The study of Grounded Urban Practices (GUPs) in Cairo and Amsterdam+Rotterdam was initiated by Non-Fiction (NL) and Cluster (Egypt). The project focuses on two destabilizing moments in recent history, the 2008 financial crisis in Europe and the 2011 Egyptian revolution.
The Cairo GUPs started to operate where the authorities had traditionally failed to provide, from heritage preservation, well-maintained public space to community services. They seized their chances to postion themselves in the power vacuum after the 2011 Egyptian revolution, which suddenly gave individuals and communities in Cairo more opportunities to engage the city and public space. Existing social networks of spatial professionals, unsatisfied with the way architecture was being practiced and taught until then, seized the moment to develop new modes of practices and experimental initiatives.
In Dutch cities, GUPs work on obtaining control over spaces (and sharing it with others), while others seek to add a certain complexity to an increasingly overregulated and homogenous urban environment. They offer alternatives to regular urban development projects that, in the recession, came to a halt, resulting in many abandoned properties and unemployed spatial professionals, and a shared need to do things differently. This appeared to be a fruitful ground for new kinds of initiatives, building on a long tradition of alternative or even radical urban practices.
Teun and Eeva Liukku took part in discussions and contributed to a full-day symposium in Cairo on behalf of Vers Beton. By comparing the working methods deployed in the Netherlands and Egypt, possible strategies and alliances emerged. The full report of the project is available here.
