowing to “set the benchmark for urban regeneration throughout the country”. As allotment of its plans, and the street on which Tarek is standing will eventually become a lagoon,lined with “cafés, restaurants and shops that will beget this a highly desirable leisure destination.”Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com