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Staging the Past and the Future along ’s Corniche

Conference Paper · June 2013

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Cristina Pallini Politecnico di Milano

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Managing the city through urban regeneration schemes • Planning, Risk and Property Development: Urban Regeneration in UK, France and the Netherlands N. Karadimitriou, C. De Magalhaes, R. Verhage ...... 3 • Financing tomorrow’s infrastructure: the progress of England’s Community Infrastructure Levy Dr. Alex Lord...... 4 • Managing the city through public property sales: the French case Sonia Guelton ...... 5 • Guiding ‘spontaneous’ urban development in the Netherlands: an analysis into institutional conflict Edwin Buitelaar, Maaike Galle, Niels Sorel, Joost Tennekes...... 6 • Urban land readjustment as a strategic tool for urban redevelopment projects Erwin van der Krabben...... 7

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• Experiences of i renew of the water fronts in the historical centers of the western Prof. M. Marchetta...... 200

Place / city marketing and branding • From City Marketing to Museum Marketing and vice versa: The crucial importance of culture and tourism A. Deffner, T. Metaxas...... 202 • Place/ City Marketing and Branding in Greece: Theory, practice and teaching of a multidisciplinary subject A. Deffner, N. Karachalis T. Metaxas ...... 203 • Recent theories on urban areas and the case of Greek cities: is the future lost? C. Liouris, A. Deffner...... 204 • The Olympic Games 2004 and the tourism development of Magnesia and Volos: What type of impacts? C. Liouris, A. Deffner...... 212 • Urban Tourism Development, City Marketing and the Quality of Urban Life: A Complicated Relationship E. Psatha, A. Deffner...... 218 • Promoting museum clusters as part of a cultural city branding strategy: The case of Thessaloniki P. Kontoula...... 226

Landscape next - Urban environments: Scientific, political and design interrogations • Reversing urban centrality: former examples and emerging design possibilities K. Moraitis...... 236 • Landscape as Infrastructure Ioanna D. Carydi ...... 245 • Regenerative landscapes and “dark” ecology K. Christodoulidis...... 252 • Towards the control of the spatial experience in Urban Landscapes. Reconsidering Perceptual Systems T. Petras...... 262 • Mentally conceived landscapes: city as a dynamic morphology of surface A. Verykiou...... 271 • Assessing the connections between farming, food and landscape planning in the development of sustainable urban policies: the case of Rome A. Cavallo, D. Marino...... 279 • The reconstruction of the urban body mutations through the use of contemporary technology E. Androutsopoulou ...... 289

• Land use changes in a Mediterranean peri-urban region: implications for landscape conservation L. Salvati, S. Grigoriadis...... 295 • Objectives and tools for the future landscape A.M. Ippolito...... 305 • Historical urban and peri-urban agriculture: structure, function and management of fruit tree and vine landscapes R. Biasi, L. Salvati, G. Barbera ...... 315 • Design as strategy : the Athenian case study A. Zomas, M. Papavasileiou...... 316 • Creativity and Nature for new empty urban spaces D. Scatena ...... 325 • History, heritage, nature and the future of the urban landscape F. Toppetti ...... 330

Urban and peri-urban sustainable landscapes • Regenerating urban wildscapes: a sustainable planning and design approach I. Tsalikidis, V. Charistos ...... 341 • Landscape architecture – landscape urbanism, regenerative correlations in the urban field M. Ananiadou - Tzimopoulou, V. Charistos...... 351 • Landscape design and planning of historic centers in contemporary Greek cities M. Tratsela and M. Kozyraki...... 359 • The edible city: Urban agriculture as part of sustainable design M. Lionatou, I.A.Tsalikidis...... 367 • (In)visible edges. A contemporary approach to the concept of edge in landscape architecture T. Torres-Campos ...... 378 • Landscape architecture in changing city-scapes M. Tratsela, M. Ananiadou-Tzimopoulou...... 390 • Coastal pinewoods (Pinus pinea L.) to built a green infrastructure: an opportunity for the sustainable landscape management of Rome L. Gasparella, A. Tomao, A. Barbati, P. Corona, L. Portoghesi, M. Agrimi...... 398 • City- and land-scape: from the universal to the local E. Zippelius...... 408 • Readings from the “In [and] Out” of Sites for a Global and Dynamic Geomorphological Approach R. Occhiuto...... 417 • “Orphan” Landscapes M. Beriatou and F. Iliopoulou ...... 425 • Urban planning through the prism of urban agriculture N.S. Lemos, L.M.S. Andrade, V.A. Medeiros ...... 438 • Reconnecting Urbanisations: Achieving Sustainable Development through the Integration of Socio-Ecological Systems R. LeBrasseur ...... 448 • Reconnecting Urbanisations: Achieving Sustainable Development through the Integration of Socio-Ecological Systems E.A. Athanasiadou, I.A. Tsalikidis ...... 459 • Planning new towns and public open spaces. The role of nature and urban agriculture D. Damianakos, P. Ventura, M. Zazzi...... 469 • Participatory design in landscape architecture projects: a procedure towards improving landscape for and through people I. Tsalikidis, O. Aktseli ...... 478 • Designing an interactive ‘green’ network: a holistic urban strategy E. Apostolaki, G. Kalligeris, A. Kalliterakis, S. Kamarianaki, G. Ktistakis, K. Ntouniadaki, A. Tsitonaki, E. Vlazaki ...... 490 • The Loss of Green Space in Urban and Peri-Urban Areas: Perspectives from Nigeria Ekong, F.U and Ojikpong, B.E...... 498

Planning landscapes as a new strategy tool for spatial planning • Protection of traditional settlements in Greece: Legislation and practice G. Pozoukidou and M. Papageorgiou ...... 501 • Learning from Cities & Landscapes by graphics and geomorphological codes R. Occhiuto, M. Goossens, A. de Fijter, P. Hautecler...... 511 • Alpine Cities on the move: the Andermatt case F. Pia...... 512 • Landscape architecture as a field of design research. Rethinking the Mediterranean landscape voids: the case of the medieval wall and moat of Chania, Crete P. Karamanea...... 522 • Discontinuous polycentric city vs continuous sprawled city. The urban voids as "resource" for the form of the city of our time F. Defilippis...... 532 • From the Agadir City Green Plan towards an Integral City Transformation V. Mirallave, F. Pescador, J. Taira...... 542 urbanBLUR: ambiguous topologies in advanced urban &landscape design • Agile public environments: four proposals for the city A. Tellios, D. Zavraka ...... 552 • Density challenged – distribution of park spaces into urban patterns of Chicago and Taipei C. Cheng...... 560 • Ephemeral urban landscapes K. Louvari...... 568 • Virtual landforms: Representations of performative actions augmenting the urban realm through spontaneous appropriations of found spaces S. Vyzoviti...... 575 • Modernity Blur V. Milenković, S. Vesnić ...... 580 • Addressing complexity and nature: speculative design fields A. Tellios ...... 585 • The placeless geography of the suburban metropolis and the sense of place – the case of Bad Oeynhausen, Germany S.I. De Wit ...... 593

Digital urban environments • Radio interview with a potential mayor candidate of a city in the year 2024 L. Schmitz ...... 602 • Digital tools for instrumenting the decision making in urban design D. Nikolaou, V.Karvoutzi, M. Papavasiliou ...... 608 • Approaching the contemporary digital dimension of the city: Notes and challenges regarding Athens’ digital image I. Bala, E. Moschouti...... 609 • Tools to decision making in conflicts of interests on metropolitan and local scale: the role of the geo-technologies based on GIS and Parametric Modeling of Territory Occupation Ana Clara Mourão Moura...... 619 • Qatar’s evolution of built form and digital cityscape: the case of Doha R. Al Amawi...... 629 • Soundscape: Investigation and application of an innovative urban design parameter K. Chourmouziadou, K. Sakantamis...... 637 • Architecture Without Content And Context P. Fanou, E. Mitakou ...... 646 • The influence of networks on the city A. Papatheodorou ...... 652 • Productive City - fab labs: user-based urban platforms generating new economic models- A. Markopoulou ...... 660 • The evolution of cities and the problem of imagination, creativity and globalization. Case studies from Portugal, Ladakh, Dubai and “The Venus Project” J.L. Menezes ...... 666 • Architectural Design and new Technologies "Building Information Modeling and Architectural design" D. Guralumi, E. Gjoka and Gj. Thomai ...... 676 • Approaching Wi-Fi as a new parameter for the planning of public space A. Chani, K. Serraos ...... 686 • Computational Contribution in Contemporary Urban Issues A. Sokmenoglu, S. Sariyildiz ...... 696 • Tecnological innovation and invention in architectural design for the sustainable city C.C. Falasca and C. Lufrano...... 706 Diversity, ethnic economies and the urban space • Ethnic economies and everyday spaces in Athens at times of crisis P. Hatziprokopiou and Y. Frangopoulos...... 714 • “Environmental degradation, the image of ghettos and the fear of crime in the centre of Athens: research evidence” Ch. Zarafonitou...... 726 • Residential and entrepreneurial settlement of migrants in Athens. A comparative study of Kypseli and Metaxourgeio neighborhoods D. Balampanidis, I. Polyzos...... 735 • Milan Chinatown: economic incorporation and the contentious uses of urban space Nicola Montagna ...... 748 • Migrants as instigators of urbanity and diversity E. Ostertag...... 758 • How Black (Afrocolombian) communities integrate in the dynamics of multicultural predominantly mestizo cities: the case of Bogota Jorge Bula ...... 768 • Realising the diversity dividend: Population diversity and urban economic development S. Syrett and L. Sepulveda ...... 775

Collective ventures, solidarity economy and the urban space • The alterity of alternative exchange networks and the role of localness G. Gritzas, K.I. Kavoulakos, E. Amanatidou ...... 795 • The transformative potential of cooperatives: old debates still pending their resolution S. Adam ...... 804 • Planning for de-growth in a globalized neoliberal market economy: an impossibility theorem? D. Foutakis...... 815 • The role of solidarity economy in Latin America barrios (favelas): Cases in Metropolitan Area of Mexico City C. Petropoulou...... 816 • Self-managing the commons in contemporary Greece: Αn emerging solidarity economy A. Kioupkiolis, T. Kariotis...... 827 • Spaces of possibilities: Workers self-management in Greece George Kokkinidis ...... 836 • Cooperative Entrepreneurship as Embedded Process: Mondragon in Basque Country Y. Stamboulis, P. Nakou ...... 837 • Dispatches: An ethnographic account of solidarity economy in suburban Greece G. Agelopoulos ...... 846

Staging the Past and the Future along Alexandria’s Corniche

C. Pallini1 1Department of Architecture, Built Environment and Construction Engineering, Politecnico di Milano

* E-mail: [email protected], Tel +39 2 23995797

Abstract Since the new Library was opened in 2002 the waterfront theme has held an important place in recent projects for Alexandria, so long overshadowed by and Luxor and now seeking renewed popularity in international tourism. From 2004 onwards various spectacular auteur projects for the Eastern Harbour have been proposed and reviewed. Initially discussing them all, this paper then explores the peculiarities of Alexandria’s waterfront theme viewed as an expression of the ever- changing relationship between port and city. In considering how the Corniche was built, we can see how it mirrors Alexandria’s many roles – as a port-city, as an international resort, as a summer capital – all bearing witness to urban projects of the past. Keywords: Alexandria; port; corniche; waterfront.

1. INTRODUCTION

Fascinating even in its decline, and though still suffering from congestion and political instability, Alexandria has lately regained popularity: the competition held in 1989 for rebuilding Ptolemy’s legendary Library has in fact been instrumental in bringing the city back into the stream of international culture and tourism. Inspired in the mid-1970s by leading members of Alexandria University and adopted by the Egyptian government as a matter of national interest, in 1985 the project was presented to UNESCO which later gave its support to a feasibility study. International experts completed the competition brief and President Hosni Mubarak laid the first stone on 26 June 1988. The plot overlooking the sea, most probably that on which the ancient Library once stood, was partly occupied by a new congress centre and lay close to the university’s humanistic departments and the Maternity Hospital. In a prominent position on the Grand Corniche, the new Library was to face towards Fort Qaitbey, what remains of the ancient Pharos, one of the wonders of the ancient world. By thus reviving the roots of Alexandria’s historical traditions to resume their rightful place in contemporary culture, the city would once again relive its international vocation. Alexandria at that time was undergoing a period of oblivion: many of its foreign inhabitants had left and much of its economic activity had been moved to Cairo. Leaving aside the complex problems of the city, the Library project would serve to exploit its mythical evocative power while also drawing attention to the rich vestiges of is cosmopolitan past.

2. THE WATERFRONT UNDER DISCUSSION

The inauguration of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in October 2002 and the predominant position it immediately acquired, opened a lively debate on changes to be made along the Grand Corniche. The project presented at the 9th Venice Biennial (2004) by the Alexandria and Mediterranean Research Centre and the Bertocchini & Ruggiero architectural firm was the first to propose a new design for the eastern waterfront and included buildings for cultural purposes and recreation to promote tourism and to enhance its historical heritage [1]. It should be remembered that the Eastern Harbour of today is the Magnus Portus of antiquity described by Strabo where, in past decades, archaeologists have found statues and artefacts presumably remains of the Pharos and of the Ptolemaic palaces.

Proceedings of the International Conference on “Changing Cities“: 186 Spatial, morphological, formal & socio-economic dimensions ISBN: 978-960-6865-65-7, Skiathos island, Greece , June 18-21, 2013

Figure 1. Plan for the Eastern Harbour by AlexMed and Bertocchini & Ruggiero, 2004.

Figure 2. Plan for the Eastern Harbour by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, 2006.

187 The project presented at the Biennial was soon followed by others for reviving the Eastern Harbour. In September 2006 the Bibliotheca Alexandrina hosted an exhibition and conference to present projects submitted for the international design competition whose participants included well-known architectural firms such as Mario Botta, Peter Chermayeff, Gensler, Pei Partnership Architects, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Jacques Rougerie. Chermayeff proposed a new aquarium and environmental centre close to the outlying Fort Qaitbey, to be completed with a marine research institute focused on the Nile, the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. Skidmore, Owings and Merrill designed a master plan for the whole bay, assuming mobility as a key principle (centralised parking to reduce traffic congestion, a new tram route, boardwalk, floating piers, water taxis). Their idea was to expand the site of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina into a museum district, and to build a new breakwater around the harbour to protect underwater archaeology and improve access to the sites; a towering solar power generator was to glow by night close to the water’s edge evoking the ancient Pharos and indicating a sustainable future for the city. The French architect Jacques Rougerie, an expert in water-based constructions, evolved the idea of an underwater museum to be built in the Eastern Harbour; for this a feasibility study has already been drawn up with the support of UNESCO. Situated on the Corniche, close to the new Library, the new museum will comprise an exhibition, a terrace overlooking the bay, and an underwater space for access to the major archaeological sites, and fiberglass tunnels through which antiquities (and divers) will be visible as part of a “sunken scenography”. Despite controversial reactions due to its high cost and technical challenges, this project is seen by the local government as a further opportunity for the revival of Alexandria as a tourist resort able to attract a significant share of visitors to .

Figure 3. View of Eastern Harbour with the underwater museum proposed by J. Rougerie

One effect of these auteur projects would be to move the Maternity Hospital, now adjacent to the Library, out to the suburbs. An even earlier effect has been to improve the Corniche by its becoming a coastal highway extending eastward for over 12 km (1999-2005), widened to take five lanes of traffic in both directions so as to reduce transport problems, and to improve the image of the city with a pedestrian promenade and seaside-related features. Half-way between the city centre and the Montazah Park is the colossal San Stefano Grand Plaza (2006): twin tower-blocks 35-floors high, embodying the Four Seasons Hotel with its private beach, video-surveyed apartments, swimming pools and a luxurious shopping mall.

188 It may be added that, since the popular uprising of January 2011, the Grand Corniche has also been the scene of public demonstrations where, even as lately as 29 March 2013, clashes have taken place between supporters and opponents of President Mohamed Moursi.

3. THE CITY: ITS PORTS AND WATERFRONTS

According to Predrag Matvejevic, cities with ports differ from port-cities: the first build piers and warehouses out of necessity, the second grow in a close relationship with their ports [2]. This latter is the case of Alexandria.

3.1 The early 19th-century port system and the first waterfront The Mémoire by Gratien Le Père [3] completes the memorable engravings by the French engineers of the Armée d’Orient, offering a picture of Alexandria before its rapid growth in the 19th century. In those days the city had shrunk to little more than a small trading centre on a tongue of land extending seaward. Le Père commented on the exceptional natural features of the Western Harbour, the ancient Eunostos, used by ships from the Ottoman Empire: deep and very wide, protected from northerly winds, it could easily be fitted up to become a modern port. The Eastern Harbour, on the other hand, was rocky and exposed, bordered by the Frank Quarter and by a vast flat, sandy area where ships from Europe unloaded their goods and Bedouins sold their cattle. No trace remained of the famous lake-port of antiquity, nor of the canal which had supplied Alexandria with fresh water and had formed the commercial highway to the interior of the country.

Figure 4. View of the canal port

189 The Mahmoudieh canal, opened in 1821, closely followed the same direction. Leading off from the Rosetta Nile at Aft, the new canal promoted the revival of Alexandria as a port-city: once again the potentials of its age-old ‘geographic theatre’ could be exploited and boats loaded with products from upper, middle and the rest of Egypt could be carried straight to Alexandria. The decision to link the final stretch of the canal to the Western Harbour marked its pre-eminence once and for all. Alexandria’s earliest waterfront lay on the Mahmoudieh canal along which anyone reaching Egypt and bound for Cairo would have travelled. A first sight would be the warehouses at the canal-port where large quantities of grain and cotton were stored; then the famous Pompey pillar, a monolithic column over 20 m high made of red granite from Aswan, marking the site of the Temple of Serapis. Travellers continuing eastward could admire the green banks of the canal and, here and there, European-style villas. The route was scanned by a total of nineteen telegraph towers “made of bricks baked with good mortar, lime and sand, 5 to 7 metres in diameter and 9 to 22 metres high, with the telegraphic and accessory apparatus” [4] for sending news to Cairo city within 15 minutes. The sight of those towers left visitors in no doubt as to Egypt’s having entered the modern world. Most people presumably saw little else than a squat minaret (with its pointed arched doors and windows and the string-course cornices of Islamic inspiration); only an erudite few would have recognised even a vague reference to the legendary Pharos.

3.2 Port to the west, city to the east The Ras el-Tin Palace (1818) standing on a rise above the sea, a canal-port (1821), a French-style arsenal (1839-35), modern shipyards (1839): all these improvements to the Western Harbour were paralleled to development of the European Town and Place des Consul. Surrounded by compact buildings of the same height used by commercial agents to stock their goods, Place des Consul was peopled by Copts, Berbers and Arabs, nomads and Turkish dignitaries, Greeks, Armenians, Hebrews and hard-headed European traders. Debate over extension to the port began in the early 1860s when the Suez Canal was nearing completion. After consideration of several alternative projects, a plan by L.-M.-A. Linant de Bellefonds, that fully exploited the natural features of the port, was finally implemented. Linked up by rail, Alexandria’s Western Harbour was then among the best in the world. The Goad fire insurance plans, published at the turn of the 20th century, show how the canal-port had grown into a large commercial district with the Cotton Bourse and warehouses for coal, cotton, cereals, timber, tobacco and cotton-pressing. The square, redesigned and rebuilt after the heavy bombardment of 1882, that marked the beginning of the British Protectorate, had by then become the financial district with the town expanding eastward.

Figure 5. View of the Western Harbour, from L’Illustration, July 1882

190 4. THE ALEXANDRIA CORNICHE

4.1 Early visions The first ideas for reshaping the eastern waterfront were due to the Italian Pietro Avoscani who had worked in Alexandria since 1837 as an architect, diplomat and commercial agent. Sometime before 1841 Avoscani had made a proposal to the khedive Mohamed Ali for building a ‘royal citadel’ along the bay of Anfouchi. A square with surrounding portico accommodating all government departments and a reception hall was to extend the Ras el-Tin palace eastward; a military academy was to be established near Fort Qaitbey [5]. None of these projects was ever implemented. A few decades later Avoscani proposed an extension of the city by a boulevard along the Eastern Harbour effectively including it in the built environment. This might have been inspired by the Passeggiata dei Cavalleggeri in Livorno (Avoscani’s birth place). Conceived to include an existing road in a public coastal promenade, its construction began in 1835 providing a structure for further urban expansion.

4.2 Grands travaux (1899-1907) A description of Alexandria, dated 1909, shows how Avoscani’s idea was finally carried out by the Municipality, and how the Grand Corniche was built along the Eastern Harbour: “a scheme has been prepared by the Government to construct breakwaters across the mouth and thus restore to Alexandria the harbour that was hers in the past. In the meantime, in order to prevent the sea from encroaching upon the land and inundating the lower streets, a strong, high, circular wall, over the top of which, upon a windy day, the spray of the waves dashes in showers, has been built from Fort Kait Bey to Fort Silsileh.” [6]

Figure 6. Map of the Eastern Harbour (from Malaval, B. & Jondet, G., Le Port d'Alexandrie, Imprimerie Nationale, Le Caire, 1912).

191 The Alexandria Municipality decided to build the new quay in 1899 and entrusted the project to its engineers Dietrich and Arcondaris; E. Quellenec, chief engineer of the Suez Canal Company, was also involved [7] and, since 1901, works had been undertaken by the Italian Almagià contractors for completion in 1907. The foot of the new quay was to accommodate a main sewer conduit, while the broad boulevard at the top was to follow the coastline forming a semi-circle 4 km long around the bay. Part of the 100 m-wide embankment was to form a new series of building plots to provide a modern waterfront that was to reshape the boundaries of the Turkish and European towns. This improvement meant that an area of 526,000 m2 was reclaimed from the sea, port activities being limited to small boats and fishing craft. The Alexandria Municipality originally conceived the Grand Corniche as a central Business District, the ‘embryo’ of a plan to introduce a new hierarchy in urban space [8], the presence of the Magnus Portus providing added value. Municipal ambitions found expression in a comment by the Italian archaeologist Evaristo Breccia, Director of the Graeco-Roman Museum: “The Corniche was ‘a colossal work’ which has enriched the town by its splendid promenades to be ornamented later on with palaces, edifices and statues which, let us hope, will constitute a worthy homage to art and to aesthetics”. [9] Three years later E.M.Forster wrote that the New Quay was one of the most remarkable sights in town: “seen from the south, when there is mist in the morning, its beauty is fairy-like; seen from the northern extremity it forms a complete ring round a circle of blue water.(…) To stretch right and left in an exquisite parabola and attain poetry through mathematics – that is its only aim, and an aim not unbecoming to the city of Eratosthenes and Euclid.” [10]

Figure 7. Aerial view of Alexandria, late 1930s.

Despite all these efforts and expectations to move port activity to the west and gentrify the city centre, building work along the Corniche made a very slow start. For many years the broad semi- circular road had been separated from the city by stretches of desolate sands covered with huge blocks of stones. Only by the late 1920s a compact row of fine buildings about twenty-five metres high could be seen along the Eastern Harbour. These included the French, Italian and Swedish consulates as well as the Egyptian Maternity Hospital, the Bureau Sanitaire et Quarantenaire, the

192 local Court House. Situated among the many apartment buildings were the finest hotels in town, and immense cafés with large galleries looking out seaward which were popular rendezvous especially in summer evenings. The Cecil Hotel was designed by the Italian architect Giacomo Alessandro Loria (1929), as well as the other Italian/Venetian-style buildings near Ramleh Station. These echoed a debate then going on among members of the Municipality as to how Alexandria’s independence could be expressed by creation of its own architectural style though in such an eclectic city the choice of style alone could not offer a solution. As in Tunis or Beirut the problem of a formal order was rather one of volumetric and spatial relations or a “three-dimensional plan”.

4.3 Extensions to the Corniche Ramleh (Arabic for ‘sand’) was the collective name for Alexandria’s eastern suburbs, a sort of Riviera also known as Egypt’s Ostend. Here, along the narrow coastal strip separating the sea from Lake Maryut native villages alternated with European-style villas. Ramleh’s healthy climate was allied to a landscape of great beauty: the sea on the one side, dunes and desert on the other; in the distance Lake Maryut and the extraordinary scenery of the Nile delta. Alexandria and Ramleh were linked by an excellent electric tram service, though separated by the lazaretto, slaughter house and municipal stables near the promontory of Selseleh. The location given to the San Stefano Hotel (1887) and the Club (1890) confirmed Ramleh’s role as a place of recreation for Alexandria’s high society. In 1901 a certain Dr. Pacnik provided data to show the superiority of Ramleh as a health resort compared with the most famous places then patronised by Europeans. [11]

Figure 8. San Stefano Hotel and Casino

Extension of the Corniche over the entire length of the coast at Ramleh had already been included in the Town Planning scheme prepared by the Scottish engineer W.H. McLean in 1919. [12] The main purpose of his plan was to rationalise Alexandria’s somewhat random growth lacking in any overall control. Choked up in a road network established prior to the advent of cars, Alexandria had showed a tendency to develop beyond its limits and needed ‘enlightened planning’. This was particularly evident at Ramleh where improved accessibility depended both on the new Abukir road and on the extension of the Corniche. [13] McLean also envisaged having two large squares exploiting a number of empty building plots along the Grand Corniche: Place des Obelisques and Place des Mosquées, which was to mark the starting point of the new Ras el-Tin boulevard. In this way the new coastal road was to become a showcase for the Egyptian Royal family. The Corniche was to depart from the Ras el-Tin Palace transformed

193 by the Italian architect Ernesto Verrucci from a ‘dilapidated barracks’ into a ‘fairy-like residence’ (1920-25), and was to end at the Royal estate of Montazah where Verrucci had also built the new Haremlik in the shape of a Tuscan-Medieval style castle (1923-28). [14] Construction work to extend the Corniche, undertaken by the Italian contractors Dentamaro and Cartareggia, was completed in 1933. It had involved reclamation of land bordering the sea and the grouping of seaside-related features such as the well-known Beach with its three levels of cabins given a theatrical setting. The beach proper started after Selselah, extending for nearly 14 kilometres; evocative names as Chatby, Camp Caesar, Ibrahimieh, Sporting Club, , , Rouchdy, Bulkeley, Glymenopoulo, followed one after the other along the Corniche like beads on a gigantic rosary. [15] While greatly enhancing the reputation of Alexandria as an ideal summer resort, the Corniche had become a metaphor of the city’s many identities. This became even clearer after construction of the three fine mosques designed by Mario Rossi: Abu ‘l-‘Abbas al Mursi in Place des Mosquées (1928- 44), Qa’id Ibrahim in Saad Zaagloul Square (1948-51), Muhammad Kurrayym near Ras el-Tin (1949-53). With their three minarets dominating the Eastern Harbour, these mosques were fulcrum points for the surrounding open spaces, embodying a studied re-interpretation of earlier Mamluk and Ottoman architecture. [16] A drive along the Corniche in the early 1950s – at the time of the Officers’ Revolution – could have mirrored Alexandria’s roles as port-city, international resort and summer capital.

5. SOME FINAL REMARKS

Writing in 1956 the Italian journalist Decio Buffoni said that Alexandria had little in common with an oriental or African city; [17] but despite its European appearance, high-rise buildings and extended waterfront, neither did Alexandria resemble any city of the ’old continent’; perhaps a Levantine city and, as such, unique in its own way, a uniqueness to be valued very highly. Buffoni’s words are in some way echoed by Braudel when writing that we should avoid confusion between civilization and civilizations, recognizing the real, though sometimes hidden, nature of each different context. [18] Like other Mediterranean towns, Alexandria must not be merely seen as a link in the process of globalization but must fulfil its own role in economics, politics and culture, perhaps recreating some form of solidarity with other Mediterranean cities and within a wider ‘geographical theatre’. Which future for Alexandria? Jac Smit’s question of 1977 is still unanswered. [19] Concentrating on restyling its waterfront, the Alexandria of today seems to be following the model of a possible global city, while eluding the real nature of its cultural context and the uniqueness of its urban heritage: this depends not only on its literary myth but rather on the fact that its urban structure has preserved the stamp of its foundation, of its strategically planted roots. Restored in the early 19th century and many times rebuilt since, even now this ancient urban structure breathes its strong potential. If we accept that the cultural evidence of cityscapes is a key problem worth discussion, then architecture could help towards a full understanding of a city, well beyond its functional performance. This may also mean removing additions that have cancelled the traces of history, and sounding the stratified magma of the present city to decide which elements could still play a vital part.

194 References

1. 2005. MedCities: The Mediterranean City: Dialogue among Cultures, Bibliotheca Alexandrina, 99-111. 2. Matvejević, P., 1999. Mediterranean: A Cultural Landscape, University of California Press, Berkeley, 12. 3. Le Père, G., 1818. Mémoire sur la ville d’Alexandrie, Paris. 4. Balboni, L.A., 1906. Gl’italiani nella Civiltà Egiziana del Secolo XIX, Alessandria, vol. I, 408- 394. 5. Wright, A., 1909. Twentieth Century Impressions of Egypt. Its History, People, Commerce, Industries and Resources. Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Company, London, 427. 6. Coste, P., 1878 (1817-1877). Mémoires d’un artiste. Marseille 7. Hastaoglou-Martinidis, V., 2010. The Cartography of Harbor Construction in Eastern Mediterranean Cities: Technical and Urban Modernization in the Late Nineteenth Century. Cities of the Mediterranean (eds. Kolluoğlu B. & Toksöz M.), I.B. Tauris, London. 8. Ilbert, R., 1996. Alexandrie 1830-1930. IFAO, Le Caire, vol. 2, 564-566. 9. Breccia E., 1914. Alexandrea ad Ægyptum. Istituto Italiano d'Arti Grafiche, Bergamo, 15. Translation from Haag, M., 2004. Alexandria. City of Memory, Yale University Press, 55. 10. Forster, E.M., 1917. XXth-century Alexandria: The New Quay. Egyptian Mail, 2 December. 11. Pecnik, Ch., 1901. Ramleh, La Riviera Eleusinienne et Alexandrie (Egypt), L. Woerl, Leipzig. 12. McLean, W.H., 1921. City of Alexandria Town Planning Scheme, Cairo. 13. Girard, H., 1928, Alexandrie en plein essor, Alexandrie reine de la Méditerranée, 25-28. 14. Godoli, E., 2008. Ernesto Verrucci’s architectural works for Alexandria. The Presence of Italian Architects in the Mediterranean Countries. Maschietto, Florence, 362-373. 15. Bernard, J., 1936, Les plages alexandrines, Alexandrie portique de l’Orient, 73-79. 16. Turchiarulo, M., 2012. Building “in a style”. Italian architecture in Alexandria, Egypt. The work of Mario Rossi. Gangemi, Roma. 17. Buffoni, D., 1956. Alessandria e L’Egitto. Le vie del Mondo, 4, 353-368. 18. Braudel, F., 1980 (1969). On History. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. 215-217. 19. Smit, J., 1977. Which Future for Alexandria?, Geoforum, 8/3, 135-140.

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