Tahrir square rehabilitation

Tahrir square is a part of daily life for many Egyptians. It is a major downtown square surrounded by important governmental headquarters and major cultural institutions. For tourists, Tahrir is the locale of the famed Egyptian museum; for some Cairenes, it is the destination for official state business, for many others it is one of the over congested places of downtown Cairo to be avoided. But what cannot be avoided is that Tahrir square had come to symbolize the failure of the urban planning policies carried out during the three decade rule of Hosni Mubarak. A regime that supported laws and actions that sharply limited Egyptians access to public spaces- to places where people meet, talk, and interact. On 25th January 2011 people from all over occupied the square. A revolution was born and the square became the free people’s republic of Tahrir. During these days Tahrir square had been transformed not only into a social and public space but also into the biggest spontaneous event community- organizing and nation- building the country had ever seen. Diversity was most noticeable in the square. And by celebrating diversity the rehabilitation of the square should occur. The rehabilitation of this unique place should gain its strength from the spontaneously generated cross programming that is happening there, and by the diversity of people it attracts. What needs to be done is to provoke intense and positive reactions in people; to allow accidents to happen; to make opportunism work.