Hay El Salam حيّ السلام

Ismailia is an Egyptian city founded in 1863 as the headquarters of the administration of the Suez Canal construction project, and is located west of the canal. The city, built by the French settlers, is divided into 3 quarters – Latin, Greek, and Arab – made of 5 identical modules ensuring order and regularity, with the exception of the Arab quarter, which eventually took on a checkerboard structure because the modules were not adapted to the locals’ way of life.

The Six-Day War of 1967 forced the inhabitants to leave the city and return only in 1974, joined by immigrants from El-Skarkia. As the state’s reconstruction program after the war was not efficient enough, people had to settle in slums. At that time, Hay El Salam’s area only had one-floor housings made with mud bricks, no electricity, limited access to water, and almost no services. The roads were irregular, unpaved, and covered with rubbish. 37,000 people lived there, most with low incomes.2

In 1976, the governorate entrusted Culpin and Partners with the study of a new masterplan of the city, with the idea of modernizing and rebuilding informal settlements such as Hay El Salam. This British architecture office, founded in 1968, had mainly focused on public and private projects in developed countries.3 The emphasis in their work was often put on the consolidation of decentralized development processes.4 After a year of low productivity, the British consultants were entrusted with a complementary study on the implementation of the project in 1977. They proposed an agency system to support the governorate with the management of the project: agencies were based in Hay El Salam to listen to the local communities, represent them in front of the other stakeholders, and shape a project in cooperation with them.5

The architectural and urban planning of the project took place in time with different phases, and in space with different zoning and plot allotments. Indeed, the Agency, following Culpin’s masterplan recommendations, set up basic services for inhabitants in the first phase. The plots were delimited, pit latrines installed, and standpipes set up every 150m for common use.6 The project then accounted for public and semi-private spaces and services, upgrading existing sewers and canalizations, bus lines, and roads. Housing was projected as a work whose shape would evolve as people installed themselves. The urban fabric was organized around a central area where common facilities like a mosque, a school, and a market were located.7

The target population of the project was mostly people with the same income as those already living in Hay El Salam (between 16 and 40 LE per month), but also some people with lower and higher incomes to make the cross-subsidy system of the plots possible.8 The inhabitants appropriated their plots quite freely. They had to respect the use of certain materials, but there was no predefined design. Their financial means, however, often limited them. It is possible to notice that, despite the regulations describing a façade finish, many houses/buildings still have their structure apparent, probably to save money.

To this day, the neighborhood is considered a pleasant place to live with a low crime rate. The project can therefore be considered a success. However, the very attractive conditions of the area have attracted many people with higher incomes who have bought land from the inhabitants. This reveals a weakness in the project, which was intended for a specific income group, and an important issue to investigate to draw lessons from the Hay El Salam project.

Sources

1. Montel, Nathalie. “Ismaïlia (Egypte): une ville d’ingénieurs.” Revue du monde musulman et de la Méditerranée, no. 73-74. 1994. pp. 255-56.

2. Madbouly, Mostafa. Participatory Slum Upgrading, Documented Experience from Ismailia, Egypt. United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). 2011. p. A34.

3. Matteucci, Claudio. Long-term Evaluation of an Urban Development Project: The Case of Hai El Salam. 7th N-Aerus Conference. 2006. pp. 1-2.

4. Culpin Planning. “The Company.” Link.

5. Ismailiyya Development Projects Project Brief. Compiled by the Aga Khan Award for Architecture. 2013. pp. 9-10.

6. Hai El Salam Project, an Upgrading and Sites-and-Services Project, Ismailia, Egypt. United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat), Nairobi. 1994.

7. Davidson, Forbes and Geoffrey Payne (eds.). Urban Projects Manual. Second Edition. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. 2000.

8. Hai El Salam Project, an Upgrading and Sites-and-Services Project. Op. cit. p. 17.

Images

1. Improvement and appropriation of the plots by the inhabitants in different stages of construction. Source: Own work, based on the analysis of plans and photos.

2. Situation plan of Hay El Salam. Source: Own work, based on satellite photos.

3. Stakeholders involved. Source: Own work, based on the diagram found in: Blunt, Alistair. “Ismailia Sites-and-Services and Upgrading Projects — A Preliminary Evaluation.” Habitat International, vol. 6, no. 5-6. 1982. p. 588.

4. Plan of the old and new Hay El Salam, as well as of the new infrastructures. Source: Own work, based on: Davidson, Forbes and Geoffrey Payne (eds.). Urban Projects Manual. Second Edition. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. 2000. pp. 78, 149; Hai El Salam Project, an Upgrading and Sites-and-Services Project, Ismailia, Egypt. United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat), Nairobi. 1994. pp. 49-54.

5. Gradual improvements in the neighborhood, c. 1986. Source: “Ismailiyyah Development Project: Recipient of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 1986.” https://www.archnet.org/sites/167. Photograph by Culpin Planning.
Image V: Night photo of the neighborhood in 2007. Source: Forbes Davidson Planning. “Ismailia: Hai el Salam post 2007.” Link. Photograph by Forbes Davidson Planning.