Egypt's Housing Crisis

Egypt's Housing Crisis
Author: Yahia Shawkat
Publisher: American University in Cairo Press
Total Pages: 303
Release: 2020-09-08
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1649030339

A provocative analysis of the roots of Egypt’s housing crisis and the ways in which it can be tackled Along with football and religion, housing is a fundamental cornerstone of Egyptian life: it can make or break marriage proposals, invigorate or slow down the economy, and popularize or embarrass a ruler. Housing is political. Almost every Egyptian ruler over the last eighty years has directly associated himself with at least one large-scale housing project. It is also big business, with Egypt currently the world leader in per capita housing production, building at almost double China’s rate, and creating a housing surplus that counts in the millions of units. Despite this, Egypt has been in the grip of a housing crisis for almost eight decades. From the 1940s onward, officials deployed a number of policies to create adequate housing for the country’s growing population. By the 1970s, housing production had outstripped population growth, but today half of Egypt’s one hundred million people cannot afford a decent home. Egypt's Housing Crisis takes presidential speeches, parliamentary reports, legislation, and official statistics as the basis with which to investigate the tools that officials have used to ‘solve’ the housing crisis—rent control, social housing, and amnesties for informal self-building—as well as the inescapable reality of these policies’ outcomes. Yahia Shawkat argues that wars, mass displacement, and rural–urban migration played a part in creating the problem early on, but that neoliberal deregulation, crony capitalism and corruption, and neglectful planning have made things steadily worse ever since. In the final analysis he asks, is affordable housing for all really that hard to achieve?

From Crisis to Crisis

From Crisis to Crisis
Author: Nasrine Seraji-Bozorgzad
Publisher: Actar
Total Pages: 280
Release: 2018-12-31
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 9781948765053

The authors examine how reading, writing, and criticism can address the urgent issues faced by architecture as it is practiced, taught, and studied today. The publication is drawn from an international public symposium organized in the spring of 2017 by the Department of Architecture at the University of Hong Kong.

Architecture, Crisis and Resuscitation

Architecture, Crisis and Resuscitation
Author: Tahl Kaminer
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 216
Release: 2011-01-20
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1136832173

Studying the relation of architecture to society, this book explains the manner in which the discipline of architecture adjusted itself in order to satisfy new pressures by society. Consequently, it offers an understanding of contemporary conditions and phenomena, ranging from the ubiquity of landmark buildings to the celebrity status of architects. It concerns the period spanning from 1966 to the first years of the current century – a period which saw radical change in economy, politics, and culture and a period in which architecture radically transformed, substituting the alleged dreariness of modernism with spectacle.

Planning in Crisis?

Planning in Crisis?
Author: Walter Schoenwandt
Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
Total Pages: 285
Release: 2012-11-28
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1409487865

In recent years, a formidable gulf has opened up between planning theory and practice. Over the past four decades, planning academics have developed strong theories and created models to accompany and elucidate the planning process. However, many planning practitioners have resisted the notion that theory can play a positive role in the solution of concrete planning problems This volume provides a comprehensive overview of all the main planning theories and models, while also introducing an innovative new model and a set of tools. Modeled on the theories of Mario Bunge this dynamic new approach allows planners to achieve a better understanding of the complexities involved in the role of planners and their impact on the built environment.

Concrete Dreams

Concrete Dreams
Author: Nicholas D'Avella
Publisher: Duke University Press
Total Pages: 223
Release: 2019-11-15
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1478005114

In Concrete Dreams Nicholas D’Avella examines the changing social and economic lives of buildings in the context of a construction boom following Argentina's political and economic crisis of 2001. D’Avella tells the stories of small-scale investors who turned to real estate as an alternative to a financial system they no longer trusted, of architects who struggled to maintain artistic values and political commitments in the face of the ongoing commodification of their work, and of residents-turned-activists who worked to protect their neighborhoods and city from being overtaken by new development. Such forms of everyday engagement with buildings, he argues, produce divergent forms of value that persist in tension with hegemonic forms of value. In the dreams attached to built environments and the material forms in which those dreams are articulated—from charts and graphs to architectural drawings, urban planning codes, and tango lyrics—D’Avella finds a blueprint for building livable futures in which people can survive alongside and even push back against the hegemony of capitalism.

Crisis of the Object

Crisis of the Object
Author: Gevork Hartoonian
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 342
Release: 2006-09-21
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1134172095

Looking back over the twentieth century, Hartoonian discusses the work of three major architects: Peter Eisenman, Frank Gehry and Bernard Tschumi, in reference to their theoretical positions and historicizes present architecture in the context of the ongoing secularization of the myths surrounding the traditions of nineteenth century architecture in general, and, in particular, Gottfried Semper's discourse on the tectonic. Providing a valuable contribution to the current debates surrounding architectural history and theory, this passionately written book makes valuable reading for any architect.

Social Value in Construction

Social Value in Construction
Author: Ani Raiden
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 326
Release: 2018-12-07
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1351587196

While the concept of social value is not new, recent interest in social value in construction has grown because of new social procurement legislation around the world and an increasing acceptance of the need to ensure construction projects provide social value, rather than simply economic value. Despite this growing recognition, literature and professional guidance on the subject is hard to find. This is the first book looking at social value in construction and it sets the agenda by asking and answering important questions like: How is the construction industry developing and supporting social enterprise and social value and for who? How and when is the industry recording and measuring social value and its effect? Which organisations are doing things well and what can we learn from their experiences? What can industry players do together to consolidate efforts and drive improvements? What are the key challenges in the field and what does the future look like? Drawing on a variety of professional and academic experiences and disciplines, the authors present global perspectives and lay the foundations for creating social value in the construction industry. This timely book makes use of real-life case studies and examples of best practice to demonstrate how innovative companies can utilise contemporary research to create social value through their projects. It is time the construction industry viewed community involvement and corporate social responsibility as an opportunity rather than a risk, and this is the book that shows the industry how. This is essential reading for all professionals in the construction, engineering, architecture and built environment sector. In particular, project managers, clients, contract managers, quantity surveyors, CSR and HR personnel will gain a lot from reading this book.