Role of Public Space in Achieving Social Sustainability in Cairo

Abstract

Public space has been always regarded as a reflection of the social status of the community. Based on this assumption, the challenge for achieving a ‘socially sustainable’ community in Cairo is in need to be re-questioned in relation to the role of public space. Accordingly, the paper explores the role of public-space in maintaining the social sustenance in the extreme ends of Cairo’s social structure, first: the gated communities taking ‘Beverly Hills’ as a prototype, and second the informal areas taking ‘Al-Zahraa’ district a prototype.Keywords: Social sustainability; Neoliberalism; Public spaces; Gated communities.eISSN 2398-4295 © 2018. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open-access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.