19th & 20th Architectural and Urban Heritage
Having witnessed a major building boom since the 1860s that extended to the 1940s, a number of Egyptian cities have a modern core contrasting sharply with the old medieval core and featuring a unique architecture combining European styles with local influences and materials. The magnificent architectural product of that era will never be equalled but the wealth of Egyptian antiquities overshadows the importance of this more recent, yet endangered, heritage that remains poorly documented.
The past two decades showed a growing interest and concern for nineteenth and twentieth century architectural heritage of Egyptian cities, and recently, a number of different institutions and authorities have been carrying out architectural inventories, with different methodologies lacking continuity. Therefore, The Center for Documentation of Cultural and Natural Heritage CULTNAT with the subvention of ministry of communication and information technology began the Architectural Heritage Program to document the heritage of the 19th and 20th Century Architectural Heritage Using the Geographic Information System Technology.
The first phase started in year 2000 with the downtown area and documented around 600 building with all their data and element with full detail photos.
The second phase started in year 2003, in collaboration with Center for Architectural and Engineering Design Support, Faculty of engineering, Cairo University It focus on Mansoura City and its architectural heritage. The development of this phase is still going on.
The documentation of other neighborhoods with special architecture in Cairo is underway, surveying it for historic buildings of the nineteenth and twentieth century. Then, it will be possible to replicate this for other Egyptian cities, thereby accomplishing a major effort in the documentation of Egypt’s architectural heritage.