Building Climate Resilience, Literally: Learning from How Households Renovate in Cairo

Introduction France, June 2022. Like every year during this season, the Roland Garros international tennis competition is being broadcast live on television. In the middle of the semi-final match, a young woman, barely in her twenties, enters the centre court, runs towards the net and ties her neck to it. The picture made the rounds in the press. She is seen sitting on her heels, knees on the ground, chest out, chin up, staring into the distance. On her white T-shirt, it says: ‘We have 1028 d..

Middle Eastern Cities in a Time of Climate Crisis

The climate crisis is hitting around the world, including in the Middle East and its cities. Urban regions are exposed to increasingly frequent heat waves and floods that leave decision makers without immediate answers. In the context of this global crisis, this book addresses the need for a better understanding of the current model of urban expansion. Cities are major sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions but they are also celebrated for their contribution to economic growth. The current moment is one of a large paradigm shift as climate change is now recognized as a legitimate public problem. This is especially true for city dwellers, who are increasingly exposed to climate change, the loss of biodiversity and heavy pollution while natural breathing spaces continue to shrink around them. The sixteen chapters of this book do not offer any off-the-rack or technical solutions, but they analyze the urban conundrum and the contribution of cities to the climate crisis. Some chapters focus on individual car ownership, land privatization, waste management and land use changes under the guise of development. Others explore local and contextual answers to urban governance issues. With the support of CEDEJ and the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, researchers, experts and civil society actors explore the ongoing transformations of Middle Eastern urban environments and mobilities and question them in relation to the climate crisis. The contributions are based on empirical knowledge gathered in the Nile Delta, the Greater Cairo Region, Riyadh and Beirut. Without concessions to mainstream thinking, this book contributes to a better understanding of urban challenges, climate threats and policy responses in contexts marked by growing environmental inequalities

Quartiers chauds. Les climats du Caire

19 %1060,33 m223,4 ºCPart des ménages urbains équipés d’un climatiseur en 2015décès en août 2015 (pic à 47 ºC)d’espace vert par habitant en 2009 (9 minimum recommandés par l’OMS)moyenne annuelle des températuresSources : CAPMAS, 2016 ; Amer Hegazy, Attia, 2009 ; Meteoblue ; Al-Arabiya Si les atlas corrèlent d’ordinaire le climat d’une ville à sa topographie, la croissance urbaine et les modes de vie contemporains complexifient le paysage météorologique du Caire. La densité et l’étalement abou..

Without a plan?: an ethnography of architecture, domestic microclimates, and building practices in contemporary Cairo

This study is located at the intersection of architecture and the social sciences. Its core is an ethnographic investigation of how Cairo experiences and tackles urban heatwaves, which was carried out primarily by looking at people’s building practices. The research is structured along three axes. The first consists of a historical overview of the Egyptian architectural field, based on a critical reading of articles dealing with climate issues since the first local architectural publication in 1939 and semi-structured interviews with architects working in Cairo today. The second section investigates building practices observed in Cairo, with and without an architect’s supervision. The third axis combines a survey of the means used to deal with weather conditions in nine houses and the thermal practices of their inhabitants – with data collected through participant observation. Urban heat and the public health problems it causes require considering potential drivers of action beyond traditional institutional tools, such as master plans and legal guidelines. Understanding the logic behind the creation of domestic microclimates in its material and social context has so far been neglected. Yet looking at how this logic can be incorporated in architects’ practices of climate responsive design is a key prerequisite for any realistic solution to urban heatwaves. Therefore, this doctoral thesis observes how individuals manage the thermal environment in their daily lives, outside of laboratories and architecture and engineering offices. It shows that ethno-architectural enquiry needs to become a standard procedure in climatic design. By shifting the gaze from buildings to those who build and inhabit them, the dissertation challenges the architectural conceptions that structure historiography, knowledge production, and, by extension, architectural design as they are practised today