Image Credit: Protests in Tahrir Square February 2011. BBC.com
What is striking about the last few years of large scale community protesting throughout Cairo is not necessarily the recognition and use of Tahrir Square as a public center, but rather that there was a public space capable of serving such a purpose. Much of the urban planning across Cairo over the last few decades has been diametrically opposed to such en masse grouping or organizing. The strategy for urban designers, as directed by former President Mubarak, was to install barriers, as seen in the photo below, in order to very physically control how public spaces were used by their inhabitants. These barricades restricted movement between public spaces and across streets, creating islands that trap the pedestrian. By the observation of urbanist Mohamed Elshahed of the Cairobserver, “These walls circumventing Egyptian public spaces reveal the way the state perceives its denizens as mere herds.” For many years, Cairenes were alienated from their own city through these mechanisms; the public space did not belong to the public. They had no right to the space, no common ground.
Spiro Kostof identifies public places as a destination, purpose-built stages for ritual and interaction, such as the Greek Agora where ideas are discussed, opinions exchanged, politics made. The direct mission of the Mubarak Government was to prevent precisely this type of engagement among the citizens of Cairo. These public spaces certainly were not spaces “of the people, for the people, and by the people,” as Jun discusses in his article ‘The People’s City’. The significance of the events in Tahrir Square in January and February of 2011 stems from overcoming this long-established framing of the public space throughout the city. Cairenes recaptured the public spaces of Cairo as the civic spaces of the public, reactivating the intended purposes.
Forcibly occupying the square, while impactful, is note necessarily sustainable. What comes next for the public spaces of Cairo? Is it really feasible for the people to occupy their city, at least the public spaces, peacefully, with government cooperation? Lubin makes a valuable suggestion for such a future, “…the public and the city government must collectively resolve how public spaces will be used to further participatory democracy.” There must be collaboration in the design and use of the public spaces of the city; top-down approaches will not sustain a successful future for the city or its people. Public spaces can be the common ground to rebuilding trust within communities, between citizens and government, and overcoming division. Cairo is just beginning to understand this.
“Where crowds gather, history is made.” – Kostof