The effect of facade deterioration on urban life: a historical analysis of the Korba area in Cairo

Abstract

In heritage conservation and revival, much of the focus is placed on the techniques and methods to preserve, restore, and revive heritage structures and locations. However, less research examines how deterioration happens and effects they have on the area's character and socio-economic status. To this end, this research aims to examine the decline and its effect in the El Korba area in Heliopolis, Cairo, Egypt. El Korba was designed with a unique architectural character to stimulate social and economic life. However, the area has been on a path of physical deterioration that is corroding the social life on its streets. Previous research proposed a framework that connected six street-level façade design parameters to the social interactions on streets and sidewalks: complexity and architectural character, permeability, territoriality and personalization, enclosure, ground-floor use, and physical comfort. This research builds on this framework to study the changes in El Korba's buildings' architectural features through a diachronic analysis in Ibrahim El-Lakkani Boulevard of El Korba using descriptive analysis. Architectural features of the street level during both the original state (1906) and the current state (2021) are broken down and categorized in those six parameters to understand their decline or improvement over time.