The project tackles the issue of community engagement in Egypt, concentrating on the older parts of Cairo. This issue has received renewed attention and importance after the Egyptian revolution.
StreetBook shows an awareness of ongoing social change, and how people are defining their expectations and responsibilities as they try to find their own solutions to the urban problems of a neglected area. In doing so, they would work with NGO’s, whose efforts in community development have become scattered and unorganized because of the constrictions that the old regime had placed on them.
This project uses the approach of architectural mobility. It creates a strong communal identity that attracts the community through developing a central location where people can come together. However, it also features mobile architecture units made of shipping containers that are dispersed throughout the community according to its continuously changing needs (social, educational, …), and that are arranged through a flexible network of open and enclosed spaces.
