Cairo contemporary

Move over Dubai. Egypt, former cradle of civilisation and high up there on all those ‘do-before-you-die’ lists, is on the rise. And it all begins in Cairo.



Legions of Cairene’s abroad are returning from Europe to make the most of new career opportunities, and they’re bringing a cosmopolitan attitude and an eye for design with them. We’re particularly excited about the likes of digital media collective File Club, the establishment of Dalton Maag’s Cairo office, and the Townhouse Gallery, promoting visual and performing artists from a disused factory space. Within three years we’ll also see the opening of Zaha Hadid’s Cairo Expo City, a vast new exhibition and conference centre sure to solidify Cairo’s tentative position as a business capital of the future.



The question is, can Cairo support all this enterprise? With a population tipping the scales at 20 million, and development eating up fertile land on the banks of the Nile, it’s a city bursting at the seams. But change is afoot. Urban developers SODIC, in collaboration with Solidere International (they of the Beirut rebuild), have master-planned two new hubs for Cairo, shifting growth on to a new east-west axis. 



Eastown and Westown will provide a focus for the new suburbs of Kattameya and Sheikh Zayed City respectively, offering the emerging middle class a new way of life. Everything they need in one place, a real community feel, and enough good architecture to satisfy even the most design-savvy Cairene.



And so it is to Egypt we’ll be going, to work with SODIC on a brand for Eastown and Westown, and to soak up the culture of brand new, contemporary Cairo.


http://www.eastowncairo.com

http://www.westowncairo.com


http://www.thetownhousegallery.com

http://
www.bidoun.com
www.daltonmaag.com


http://www.nerminehammam.com/