ABSTRACT
In terms of social change, the goal was to turn Cairo's buildings, streets and public spaces into symbolic representations of the regime's revolutionary discourse in order to ensure its success in changing the everyday life of Egyptians. The aim of modernising the economy of Cairo might actually have been undermined by the determined effort to recreate Cairo's urban fabric. However, the general plan for renewing Cairo included rehousing and distributing the inhabitants of the Sayyidna al-Hussein, al-Azhar and Bulaq districts to 22 others where new apartment buildings had been constructed. In Bulaq, for instance, the Muhafzah announced some high-profile improvement initiatives to upgrade living conditions. The Bulaq scheme was a visible promotion of an unfamiliar style of urban planning practised by the military. Apparently, the organic configuration of lands in Bulaq had significantly influenced re-planning decisions, considering that the narrowness of the haras had limited the construction of large-scale projects for a long time.
