Author(s)

K. Galal Ahmed

Abstract

Government-developed residential urbanism in the developing world has not satisfied the needs of local communities. The widely adopted top-down urban development has been blamed for this problem. Alternatively, this research discusses the main traits of the ‘user-controlled’ residential urban development processes. A theoretical model for this approach has been developed. To examine the relevancy of this model to local urban communities, field investigations about the practices and attitudes of some case studies representing the prevailing residential urban contexts in Cairo, Egypt were conducted. Based on these investigations a new amended theoretical model has been initiated. This would help putting local communities, not only in Cairo but also in other cities that are sharing the same urban conditions, in the driving seat of the residential urban development processes and contribute to a more sustainable urbanism. Keywords: participation, user-controlled, residential urban development, Cairo.

Keywords

participation, user-controlled, residential urban development, Cairo