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Egyptian restorers are carrying out an ambitious project to revive a dilapidated neighborhood within cairoCarefully dismantling and then rebuilding the houses in Darb al-Labbana using materials salvaged from the original structures.
This innovative model is envisioned as a blueprint for similar restoration efforts in other districts.
Darb al-Labbana area, located just below Cairo, more than eight centuries old citadelA historic site founded by the Muslim general Saladin, and bordering a historic hospital complex, had become largely uninhabitable in recent decades.
Its ancient street pattern, with narrow streets and alleys, has remained virtually unchanged over the centuries, even appearing on maps made by French cartographers during Napoleon Bonaparte’s occupation. egypt Between 1798 and 1801.
many of the existing HouseBuilt more than a century ago on unstable ground, they were considered too small by contemporary standards and severely lacked essential infrastructure such as plumbing.
The main objective of the restoration plan is to create habitable habitat while carefully preserving the original street layout and architectural aspects of the area.
The foundations have been significantly strengthened, and modern sewage, plumbing and electricity systems have been installed throughout the regenerated neighbourhood.
“It’s a smaller, modern version of the old one,” said Nary Hampikian, an architectural engineer who advised on the project.
The government is tearing down buildings in other dilapidated areas, and Hampikian is trying to show that there is a way to preserve them instead.
The Darb al-Labbana neighborhood was part of the original endowment or waqfia of al-Mu’ayyad’s Bimaristan, a hospital built in 1420 AD.
Conservationists documented buildings inside and out in the neighborhood’s narrow streets and alleys in 2021 and 2022.
“Fifty percent of the buildings were completely destroyed. Just piles. The other 20 percent were half destroyed,” Hampikian said. “The remaining buildings were uninhabitable.”
Residents were given three options: move to new apartments provided elsewhere, accept money to vacate, or accept money to rent a place to live temporarily until the restored apartments were ready.
In 2023–24 restorers began dismantling the buildings, removing stones, numbering them, then building new structures, many with their original facades.
The project rebuilt 23 completely destroyed buildings and constructed another 15 on top of those that were partially destroyed. Of the 102 families living in the area, 52 have decided to return when the project ends next year, with 20 of them returning to their same addresses.