BASIN-YAYINDA YER ALIŞ VE KULLANICI TEPKİLERİ: ELEŞTİRİ VE KULLANICI DEĞERLENDİRMESİ KUŞATMASINDA EL EZHER PARKI

Contemporary Cairo encompasses fragments that represent a symbiosis of urban, natural, cultural and economic processes. Much of what manifests itself today as Egyptian politics, knowledge and culture was and is the product of the modern physical, socio-cultural and socio-economic realities of this city. History adds another dimension to Cairo’s architecture and urbanism. It reflects the intersection between place, society, culture and technology. This has made it a complex and diverse city with over 18 million inhabitants and a range of established traditions, where the symbols of religious, political, institutional and economic power are often competing (Salama, 2002). Accelerated population growth has had a severe impact on the city’s infrastructure and services where the capacity to cope with that growth is really limited. Immigrants from rural areas to the urban metropolis continue to live in squatters’ settlements on the urban peripheries of the city. This in turn has increased the pressure on the public services thereby attracting substantial political attention at the expense of other issues where the need for open green spaces has become an urgent necessity. Al Azhar Park is a new project that was inaugurated in Cairo in March 2005. The project is regarded by the local authorities, the developers, and the planning and design team as a catalyst for social, economic and cultural sustainability and is believed to have far reaching consequences for the 200,000 residents of the neighboring Darb al-Ahmar district. It was conceived in the mid-eighties as a metropolitan park that offers much needed greenery and open space to the residents of Cairo. Characterized by distinctive spatial qualities the planning of the park is conceptualized as a series of self contained zones along a central circulation spine and secondary axes (AKTC, 2004). The project was –and still is -- celebrated in the media, and has received a considerable coverage in over 100 publications in different languages including local newspapers, tourist information packages, and specialized international and regional architectural trade magazines. This paper introduces a fresh look that pertains to the hypothesis that “projects celebrated in the public or specialized media are not necessarily meeting users’ expectations or satisfying their needs.” This premise is derived from a considerable number of writings developed in the past three decades (Gans, 1978; Nasar, 1986, 1994; Newman, 1980; Salama, 1995; Wolfe, 1981). For instance, reviewing the publications of the Museum of Modern Arts-MOMA that have a direct impact on the profession one can find that those publications foster the image of architecture as art and only art. This is clearly evident as they present the formal aspects of the work of star architects where the creation of the built environment is seen within geometric abstract and artistic terms (Salama, 1995). It is possible to wrangle that in the media typically very little attention is given to users’ feedback or behavior, needs or expectations. Examining three architectural influential magazines (AIA Journal, Architectural Record, and Progressive Architecture) during the two decades of 1970s and 1980s reveals that the written and visual content is presented in a manner that places emphasis on the physical and formal characteristics of the built environment at the expense of other human, social and behavioral aspects (Nasar, 1986). Concomitantly, it is widely acknowledged that a considerable portion of the general and architectural media still adopts the view of architecture as art thereby the media content is expected to be supportive of this view. Stemming from this argument, the purpose of this paper is to examine whether the intensive media coverage of Al Azhar Park as a sustainable urban development project indicates its success from the users perspective, a massive project that is portrayed as a new green lung for Cairo. In order to achieve the aim of this research a multilayered methodology was devised in a manner that involves the implementation of three investigation mechanisms. The first is an argument that articulates the value of criticism and Post Occupancy Evaluation-POE as tools for improving the built environment. In this context, the media coverage of the project represents criticism in architecture while the core of this research represents Post Occupancy Evaluation-POE. This is followed by a brief critical discussion of the spatial qualities of the Park. The second is a preliminary content analysis of a total of 64 online and printed publications that covered the project in reporting, descriptive, as well as analytical terms (1). The objective of this procedure was to discern the way in which the project was portrayed in the media and what aspects were most praised. The third mechanism is a survey interview that involves users’ reactions as it relates to park design, nature of activities, and management issues. By implementing this mechanism, responses from 184 users were analyzed while relating aspects celebrated in the media to users’ feedback (2). By developing knowledge on how the users and visitors of Al Azhar Park perceive the project and how the spatial qualities meet their needs, an in-depth insight into the understanding of the merits of the project is developed. As well, assessing different aspects of the park may reveal shortcomings or specific negative aspects, which would eventually lead to recommend ways of improving those aspects.