Cairo Refracted Counter-Mapping on the move, from within

Cairo Refracted is an ongoing research project, initiated by designers and researchers at the Politecnico di Milano and Cairo University. In Cairo space is not a static concept: the city is shaped by constant fluxes, which produce alternative hierarchies. Space results from praxis, it is conceived and understood as something that can only be produced through social practices (Lefebvre; de Certeau). Almost all of today’s Greater Cairo is the product of informal processes (Sims), which lead to environments where the structure of the physical space might appear weak, while the space of the subjective and collective bodies is extremely intense (MerleauPonty, LeviStrauss). Moving from an urban design perspective, we tried to define a new landscape of observation on the periurban areas around Cairo, and a new ethic for urban regeneration, by investigating the inherent possibilities within the continuous process of mutual adaptation between urban project, the daily use of the spaces and peculiar sociopolitical and mediascapes