Place making as an approach to revitalize Neglected Urban Open Spaces (NUOS): A case study on Rod El Farag Flyover in Shoubra, Cairo

Abstract

In recent decades, urban renewal policies and continuous economic demand have caused the urban fabric of cities to become disorganized and detached, thus creating socially and economically inefficient spaces. These spaces are increasing, unoccupied, and purposeless, although they have so many potentials in terms of location, size, and history. They are military sites, vacant plots, industrial sites, deteriorated waterfronts, leftover space, oversized streets, and socially inefficient green spaces. All of the aforementioned spaces are called “Neglected Urban Open Spaces” (NUOS). This paper places emphasis on using a place-making approach to revitalize the NUOS, particularly “Leftover Space (LS)”. Such revitalization shall be accomplished through following the principles and forms of Place-Making, which proved that the integration of more than one form of place-making can achieve intertwined multiple social, economic, and environmental benefits. Besides, it highlighted that each section of place-making criteria does not have an equal interconnectedness with the main objective of Place-making, which is to “create successful spaces”. Thus, this result is considered as a methodological way to be generalized on the whole Egyptian community to develop NUOS particularly “Leftover Space, no matter how different the properties, characteristics, and circumstances of its population were. Finally, to demonstrate the validity of this approach, the paper applies it to Rod El Farag Flyover in Egypt, Cairo, Shoubra district as a case study of Leftover Space. Keywords: Neglected Urban Open Spaces, Leftover space, Place-making, Revitalization & successful spaces