IN-PERSON: Prague – Section B
Abstract
A Historic Commercial Street is a key socio-economic component in cities, which has encompassed social, cultural and economic activities. Owing to different challenges (new way of consumption, urbanisation pressure), historic commercial streets have been declining, which has not only affected the physical, social and commercial activities but also negatively impacted on the streets’ tangible and intangible heritage assets. In the City of Alexandria, Egypt, the historic commercial streets have been exposed to tangible and intangible urban shifts and decays, which has transformed their historic image and atmosphere and thus weakened their heritage significance. Thus, since development is inevitable, this article aims to identify a strategic approach for the revitalization of the physical built environment of the historic commercial street and achieve a win-win situation that balances heritage preservation and development dynamics, focusing on Safeya Zaghloul Street as a case study in the city. Historic and archival investigation has informed the understanding of the street’s historic transformations and defining the gap between the place’s cultural heritage and the development dynamics. An empirical analysis was adopted to assess the current physical, functional and cultural challenges of the historic centre and the selected street, while a deductive approach was followed to identify the revitalisation attributes and determine the strategic rejuvenation approach for the historical commercial street. The article concludes to a transferrable strategic approach that could be utilised to revitalize the Historic Commercial Street component of the city, and the produced strategy will be visualised on the selected case study, Safeya Zaghloul Street.
Tarek is a Reader in Architectural Heritage at the University of Portsmouth and the Chair of ICOMOS-UK Digital Technology National Committee. Tarek’s research concerns the conservation of tangible and intangible heritage through creating the balance between contemporary values via community engagement and historic, aesthetic and cultural explorations. Tarek has explored methodological approaches to preserve the cultural and contemporary social values embedded in heritage assets and cities using cultural mapping as an informing tool to deliver preservation, adaptation and development strategies
Mai E. Abdelaal is an architect and researcher in heritage studies, and urban with academic and practical experience. she received her bachelor’s degree in architecture from the University of Alexandria, Faculty of Fine Arts, Egypt, in 2012, and obtained the master’s degree from Brandenburg University of Technology and Helwan University in the joint master program of HCSM in 2016. She is currently a PhD candidate at Alexandria University and was a fellow at Kassel University in 2021. Mai joined the Architecture department, in Alexandria University as a teaching assistant, and later as an assistant Lecturer in since 2012 until now.
Nevin Gharib is a Professor of Architecture and Heritage preservation and Vice Dean for Education and Students Affairs at Alexandria University. She received her BSc (1994), and her MSc (1999) from Alexandria University, followed by her Ph.D. (2002) in a program of Data Collection with The University of Rome I “La Sapienza’’ Italy. The Ph.D. degree was awarded from Alexandria University. Since 2017 she is the head and founder of the “GIS Lab ” Department of Architecture, at Alexandria University and participated in organizing several national and international workshops in Alexandria, Rome, Kassel University, and the University of Brandenburg, Germany.
3:00 pm - 4:30 pm
Thursday 29th June, 2023