So It’s Always a Chance: Community-Led Solutions to New Urban Expansion

President Abd Al-Fatah El Sisi declared that more than 50% of urban, and rural agglomerations in Egypt are informal (Youm 7, 2016). In addition, arbitrary urbanization, and rapid population growth of urban, and rural agglomerations have increased the demand for housing, especially for low income groups. It is estimated that Egypt’s population has rose over the past decade from 72.8 million people in 2006, to 94 million people in 2017, an increase of 21.2 million people (CAPMAS, General statistics for population and housing: population census. Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics, Cairo, 2017). This population inhabited around 6% of Egyptian territory. If this trend is continued, Egypt’s population will reach more than 183 million by the year 2050, by which we will need at least one-fold of the current urban, and rural agglomerations to be added for meeting future housing demand, and various social amenities. Also, if the current housing policy, and planning trends are to be continued, it is expected that more than 50% of the future urban, and rural agglomeration will be spreading informally on adjacent agricultural land on the periphery of urban areas. This brief background leads to question the future of Egyptian urbanism, and how to tackle the spreading of urban informality. It is the time to understand how the urban poor formulated urban informality in which they secured their land tenure. If the urban patterns of low-income groups are to be remodeled, and if the informal process of cooperation among the urban poor is to be formalized, it would enhance the Egyptian built environment, and meet the official planning processes.