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Living Heritage: Managing Sites with Heritage
Significance
“Rehabilitation of Al Sakakini’s Palace”
Noha
Qotb
EGITTO
MODERNO
Introduction
Many residential houses and palaces with heritage significance are found
throughout Egypt, particularly those inherited from the 19th century
and attributed to the Khedivial era. These buildings have outstanding
architectural and traditional characters that contribute in enhancing
their uniqueness as well as their aesthe-
tic value. Nevertheless, they are conside-
red evidences on the ultimate excel their
architects reached in the execution of an
architectural design that compiles many
features from diverse models in Europe,
and how these architects tried to imple-
ment such designs taking into considera-
tion the domestic characteristics of the
architectural urban in Egypt, what made
the Khedivial architecture homogenously
fit within the Egyptian urban fabric at that
time. Nowadays, after the owners of
these mansions have abandoned them
by the mid of the 50s in the last century,
these buildings started to lose their fun-
ctionality by time and so as they have
begun to lose their architectural features
as well, and thus they were left to dust,
theft, and deterioration, as well as, the inappropriate and short-termma-
nagement plans that has been applied in most of cases as an attempt to
rescue such buildings after they were registered as a monument and
their ownership has been transformed into a governmental property.
In order to emphasize the vitality of Heritage in our contemporane-
ous lifestyle, there is an urgent need to preserve the “functionality” of
this Heritage using the suitable means that does not affect its authen-
ticity but guarantee the continuity of its physical and intangible valu–
es. In the case of the abandoned palaces with architectural heritage
character, the conservation and managing operations of such sites
should include not only a preservation and safeguarding plans that
seek maintenance of the palace aesthetic and architecture values, but
also it should consider the functional continuity of these buildings and
integrate it within the current social and economical context of the lo-
cal community, thus Heritage sites becomes a resource not a burden.
Cairo / Sakakini Palace