On the Maintenance Policy of a Historical ‘Galleria’ Building in Alexandria

Abstract

This paper compares the insurance in 1905 of a ‘Galleria’ type of building in Alexandria, Egypt, with its present situation in 2001. The building is analyzed in terms of: 1) facade and space alteration, 2) function and rents, and 3) insurance and administrative system. The correlation in 1905 between the municipal regulations and building insurance sustained the essence of an open gallery, which itself (gallery) distributed the insured building items for maintenance. The maintenance policy was not limited to insurance, but to the wider context of the municipal system. The system specified the function of building spaces and left the rents to market forces, while the profitable insurance was activated to adjust the running cost of building items with the functional and rental policies. Since nationalization in 1952, the ‘Rent Control’ and change of building regulations have caused the galleria to deteriorate. The administration of the galleria is separated between the physical and socio-economic aspects, which reflects on the weakened relationship between the owner and the tenants. The life-span of the galleria became totally dependent on its physical condition without functional or financial strategies. The study points out the socio-economic requirement of insurance for ‘Galleria Menasce’ as it was. © 2002, Architectural Institute of Japan. All rights reserved.