Yara A. Khalf (Cairo, 1992) is a current student of the Master degree in Architectural Engineering and Environmental Design at the Arab Academy for Science & Technology & Maritime Transport. She received her bachelor degree in Architecture from Faculty of Fine Arts, Helwan University, Egypt. She is currently working as the graphics designer for “Arcplan”: Arabic cities planning e-journal. She is an enthusiastic architect and photographer interested in understanding the relations between architecture, the urban and photography through urban explorations.
Ahmed El Antably is currently an Associate Professor at the Department of Architectural Engineering, the Arab Academy for Science, Technology & Maritime Transport. He is interested in design media and the ways in which they are socially deployed in design discourse, and the effects they introduce in design practice. He is also interested in issues of (re)mediation and perception in virtually (re)constructed places. El Antably received his doctoral degree in Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley, with a Designated Emphasis in New Media.
Mona A. Abdelwahab is Associate Professor in Architecture, Department of Architecture and Environmental Design at the Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport, Egypt. She received her PhD in Architecture from Newcastle University, UK. She followed her post- doc studies at the Department of Spatial Planning, University of Groningen, NL, where she co- founded “YA-AESOP- Booklet Series: Conversations In-Planning”. She is a founding member of Khotout Association for Design Studies and Planning, and co-founder and editor-in-chief of “Arcplan”: Arabic cities planning e-journal.
Beyond the glamour of Cairo history lies a different side of the city that unravels the unique beauty of urban decay. Al-Hattaba, a UNESCO heritage area, is caught in between these narrations of beauty and decay; the beautiful home whose inhabitants want to keep and grow, and the formally enlisted dangerous informal space subject to eviction and demolition.
Al-Hattaba embraces the beauty of its rich and diverse history, growing through time. It beholds moments of prosperity, failure, change, beauty, and loss.
Urban decay photography is used to interpret al-Hattaba’s controversy and explore the bonds between time and memory. We take the reader through a visual journey in al-Hattaba.
It constitutes a photo-sequence that considers al-Hattaba in reflection of its background context, the Citadel of Saladin; historic and residential buildings, some abandoned and attempts of local renovation. This urban setting reflects a rich visual diversity that witnessed its changes through time. We argue that the essence of al-Hattaba’s beauty is in its urban decay. It is a space that will never fail to amaze its visitors with its hidden beauty.
References
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Al-Ibrashy , Mai, et al. Rep. “Research on Intangible Heritage and Storytelling Event in the Action Area - Final Report. Cairo, Egypt”: Urban Regeneration Project for Historic Cairo - URHC, (2014).
Fein, Zachery E. “The Aesthetic of Decay: Space, Time, and Perception.” Thesis, University of Cincinnati, (2011).
Gafijczuk, Dariusz. “Dwelling Within: The Inhabited Ruins of History.” History and Theory 52, no. 2 (2013): 149-70. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24542849.
Korsmeyer, Carolyn. “The Triumph of Time: Romanticism Redux,” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 72 (2014), 432–433. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43282365.
Metwalli, Mohamed. “French military campaign of El Khanqah El Nizamia in the Hattaba area in Cairo (1215 AH -1800 AD)
Archaeological and Architectural study” Journal of the General Union of Arab Archaeologists 18, no.18 (2017): 551-586. DOI: 10.21608 / JGUAA.2017.4759.
Nieszczerzewska, M. “Derelict architecture: Aesthetics of an unaesthetic space.” Argument: Biannual Philosophical Journal (2016): 387-397. eISSN 2084–1043.
Rabbat, Nasser. “The Citadel of Cairo: A Historic Guide” Supreme Council of Antiquities, no.2, (2009).
Rose, Gillan. “Visual Culture, Photography and the Urban: An Interpretive Framework” Space and Culture, India 2, no.4 (2014): 5-13. DOI: 10.20896/saci.v2i3.92.
