05-10

SEPTEMBER

2023

Portsaid, Egypt

Urban (Heritage) Narratives Workshop
Every Taracina has a Story

BACKGROUND

BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg, with its local partners in Egypt, has initiated a two-year project to contribute to the recovery process of Port Said. This project is funded by the British Council’s Cultural Protection Fund (CPF) in partnership with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).
Bazar Abbas is a unique hybrid of local architecture and European modernism that has suffered extensive damage as a result of past conflicts on the Suez Canal. This combined architectural typology is repeated in different shapes and forms all over the city of Port Said, a city with a short yet turbulent history: a history of wars and displacements, prosperity and abandonment, colonialism and resistance, marginalisation and power reclamation and many more. These multiple layers of history have been manifested in the architectural and spatial articulation of the city, as well as within the daily life practices of Port Said residents.

Focus Areas

The participants were organized into five groups, each consisting of four to five
members with diverse study levels and backgrounds, ensuring a balanced and
collaborative dynamic. The division of participants into these groups was determined based on the specific location that was the focus of their work. This approach allowed for a comprehensive exploration of the urban context, with each group bringing their unique knowledge and skills to address the specific challenges and opportunities.The participants were organized into five groups, each consisting of four to five members with diverse study levels and backgrounds, ensuring a balanced and collaborative dynamic. The division of participants into these groups was determined based on the specific location that was the focus of their work. This approach allowed for a comprehensive exploration of the urban context, with each group bringing their unique knowledge and skills to address the specific challenges and opportunities.

WORKSHOP CONCEPT

This workshop is the first event in the series of activities planned for the project “Bazar Abbas: Recovery Lab of Port Said’’ and will address the questions of urban narratives and collective memory, conflict and recovery, urban mapping and heritage interpretation through the perspective of local communities in Port Said. During the workshop, participants will be provided with various inputs addressing the themes mentioned above. Then they will carry out a practice to document and map local-centred urban narratives of Port Said affected by years of war and conflicts in the city. Timber veranda or Taracina, an integral component of Port Said`s Architecture, will be regarded as a leading element during the practice. The outcome of this workshop will further be developed and employed for the planning workshop in September 2023 that will focus on formulating urban recovery guidelines in the historic core of Port Said.
The workshop, in particular, targets Egyptian students and researchers in the fields of architecture, urban planning, and heritage studies. Participants in five groups carried out site-specific studies within the so-called Arab and European neighbourhoods of Port Said with a special focus given to the effect of war and years of conflict on local urban narratives and heritage interpretations. Timber veranda or Taracina, an integral component of Port Said’s Architecture, will be regarded as a leading element during the practice. The workshop had the capacity for twenty-one participants from nine universities.