Egypt Plans To Build new Capital In Desert
The Egyptian government has announced plans to build a new capital to the east of the present one, Cairo. The project would cost US$ 45 billion and take 5 to 7 years to complete. This announcement was made on March 13 at an investment conference that aims to revive the Egyptian economy. The new city will be built by Capital City Partners, a private real estate investment fund led by Emirati Mohamed Alabbar. Dubai businessman Mr Alabbar built the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa.
According to planners, the proposed city's site is situated along the corridor between Cairo and the Red Sea, providing linkages to significant shipping routes. The new city - the name of which has not been revealed - is planned to be built over 700 square kilometers with 200 square kilometers of preserved natural areas and house about 5 million residents. According to the brochure, there will be exactly 21 residential districts, 40 thousand hotel rooms, 700 kindergartens and schools, 663 hospitals and clinics, 1,250 mosques and churches, and 1.1 million homes housing and one of the largest city park systems in the world.
The new capital of Egypt designed by SOM (Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP) architectural and design company. Especially on the project worked architects Phillip Enquist, Daniel Ringelstein, George J. Efstathiou. According to SOM the new city will be compact in urban form and anchored by concentrated development districts, including a central business district, a government administrative district, a cultural district, a knowledge and innovation district, and a residential neighborhoods. Every neighborhood will be centered on a community public space surrounded by local shops, schools, religious buildings, and civic amenities.
SOM City Design Practice Director Daniel Ringelstein mentioned that the future city will strengthen and diversify Egypt's economic potential by creating attractive new places to live, work, and welcome the world.
This is very ambitious and significant project, but many doubt whether it will become a reality. According to Guardian, in Egypt, even the best urban plans have tended to go awry. Egypt has a history of building unfinished towns in the desert, the product of a decades-old belief that satellite developments will curb overcrowding in its main cities. In theory, the strategy is based in logic: around 96% of Egyptians live on just 4% of Egyptian land, and as the population mushrooms, relocating some of the former might solve the congestion in the latter.
But experience, time and again, has suggested otherwise. These 22 existing "new towns" - some of them more than 30 years old - still collectively hold little more than a million residents, and contain thousands of empty homes. Far from Cairo's madding crowds, they are in theory an attractive prospect for many Egyptians. But in practice, most cannot afford to move there.
According to planners, the proposed city's site is situated along the corridor between Cairo and the Red Sea, providing linkages to significant shipping routes. The new city - the name of which has not been revealed - is planned to be built over 700 square kilometers with 200 square kilometers of preserved natural areas and house about 5 million residents. According to the brochure, there will be exactly 21 residential districts, 40 thousand hotel rooms, 700 kindergartens and schools, 663 hospitals and clinics, 1,250 mosques and churches, and 1.1 million homes housing and one of the largest city park systems in the world.
The new capital of Egypt designed by SOM (Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP) architectural and design company. Especially on the project worked architects Phillip Enquist, Daniel Ringelstein, George J. Efstathiou. According to SOM the new city will be compact in urban form and anchored by concentrated development districts, including a central business district, a government administrative district, a cultural district, a knowledge and innovation district, and a residential neighborhoods. Every neighborhood will be centered on a community public space surrounded by local shops, schools, religious buildings, and civic amenities.
SOM City Design Practice Director Daniel Ringelstein mentioned that the future city will strengthen and diversify Egypt's economic potential by creating attractive new places to live, work, and welcome the world.
This is very ambitious and significant project, but many doubt whether it will become a reality. According to Guardian, in Egypt, even the best urban plans have tended to go awry. Egypt has a history of building unfinished towns in the desert, the product of a decades-old belief that satellite developments will curb overcrowding in its main cities. In theory, the strategy is based in logic: around 96% of Egyptians live on just 4% of Egyptian land, and as the population mushrooms, relocating some of the former might solve the congestion in the latter.
But experience, time and again, has suggested otherwise. These 22 existing "new towns" - some of them more than 30 years old - still collectively hold little more than a million residents, and contain thousands of empty homes. Far from Cairo's madding crowds, they are in theory an attractive prospect for many Egyptians. But in practice, most cannot afford to move there.
