The Future of the ‘Insurance Plan’ in Cairo and Alexandria

Abstract

The expired Insurance Plan of Cairo and Alexandria had affected their European progress due to the national shift of sharp decline at present. The plan surpassed an ordinary urban survey to include socioeconomic and administrative criteria, which are clarified for future conservation in objective. The study compares the current local situation to the original international status in 1905 according to the insurance document along with the supplementary municipal byelaws. The essence of administrative demarcation filtered the colonial zones from the native areas in various dimensions. The intermediary zone not only structured smooth transition of a hybrid type of commercial building evolution, but also sustained the colony through the insured building stock. Further municipal taxes were invested in infrastructures with concise landuse and urban form to suit the European lifestyle apart from the exempted preexisting irregular pattern. The current authority, however, turned all strengths into weaknesses of fragmented territories. The unknown policy of insurance planning to natives with the cultural change had facilitated the historical colony to the dissolution. The generalized building code and the low-income policies constrain the upkeep of colonial heritage with different redevelopment. Meanwhile, the recent attempts of freed real-estate market and the incentives of foreign investment had no impact on the European zones to keep deteriorating with all types of environmental pollution. In brief, the private Insurance Plan coincided with the municipal policies to deduce the integrated governance of the colony in contrast to the current practice. Thus, the prospected autonomy potentially impacts this colonial heritage following the footprint of the historical Insurance Plan, if to be conserved.