The selective amnesia of Foster + Partners' Maspero Triangle District Masterplan

2015-11-11T04:21:00-05:00

Foster + Partners has won a competition to redesign the area around the Egyptian Radio and Television Union (ERTU) headquarters in Cairo’s Maspero area, according to an announcement made yesterday by the Egyptian Ministry of State for Urban Renewal and Informal Settlements (MURIS).

“On the banks of the River Nile, the future of Maspero burns bright,” states Grant Brooker, Senior Executive Partner at Foster + Partners. “And we are sure our sustainable model of development will set the benchmark for urban regeneration throughout the country.”

The Maspero Triangle District Masterplan, as the initiative is called, endeavors to dramatically remake the Nile-adjacent neighborhood while still maintaining its current demographic heterogeneity, which comprises informal settlements of around 12,000 people interspersed among high-end real estate. The plan will rehouse the majority of the low income population in the same area, the press release states, and, unlike others in recent history, this d...

Singapore's Sterile Authoritarianism

2015-01-05T14:33:00-05:00

Day-to-day life [in Singapore] is famously governed by a series of rules that maintain this clean, well-ordered city. The import of chewing gum is banned, therefore globs of the stuff aren’t found on the street. There are fines for irritating people with a musical instrument or your own drunkenness... The result is a low-crime, scrupulously run city – with none of the incomprehensible, exciting chaos of cities found in neighbouring Indonesia or Malaysia.

Archinect - News

The selective amnesia of Foster + Partners' Maspero Triangle District Masterplan

Singapore's Sterile Authoritarianism