MSDA // Photographs / M05

Overview

The following 5 galleries represent Mona Serageldin’s 35mm film slide collection on large housing projects and historic neighborhoods, primarily in the Middle East, as arranged in box M05, “Historic Districts, Qadhimiya, Babelsheikh, Jiddah Hajj, Aleppo, Rusafa, Al Azhar Renovation, New Orleans,” and consist of color and black and white photographs, as well as graphics for presentation slides.

A small portion of this collection covers examples of large housing projects. Gallery 1 consists of presentation slides for a portion of the seminar “Design, Technology, and Logistics for Large Housing Projects,” held at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts from July 23-27, 1984. Images cover a broad range of contexts, and locations included are primarily in North Africa and South and Western Asia.

The majority of this collection concerns historic districts in the context of urban development, balancing the maintenance of traditional housing and old urban fabrics with meeting ongoing human housing and infrastructure needs. Galleries 2-5 consist of visual case studies of historic districts in North Africa and Western Asia: the Bab al-Faraj quarter in Aleppo, Syria; the Rusafa and Kadhimiya neighborhoods of Baghdad, Iraq; the cities of Mecca and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; and renovations of al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo, Egypt.

Galleries

Related Materials

For more context on I2UD’s work on historic districts and housing, see relevant projects in the I2UD Digital Library:

• Design Studio 1984: “Design, Technology and Logistics for Large Housing Projects,” Seminar Curriculum (Project ID: 1984_07_001)
• “Preserving the Historic Urban Fabric in a Context of Fast Paced Change,” Research Essay by Mona Serageldin (Project ID: 1998_11_001)
• “Master Plan for the Revitalization of the Older Urban Fabric,” Preservation in the Old City of Al Qusair, Egypt (Project ID: 2000_00_002)
• “Comprehensive Plan for Makkah, Madinah and Mashaer,” Urban Development Strategy for Ancient Holy Sites in Saudi Arabia (Project ID: 2009_04_001)
• “Continuity and Change” by Dr. Mona Serageldin, Topic Paper for 48th World Congress, International Federation for Housing and Planning (IFHP) (Project ID: 2004_09_002)
• Design Studio 1984: “The Revitalization of a Traditional Urban Quarter” for the Medieval Darb al Ahmar District, Cairo, Egypt, Seminar Curriculum (Project ID: 1984_01_001)

Related image collections on housing:

• MSDA Photograph Collection M09: Housing (1981-1990)

Related image collections on historic districts:

• MSDA Photograph Collection M02: Medieval Cairo (1978-1996)
• MSDA Photograph Collection M06: Fes Medina and Tunis Hafsia (1973-1999)
• MSDA Photograph Collection M11: Poland (1995-1997)
• MSDA Photograph Collection M18: Australia and the Red Sea Region (2000)
• MSDA Photograph Collection M26: Poland, France, and Latin America (1987-2004)
• MSDA Photograph Collection M41: China (1981)

Previous Page: Latin America (M03)

Next page: Fes and Tunis (M06)

GALLERY M05-1: Seminar V Proceedings, Large Housing Projects (1984)

48 images

This gallery consists of presentation slides for the proceedings of a seminar on “Design, Technology, and Logistics for Large Housing Projects,” hosted by the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture in July 1984. Locations covered in the seminar included Algeria, India, Iraq, Malaysia, Mali, and Singapore. Images show views of housing developments and streetscapes, as well as housing plan graphics.

Gallery M05-1. MSDA: Mona Serageldin Digital Archive. Institute for International Urban Development. I2UD Digital Library. Digitized September 2021.

GALLERY M05-2: Aleppo, Syria (1990)

24 images

This gallery covers the Bab al-Faraj quarter in Aleppo, Syria from 1990. The quarter is in the northwest region of the city and had been redeveloped in the 1970s, altering the old urban fabric with high-rises and widened streets. Images include black and white photographs, three-dimensional models, and topographical plans.

Gallery M05-2. MSDA: Mona Serageldin Digital Archive. Institute for International Urban Development. I2UD Digital Library. Digitized September 2021.

GALLERY M05-3: Saudi Arabia (1988)

88 images

Photographs of the cities of Mecca and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia from around 1988. Views of Mecca show Hajj celebrations and aerial views of the city, as well as topographical maps and plans. Images of Jeddah include aerial views, views of commercial areas, and high-rise buildings. Sections on Jeddah touch on work by Abdulla Y. Bokhari on historic districts in that city.

Gallery M05-3. MSDA: Mona Serageldin Digital Archive. Institute for International Urban Development. I2UD Digital Library. Digitized September 2021.

GALLERY M05-4: Iraq (1987)

66 images

Images covering historic districts in Baghdad, Iraq from around 1987, including the neighborhoods of Rusafa and Kadhimiya. They show photographs of the mosques, housing, and streetscapes comprising the old urban fabric, as well as illustrations, three-dimensional models, and plans for developing the neighborhoods. The gallery covers some of the work of Stefano Bianca, John Warren, and Rifat Chadirji on Islamic architecture. Landmarks include al-Kazimiyya Mosque and al-Khulafa Mosque, showing architectural overviews and ornamental details.

Gallery M05-4. MSDA: Mona Serageldin Digital Archive. Institute for International Urban Development. I2UD Digital Library. Digitized September 2021.

GALLERY M05-5: Cairo, Egypt (1998)

144 images

Photographs of al-Azhar Mosque under renovation in Cairo, Egypt from around November 1998. Ongoing wear over centuries, along with damage from an earthquake in October 1992, led to deteriorating structures, requiring renovations in the late 1990s. Images in the gallery include detailed examples of deterioration in the building structure, interior and exterior views of the mosque under renovation, views of workers, and overviews of the mosque with and without scaffolding. Also pictured are Mona Serageldin and other team members on a tour of the site.

See also:

Gallery M02-7: Outskirts of Old City and Cairo Cemetery (1981-1985)

Gallery M05-5. MSDA: Mona Serageldin Digital Archive. Institute for International Urban Development. I2UD Digital Library. Digitized September 2021.

Previous Page: Latin America (M03)

Next Page: Fes and Tunis (M06)