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The Cultural Park for Children
This project was put forward as a competition, organized by the Egyptian Ministry of Culture, in 1987. Abdelhalim recognized that it had the potential to be a perfect forum for expressing the principles he had been developing since 1967, and replied enthusiastically to call for entries.
The park is located in the middle of a previously abandoned area in the middle of a distinct Cairene neighborhood called Sayeda Zeinab. The original name for the site was “El Houd El Marsoud”, or “the possessed lake”. There was a natural pond there that was part of a chain such residual bodies of water ,located between El Khaleeg el Masry and the Nile, and this provided one of the most important theoretical starting points for the design.
There are various legends behind this name that run the gamut from one insists the pond was inhabited by ghosts to others that include stories of illicit activities that took place here in the past. What is certain is that it was a meeting place for the resistance movement during
World War II and has regularly served as a temporary refuge for the victims of natural disasters.
In addition to its aquatic link to the past, the site on which the Cultural Park for Children now stands is situated on a main throughfare that also leads to the Mosque of Ibn Tulun. This allows a clear view from the site to the signature, spiraling form of the minaret of what is generally considered to be one of the most important monuments in both Cairo and the entire Islamic world. This connection provided a second critical influence for the design concept for this project that was originally submitted by Abdelhalim and CDC.
This project was put forward as a competition, organized by the Egyptian Ministry of Culture, in 1987. Abdelhalim recognized that it had the potential to be a perfect forum for expressing the principles he had been developing since 1967, and replied enthusiastically to call for entries.
The park is located in the middle of a previously abandoned area in the middle of a distinct Cairene neighborhood called Sayeda Zeinab. The original name for the site was “El Houd El Marsoud”, or “the possessed lake”. There was a natural pond there that was part of a chain such residual bodies of water ,located between El Khaleeg el Masry and the Nile, and this provided one of the most important theoretical starting points for the design.
There are various legends behind this name that run the gamut from one insists the pond was inhabited by ghosts to others that include stories of illicit activities that took place here in the past. What is certain is that it was a meeting place for the resistance movement during
World War II and has regularly served as a temporary refuge for the victims of natural disasters.
In addition to its aquatic link to the past, the site on which the Cultural Park for Children now stands is situated on a main throughfare that also leads to the Mosque of Ibn Tulun. This allows a clear view from the site to the signature, spiraling form of the minaret of what is generally considered to be one of the most important monuments in both Cairo and the entire Islamic world. This connection provided a second critical influence for the design concept for this project that was originally submitted by Abdelhalim and CDC.
Credits
Concept and Philosophy
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Drawings
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Project Pictures
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Regeneration
Of all the projects that Abdelhalim Ibrahim ha been involved in over his long career both in and out of Egypt, the Cultural park for Children, in Cairo perhaps best exemplifies his belief in the traditional wisdom of the people and their ability to direct architect by revealing their well established patterns and rituals, through a participatory, communal design process. It is a clear example of the ritual of regeneration, because it has renewed an area of the city that was once vital and thriving but had become derelict.
Of all the projects that Abdelhalim Ibrahim ha been involved in over his long career both in and out of Egypt, the Cultural park for Children, in Cairo perhaps best exemplifies his belief in the traditional wisdom of the people and their ability to direct architect by revealing their well established patterns and rituals, through a participatory, communal design process. It is a clear example of the ritual of regeneration, because it has renewed an area of the city that was once vital and thriving but had become derelict.
Involving the Community
After the competition submission was approved, CDC then went to the community to initiate their involvement. The scheme the had developed was outside their experience as was difficult for the people to visualise, so CDC decided to build as scale model of the entire project on the site. The tent makers in the community build as shelter for it and everyone in the neighbourhood was invited to attend. This interactive workshop was accompanied by a ceremony that included the laying of the cornerstone of the Cultural Center, even though design involvement with the community was still ongoing. The ceremony attracted official and media attention, including attendance by the First Lady then, Mrs. Mubarak.
The technique of using three dimensional method to describe the project to the Sayeda Zainab community was a success, and the enthusiasm it generated was sustained even after collaborative workshop ended, and construction was complete. This is remarkable, given the fact that the building phase took almost ten years, due to the extended funding timetable.
The Ibn Tulun Mosque
As the second main influence on the conceptualization of the Cultural Park, the Ibn Tulun mosque also contains innate lessons that have been extrapolated by the designer. It marks the beginning of the many layers of Islamic influence in medieval Cairo, with its rich layers of Tulunid, Fatamid, Ayyubid, Mamluk and Ottoman occupation. It also clearly represents the external evolution that layering since its spiralling minaret was inspired by a famous predecessor in Samarra, Iraq. Rather than quoting the Ibn Tulun minaret and other parts of the famous mosque literally, Abdelhalim chose to explore the geometrical philosophy behind it instead, and then adapted that into a three dimensional language based on rhythm rather than formal duplication that he then used throughout the park. It was the tempo of the geometrical expression of Ibn Tulun rather than its forms that Abdelhalim used to establish a subliminal connection between the mosque and the park. The path into the mosque in the past, for example, started at a forecourt, or, ziyadh where riders dismounted and tied up their horses. This was not visible from the main interior court. Worshippers then went through an offset entrance, of magaz, in the main circuit wall, capped with its unique anthropomorphic crenellations, before going to the wodo, in the center of the open courtyard to wash. They then prayed in the covered hypostyle wall closest to the qibla, if they were early, or out in the open, if not. The minaret, which is placed near the qibla wall, terminated and emphasized this progression, through its scale.
Similarly, the formal massing of the Cultural Park, as well as the sequencing of its open spaces, is intended to convey a sense of arrival, moving from smaller scale to large.
As the second main influence on the conceptualization of the Cultural Park, the Ibn Tulun mosque also contains innate lessons that have been extrapolated by the designer. It marks the beginning of the many layers of Islamic influence in medieval Cairo, with its rich layers of Tulunid, Fatamid, Ayyubid, Mamluk and Ottoman occupation. It also clearly represents the external evolution that layering since its spiralling minaret was inspired by a famous predecessor in Samarra, Iraq. Rather than quoting the Ibn Tulun minaret and other parts of the famous mosque literally, Abdelhalim chose to explore the geometrical philosophy behind it instead, and then adapted that into a three dimensional language based on rhythm rather than formal duplication that he then used throughout the park. It was the tempo of the geometrical expression of Ibn Tulun rather than its forms that Abdelhalim used to establish a subliminal connection between the mosque and the park. The path into the mosque in the past, for example, started at a forecourt, or, ziyadh where riders dismounted and tied up their horses. This was not visible from the main interior court. Worshippers then went through an offset entrance, of magaz, in the main circuit wall, capped with its unique anthropomorphic crenellations, before going to the wodo, in the center of the open courtyard to wash. They then prayed in the covered hypostyle wall closest to the qibla, if they were early, or out in the open, if not. The minaret, which is placed near the qibla wall, terminated and emphasized this progression, through its scale.
Similarly, the formal massing of the Cultural Park, as well as the sequencing of its open spaces, is intended to convey a sense of arrival, moving from smaller scale to large.
When the Ottoman ruler Mohamed Ali cut wide avenues through the complex, interactive fabric of this medieval city, because he wanted to emulate the boulevard of Paris, he destroyed this ingenious convective cycle, and now that part of Cairo is as coated with dust as the rest of it. By using arches, and landscaping the interior of Cultural Park, Abdelhalim has reintroduced this cyclical convective process at microcosmic level as a way of demonstrating its effectiveness once again.
The boundary wall is made up of arches that also serve several important architectonic and semiotic purposes, which may be traced back to Abdelhalim’s first use of them in the Tiburon project he helped to design while he was stile at Berkeley. Perhaps it emerged in his work at that time because of his memory of his homeland, but it was certainly a new approach then. He visualised the arch as ‘an act of initiation’ believing that “ if it is true that certain acts in architecture have the capacity to energize and liberate a community, the arch can play a role in guiding that energy. Architecture, in this sense, becomes an act of initiating something that the community can then complete.”
The boundary wall is made up of arches that also serve several important architectonic and semiotic purposes, which may be traced back to Abdelhalim’s first use of them in the Tiburon project he helped to design while he was stile at Berkeley. Perhaps it emerged in his work at that time because of his memory of his homeland, but it was certainly a new approach then. He visualised the arch as ‘an act of initiation’ believing that “ if it is true that certain acts in architecture have the capacity to energize and liberate a community, the arch can play a role in guiding that energy. Architecture, in this sense, becomes an act of initiating something that the community can then complete.”
The Design
The Cultural Park site is bow-shaped, with a relatively straight northern edge, bounded by a road on that side and an elongated curving edge on the south , with a road there as well. Due to the twelve day deadline allowed for the submission of the competition entries, the strategy that CDC agreed on was to provide a series of idea diagrams that could then be formalized through interaction with the Sayeda Zainab community, once the commission had been secured. The major components of that idea diagram are: clearly defined boundries or edges, which are permeable enough to allow the local residents feel welcome, along with a protected, green space in the middle and an internal pedestrian street near the southern boundry wall that conforms to its curved outline. This “street” is an essential part of the scheme for several reasons. The first is that is gives the people, and primarily the children, who are using the park, a second layer of protection from the noise and dust of the surrounding city and the highways nearby.
The Cultural Park site is bow-shaped, with a relatively straight northern edge, bounded by a road on that side and an elongated curving edge on the south , with a road there as well. Due to the twelve day deadline allowed for the submission of the competition entries, the strategy that CDC agreed on was to provide a series of idea diagrams that could then be formalized through interaction with the Sayeda Zainab community, once the commission had been secured. The major components of that idea diagram are: clearly defined boundries or edges, which are permeable enough to allow the local residents feel welcome, along with a protected, green space in the middle and an internal pedestrian street near the southern boundry wall that conforms to its curved outline. This “street” is an essential part of the scheme for several reasons. The first is that is gives the people, and primarily the children, who are using the park, a second layer of protection from the noise and dust of the surrounding city and the highways nearby.
The Cultural Park for Children
This project was put forward as a competition, organized by the Egyptian Ministry of Culture, in 1987. Abdelhalim recognized that it had the potential to be a perfect forum for expressing the principles he had been developing since 1967, and replied enthusiastically to call for entries.
The park is located in the middle of a previously abandoned area in the middle of a distinct Cairene neighborhood called Sayeda Zeinab. The original name for the site was “El Houd El Marsoud”, or “the possessed lake”. There was a natural pond there that was part of a chain such residual bodies of water ,located between El Khaleeg el Masry and the Nile, and this provided one of the most important theoretical starting points for the design.
There are various legends behind this name that run the gamut from one insists the pond was inhabited by ghosts to others that include stories of illicit activities that took place here in the past. What is certain is that it was a meeting place for the resistance movement during
World War II and has regularly served as a temporary refuge for the victims of natural disasters.
In addition to its aquatic link to the past, the site on which the Cultural Park for Children now stands is situated on a main throughfare that also leads to the Mosque of Ibn Tulun. This allows a clear view from the site to the signature, spiraling form of the minaret of what is generally considered to be one of the most important monuments in both Cairo and the entire Islamic world. This connection provided a second critical influence for the design concept for this project that was originally submitted by Abdelhalim and CDC.
This project was put forward as a competition, organized by the Egyptian Ministry of Culture, in 1987. Abdelhalim recognized that it had the potential to be a perfect forum for expressing the principles he had been developing since 1967, and replied enthusiastically to call for entries.
The park is located in the middle of a previously abandoned area in the middle of a distinct Cairene neighborhood called Sayeda Zeinab. The original name for the site was “El Houd El Marsoud”, or “the possessed lake”. There was a natural pond there that was part of a chain such residual bodies of water ,located between El Khaleeg el Masry and the Nile, and this provided one of the most important theoretical starting points for the design.
There are various legends behind this name that run the gamut from one insists the pond was inhabited by ghosts to others that include stories of illicit activities that took place here in the past. What is certain is that it was a meeting place for the resistance movement during
World War II and has regularly served as a temporary refuge for the victims of natural disasters.
In addition to its aquatic link to the past, the site on which the Cultural Park for Children now stands is situated on a main throughfare that also leads to the Mosque of Ibn Tulun. This allows a clear view from the site to the signature, spiraling form of the minaret of what is generally considered to be one of the most important monuments in both Cairo and the entire Islamic world. This connection provided a second critical influence for the design concept for this project that was originally submitted by Abdelhalim and CDC.