Restoring the heart of Cairo

You know you are in Downtown Cairo when your eyes fall upon grand boulevards and even grander buildings with late 19th century and 20th century European-style doorways and sculptures, designed in a combination of art deco, art nouveau, baroque and neo-Islamic styles. Of course, over the decades much beauty has been tampered with, by both the hands of time and careless people.

Since the 1980s there has been an ongoing struggle to rescue Downtown's architectural heritage. The struggle has gone round in circles due to the lack of an official body and the necessary laws in place for the restoration and preservation of the area.

That is, until along came the National Organisation for Urban Harmony (NOUH) with its restoration plan for Khedivine Cairo. First established in 2004, NOUH is affiliated to the Ministry of Culture, and aims at enabling beauty to prevail all over Egyptian urban space. The project for the Downtown area kicks off with Ramses Street, and extends from Abbasiya to Abdel-Moneim Riad Square in Tahrir. "This is only the beginning of our project," NOUH chief Samir Gharib told Al-Ahram Weekly. Phase two is set to cover the area from Talaat Harb Square to Mustafa Kamel Square in Downtown. The third target area stretches from Mustafa Kamel Square to Opera Square. On the long term, it is set to cover all of Downtown, and eventually the rest of Egypt. The projects are planned "one step at a time, because of two factors: time and money," Gharib noted.

Restoration work is limited to the façades of historical buildings or those with a special architectural style. "Our first goal is to allow beauty to flourish in our urban space, and apply this value to the elements occupying space such as the façades of buildings, streets, sidewalks, lampposts, greenery, and advertisements -- indeed anything that you see on the street. However, if there is an internal problem that is affecting or threatening the well-being of a given façade, then NOUH restores the building from the inside as well," Gharib told the Weekly.