Reactive Monitoring Mission to review the progress made in the ongoing rehabilitation programme on Islamic Cairo, World Heritage Site.
Duration: March 2005
Klient: ICOMOS International, on behalf of UNESCO World Heritage Centre.
Project description and aims :
By including Islamic Cairo in the World Heritage List on 26 October 1979, the Government of Egypt and the World Heritage Committee have expressed their mutual commitment to the safeguarding of the historic city and its monuments. The nomination was recommended by ICOMOS not only with reference to the unique historic significance and formal beauty of its monuments, but also emphasising the intrinsic social, political, economic and intellectual significance of this very ancient living urban structure through the centuries.
The succeeding studies and reports on the historic city have pointed to the fact that unsatisfactory housing conditions constitute a major reason for the social decline of the historic quarters and the deterioration of the built fabric. It has furthermore been reiterated that there is a need of a coherent strategic planning to guide an integrated development of the historic districts to help improving living conditions and ensuring a sustainable preservation of the cultural heritage.
According to decision 28 COM 15B.47 The World Heritage Committee, Requests ICOMOS in co-operation with the State Party, to undertake a mission to the property in order to review the progress made in the on-going rehabilitation programme on the monuments of the historic city and determine, the necessary steps towards the implementation of the above-recommendations;
Further requests the State Party to identify the exact boundaries of the World Heritage property and its buffer zone on a detailed topographic map at the appropriate scale and to submit it, together with a report on the progress made in the implementation of the above-recommendations, by 1 February 2005, for the consideration of the committee at its 29th session in 2005.
In response to this request Tegnestuen Raadvad, consulting architects MAA, was selected to carry out the Reactive Monitoring Mission to review the progress made in the ongoing rehabilitation programme on Islamic Cairo, World Heritage Site.
