Our first visit to Cairo in March 2024 during Ramadan was to begin our collaboration with Cairo-based artist Huda Lutfi and to meet with urban sociologist Gerda Heck and other people to start a dialogue about how a city like Cairo can cope with the effects of global climate change. Due to the collaborative approach of our project, we were thinking, too, if the large questions for climate dignity and climate justice can be separated from local questions of social and spatial justice.

Our following visits in October and November 2024 were indeed informed by this first visit and our experiences of Ramadan Iftar, the breaking of the fast after sunset and sharing meals in the public spaces and streets of Cairo. This use of public spaces for Iftar shaped how we looked at the city — and its potential to respond to changes in structure and texture.

Below a series of photographs from our research into spaces of urban transformation, into the places and makeshift structures which are made from everyday textile objects. Their temporary space-making seems strong enough to cope with the rapid urban restructuring processes that change the fabric of the city of Cairo.