Instead, the social interest on these areas is very high. Thanks to their often bar centric

location these areas are highly strategic thus very attractive. Throughout time, these
spaces, frequently neglected, often became bearers of spontaneous social functions
never really reaching minimum standards of livability. Furthermore, the impact of
certain factors such as density, viability (or non-viability), maintenance, and pollution
on the use of these portions of the city is very negative and greatly contributes to the
contemporary perception of the metropolis as a hostile place far from the necessities
of man’s measure.
Our idea for the Egyptian pavilion on “free space” proposes the theme of redevelopment
and strategies of requalification of spontaneous commercial spaces across the entire
country. In many urban and suburban.   areas , the phenomenon of “free’; unstructured,
often abusive and illegal trading reaches such high levels that it is the predominant
element for driving the use of public space. The traditional souk confined to the narrow
streets and interstitial spaces of the historical fabric has conquered new territories. The
space of commerce extends its tentacles seamlessly along the lines of urban streams
without any apparent rule. In addition, this phenomenon is not temporary. It is not
sporadically limited
to daylight hours or few days a week. The commercial space is permanent between
buildings and roads, invading free lots, girders, underpasses, etc. In some cases, few
spaces intended for public use and leisure must be fenced off and paradoxically closed,
in order to not be invaded by the ever-expanding commercial activities. In other cases
there are real “city-markets” with specific “administrations” and self-governing tools
extending to the point of forming semi-autonomous districts within the metropolitan
territory.
Our research focused not only on some strategic spatial spheres but also on the content
that specifically activates them.