Delta Strikes Back
Nine projects for El HaraneyaDelta Strikes Back
Nine projects for El HaraneyaSamenvatting
Cairo. Home to twenty million people, bursting at the seams. An archipelago of planned and unplanned districts. How should this metropolis prepare for future growth? ‘Delta Strikes Back’ focuses on the rapidly urbanising agricultural landscape within the Nile Delta.
Environmental pressure, ‘water wars’ and climate change make redefining the relationship between Cairo and the Delta a matter of urgency. ‘Delta Strikes Back’ gives voice to forces of nature as agents of the Delta in cocreating the new megalopolis. The case study centres on the peri-urban landscape of Al Haraneya at the southern edge of Giza, an area that rapid urbanisation could turn into just another massive housing district. Peri-urban areas appear unplanned, yet follow a strict logic of utilising the landscape layout for urban development, resulting in constellations with little or no infrastructure, and growing environmental and social problems. The studio views the rural-urban fringe as a landscape in its own right, a place to forge new coalitions between ‘nature and culture’. Run in parallel between the Amsterdam Academy of Architecture and the German University in Cairo, the studio started with a week-long workshop and study trip in Cairo in September 2017. Dutch and Egyptian
students start with the following questions: As the studio looked at a broad range of scales, what are the specific conditions at the scale of the delta, the green corridor and the
neighbourhood? Can we establish ecological connections across the valley? How can nature and culture reconnect to add new layers of practice to the contemporary megalopolis? How can architecture and landscape act together to generate new settlement patterns? Which traces, elements, layers and traditions of ancient and current agriculture
can inspire, influence and alter the strict logic of so-called informal urban
transformation? How can the Delta strike back at urban developments - with one big blow
or subtle interventions?
Nine design projects and nine essays by students: Andrej Badin, Justyna Chmielewska, Ruben Dahmen,
Tobias Kumkar, Quita Schabracq, Sharon Sportel, Wouter van der Velpen, Silko van der Vliet, Robert Younger.
Lecturers: Lada Hršak, Jana Crepon, Billy Nolan, Holger Gladys
Organisatie | Amsterdamse Hogeschool voor de Kunsten |
Afdeling | Academie van Bouwkunst |
Jaar | 2017 |
Type | Boek |
Taal | Engels |