17/06/2025
the studio titled “Finding ‘Never’land” investigated the complex case of Cairo’s urban, social, and political contradictions. From physical and programmatic juxtapositions, to stratified layers of histories, memories and rituals, Cairo is perhaps an extreme case of opposing and paradoxical realities. Its state of continuous decay and demise is opposed by decade-long trials of reinvention. It is a city on life support, neither dead nor alive, neither abandoned and withering nor vital and rejuvenated.
By understanding Cairo through the notion of Utopia/Dystopia/Heterotopia as a model of comprehension (rather than a promise of possible future for the city) and employing imaginary elements to try to understand the present, the studio proposes narratives and counter-narratives of alternative realities for the peculiar yet distinctive micro and macro situations of Cairo and their underlying reasoning.
Through understanding the extreme paradoxes within the city’s fabric, the featured projects are provocations for critical positions towards larger issues like power structures, spatial production, social contract, equality and the environment. From over-consumption fueling the city’s capitalist hunger, to the increasing technological surveillence and control of the public realm, and from the fading pig farms of Manshiyet Nasser and the thriving feasting rituals of Matariya & Imbaba, to the impacts of the ambitious regeneration and infrastructure schemes for the city, the diverse collection of projects document, critique, contemplate, but most importantly confront the realities and possible futures of Cairo.
Dr. Karim Nabil
Dr. Mazin Abdul Karim
Dr. Omar Galal
