The ghost hotels of the Sinai coast

2016-06-08T17:14:00-04:00

The villas are naked concrete, baked in the sun like unpainted pottery. The swimming pool is a trough with light fixtures poking from the sides. There are no guests, many stray dogs, and one-full time member of staff—a watchman who spends much of his time tending a fruit orchard where mangoes, oranges and lemons grow. If this were an isolated case, it would be mere misfortune. But the Seagull is just one ruin among dozens that line some 200 km of road on the southeastern Sinai coast.

"These ghost hotels are a product of the collapse of Egypt’s tourism industry after the revolution of 2011 and the political turmoil and terrorist attacks that followed."

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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...

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The ghost hotels of the Sinai coast

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