Leaving Cairo?

A new capital is rising from the sands in the desert east of Cairo. Whilst serving its own megalomania, the regime cares little for the majority of the population.

Text and photo: Charlotte Malterre-Barthes – 3.1.2021

In Egypt, the recent annihilations of entire semi-formal housing districts, of sections of an ancient necropolis and of decades-old trees goes hand in hand with the construction of the new capital – rising from the sands in the desert east of Cairo. What may seem at first as paradoxical and opposed undertakings are but two sides of the same coin, signifying the regime’s technocratic urban vision – one that cares little for heritage, nonhumans and the majority of the population. Charlotte Malterre-Barthes takes a closer look at the ongoing urban developments around Cairo in archithese’s latest issue Geopolitik.
In the aftermath of the Arab Spring, the military regime is trying to avoid confrontations by building the new governing district far from Cairo’s center, which they consider a breeding ground for unrest.

> With eleven essays, the newest issue of archithese takes a closer look at how architecture has become a tool of geopolitics.

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> Urban planning and military strategies have more in common than we are normally aware. Samia Henni highlighted this in an exhibition at ETH Zurich that focuses on resettlement and colonial urbanism in French-ruled Algeria.