Paradoxical Union – A Civic Institution in Nasr City, Cairo

The context for this civic institution, is where the “less” and the “more” met, and coexist in the city, Cairo; a context where paradoxical relationships and their meeting(s) prosper right in its heart, Nasr City.

This civic institution proposes the paradoxical meeting (union) of what is “less” and what is “more”, as each entered the city accompanied by a socio-political ideology, evident in the formation of the context, as a method to create richer architectural experiences and architectonic expressions that are not stylistic, but rather volumetric and spatial, curating citizen-led initiatives and mechanisms relating to the city and its formation..

Attempting to utilize the complexity the city proposes, first the socio-political elements of the paradoxical meeting are identified and analyzed, which are the inhabitation of the people in the city, building of the city, and the political economy. This project then investigates the physical patterns of the city that tangibly trace this paradoxical union, through the changing relationships between the primary grids (the initially planned base/system that consist of main roads and neighborhood/parcel divisions), secondary grids (semi-dependent grids of buildings that gives the base system its alternating vertical dimension and at some points shifts from the primary), and tertiary grids (the horizontal and vertical dependent grids of commercial use latching onto and between buildings) that coexist and negotiate their positions, making up Nasr City’s built environment.

Three physical patterns are analyzed, focusing on the spatial properties of the paradoxical and varying meetings of the secondary grids, tertiary grids, and the primary planned base of the built environment. Each pattern’s properties are then associated with the properties and needs of a designed civic scenario of overlapping functions; this correlation is then translated into architectonic relationships.

The base civic and public scenario, correlated with the primary base system, starts with a public library towards the southern residential district, accommodated inside 2-way vierendeel frames, uninterrupted volumes. This scenario then differs in how it co-functions with the other three scenarios.

1.  Investigative scenario, is about acquiring access to write about the built environment through an urban manifesto publication center. The 2-way vierendereel frames continue as a roofing system to create a universal volume, punctured by RC column and beam cores supporting tertiary cable structures for the functional spaces of discussion and writing in wooden framed studios; the shared ground then becomes for the base scenario’s co-working and gallery space.
2.  Deliberative Scenario, is about providing platforms for the weighted voices of the people, through an arbitration experimental theatre and elections assembly hall and workshops. The primary grid/structure continues as 1-way vierendeel frames, first interrupted by the shifted volume of the theatre, with cable structures latching onto them carrying the slabs of the wooden design studios, hovering over the theatre. The vierendeels then continue to accommodate the base scenario’s political party offices overlooking the elections hall, while also suspending the roofs of the hall and the shifted workshops by balanced cables.
3.  Activist scenario, provides cartography as a method of activism. The primary starts to disintegrate, with the pulling, shifting, and overlapping of the secondary grids towards the main street. Studios, bridges and galleries start to appear between the landscape.