Interweaving Cairo's Urban Fabric: the Formal, the Informal and the Contemporary

Author

• Hagar AhmedFollow

Date of Submission

Spring 5-11-2026

Degree Type

Dissertation/Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Architecture

Department

Architecture

Committee Chair/First Advisor

Ameen Farooq

Abstract

Architecture is a negotiation between memory and change, preservation and erasure. In Cairo, a city layered with history, rapid development threatens historic areas and informal settlements (AlSayyad, 2011). While monumental heritage preservation is institutionalized, informal urban fabrics are often excluded from heritage discussions and planning. This research explores Mansheyet Nasser, or Garbage City, an informal settlement between Islamic Cairo and the Mokattam plateau. Over the past fifty years, Zabbaleen residents have built a communal waste collection and recycling system that processes up to 80% of materials, outperforming many regulated cities (Fahmi and Sutton, 2010; Didero, 2011). This infrastructure is both economic and cultural, linking labor, housing, and collective identity.

The study redefines informality as adaptive urban behavior, drawing on Alois Riegl's heritage theory and Megawara's community practices (Al-Ibrashy, 2021). It uses spatial mapping, ethnography, and design research to propose a framework that integrates formal, informal, and contemporary systems without disrupting socioeconomic ecologies. Rather than viewing Garbage City as a relic or blight, the research sees it as a self-regulating urban system capable of evolving with context-sensitive support (El Masry, 2022). It advances debates on heritage, informality, and urban pedagogy by emphasizing preservation rooted in daily practices and lived spatial intelligence.

This research proposes three hypotheses: that long-standing informal settlements are cultural heritage like historic districts; that tabula rasa redevelopment weakens resilience and sustainability; and that hybrid frameworks with regulation and informal practices enable transformation without losing culture. Key questions include how to document informal systems as heritage without freezing them; what spatial, economic, and social losses result from redevelopment; and how design can link informal and formal planning.

The paper identifies four gaps in the Mansheyet Nasser case: a conceptual gap viewing informality as urban infrastructure; a methodological gap linking observation, spatial modeling, policy, and design; a contextual gap seeing Garbage City as a border between heritage, waste, and redevelopment; and a pedagogical gap in using design research as urban knowledge (UNESCO, 2011; Roggema, 2016; Cortesao, Lenzholzer, & Brown, 2022; Kamalipour, Aelbrecht, & Peimani, 2023).