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Cairo Modern
by Aida Bardissi
Earlier this month, I took my 12th-grade elective Modern Arab World to the Center for Architecture’s temporary exhibit called “Cairo Modern” where it shows the buildings and architectural layout of Cairo, Egypt through the centuries — tied to the historical and political moments we’ve discussed in class. After our visit to the exhibit, we had a group discussion in nearby Washington Square Park about what we saw.
Earlier this month, I took my 12th-grade elective Modern Arab World to the Center for Architecture’s temporary exhibit called “Cairo Modern” where it shows the buildings and architectural layout of Cairo, Egypt through the centuries — tied to the historical and political moments we’ve discussed in class. After our visit to the exhibit, we had a group discussion in nearby Washington Square Park about what we saw.
We’ve studied three components of Egypt’s history in class: the colonial period when England ruled over Egypt (1920s-1940s), the postcolonial period when Egypt leaned more towards Arab Socialism and Pan-Arab nationalism (1950s-1970s), and the switch to global capitalism with IMF and World Bank loans (1970s-1980s). During our post-exhibit discussion, my students and I discussed which buildings they’ll be writing up a reflection on — in which they will tie the purpose/function of the building into the greater political moment under which it occurred. The main theme they picked up on (which we have talked about since the start of the year) is that Egypt is a classed society, and approximation to Western ideals (even architecturally) is celebrated. 1950s-70 era buildings were often constructed to serve nationalist/governmental proposes, as this was an era where diplomatic conferences took place for the optics of what I have described to them as an “era of isms”. Many students saw the buildings that best symbolized the president’s desire to industrialize/modernize Egypt in the wake of Egypt’s colonization.
Jordan Jetter brought up a memorable point during our discussion, where he explained how several local Egyptian architects and engineers in the 1950s built structures that would contribute to the average citizens’ daily lives, but Western architects (such as Frank Lloyd Wright) openly critiqued the lack of grandiose European-style operas — which of course, would only be attended by the upper classes of Egypt. Many of the architectural themes of Egypt mirror the classed society for which it was built — which I have taught them is the legacy of colonialism still embedded in many aspects of Arab society — all things that they picked up on and discussed in the park.
