How will Greater Cairo look a few years from now when the New Capital and administrative centre of the country is completed? What kind of future awaits the city Ibn Batouta (1304-1368) described as Egypt's greatest and most influential. Cairo is certainly overcrowded, decrepit and chaotic enough to merit new plans, but there can be no question about its historical, cultural and indeed administrative importance as the seat of power for century upon century since the Arab Conquest in 641 of what would soon become Fustat and the establishment of the Fatimid city in 969; as Memphis, it had even been a capital in ancient times. Can a New Capital be the end of all that? The Historic Cairo Restoration Project, launched by the government in 1998, aimed at restoring and renovating Islamic Cairo; and in 2016, headed by former prime minister Sherif Ismail, the Cairo Heritage Development Committee (CHDC) was formed with the mandate to examine strategies for the future of downtown and historic Cairo, including the ministerial district. But it is the hope to turn all of Greater Cairo into a centre of culture, capitalising on the city's historic reputation as the region's artistic capital, that has informed Al-Ahram's Al-Beit magazine in its initiative. Spearheaded by Al-Beit's Editor-in-Chief Sawsan Mourad, the campaign will be using the magazine as an influential media platform to gather together interior and product designers, architects, artists and crafts masters to discuss and exchange their visions for the city's future. Cairo 18 introduces the artistic and cultural face of Cairo According to Mourad, the initiative started in the annual issue of Al-Beit in 2018: “We were celebrating 18 years since the first issue of Al-Beit and we decided to devote an entire issue to Cairo through the eyes of a huge number of artists and designers. We went on to reproduce those materials also on social media where readers and writers began to interact.” As of that issue, the magazine started to show the figures in question photographed at various locations next to their ideas: “We wanted to draw the reader's attention to the link between the speaker's stories and the place. It is not only about history, in other words, but also about the future. It is not only about restoration but also about how we can turn this old city into a very contemporary spot using the talents of a young generations of designers and artists. This was the idea.” Part of the idea was to announce and explain in detail the government's otherwise obscure grand plans, many of which are already in operation. The Al-Beit initiative quickly garnered the support of CHDC head Ismail, whose delegates regularly attended Al-Beit's artist gatherings, which discussed how to turn their visions into action on the ground. The head of the National Organisation for Urban Harmony Mohamed Abu Seada attended one such gathering, which recommended — among other things — establishing a government body to be in charge of setting up a comprehensive cultural calendar-map for Cairo fostering cooperation between state and independent culture and regional coordination as well as turning the current administrative buildings into cultural centres and reorganising the Cairo Design, Arts, and Architecture week held at Al-Muizz Street in 2010 (alongside the Furnex and Home furniture exhibition) but later discontinued. The new initiative has involved the decision to bring the Week back in collaboration with Al-Beit alongside Furnex and Home, to be held four times between 2018-2020. “The Cairo Design Week was a great opportunity to show the contemporary face of Egyptian creative talents especially in design. The big cultural cities have a big cultural event where every kind of contemporary art and design is showcased for the people. Part of our initiative was a reminder of the importance of bringing this event back,” says Mourad. “It is a national project that aims to restore the cultural and artistic status of Cairo through holding high-end exhibitions of international standards, which will also lead to an increase in Egyptian exports. It's true we launched Cairo 2018, but since then it hasn't been our initiative alone. It is now owned by all the participants. Cairo should compete with other cultural centres around the world such as Paris, Berlin, New York and Milan. It should be the Arab cultural centre. There are regional competitors but Cairo with its history is there to win the competition.”
