A balanced revitalisation strategy for the historic commercial streets built environment – tangible and intangible considerations

Tarek Teba, Mai Eid, Nevin Gharib

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter (peer-reviewed)peer-review

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Abstract

A Historic Commercial Street is a key socio-economic component in cities, which has encompassed social, cultural and economic activities. Owing to different challenges (new way of consumption, urbanisation pressure), historic commercial streets have been declining, which has not only affected the physical, social and commercial activities but also negatively impacted on the streets’ tangible and intangible heritage assets.

In the City of Alexandria, Egypt, the historic commercial streets have been exposed to tangible and intangible urban shifts and decays, which has transformed their historic image and atmosphere and thus weakened their heritage significance. Thus, since development is inevitable, this article aims to identify a strategic approach for the revitalization of the physical built environment of the historic commercial street and achieve a win-win situation that balances heritage preservation and development dynamics, focusing on Safeya Zaghloul Street as a case study in the city.

Historic and archival investigation has informed the understanding of the street’s historic transformations and defining the gap between the place's cultural heritage and the development dynamics. An empirical analysis was adopted to assess the current physical, functional and cultural challenges of the historic centre and the selected street, while a deductive approach was followed to identify the revitalisation attributes and determine the strategic rejuvenation approach for the historical commercial street.

The article concludes to a transferrable strategic approach that could be utilised to revitalize the Historic Commercial Street component of the city, and the produced strategy will be visualised on the selected case study, Safeya Zaghloul Street.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationHeritages: Past and Present - Built and Social
Subtitle of host publicationA Conference on Culture, History, Art and Design
EditorsJitka Cirklová
PublisherArchitecture Media Politics Society
Chapter29
Pages290-307
Number of pages18
Publication statusPublished - 30 Mar 2024
EventPrague Heritages- Past and Present, Built and Social: A conference on culture, history, art and design - Prague, Czech Republic
Duration: 28 Jun 202330 Jun 2023
https://amps-research.com/conference/heritages-prague/

Publication series

NameAMPS Proceedings Series
PublisherAMPS
Number35.3
ISSN (Electronic)2398-9467

Conference

ConferencePrague Heritages- Past and Present, Built and Social: A conference on culture, history, art and design
Country/TerritoryCzech Republic
CityPrague
Period28/06/2330/06/23
Internet address

Keywords

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