2016 Heinrich AltenmuellerHeinrich Altenmueller - RUIN ALL INCLUSIVE
The linear city on the coast

Tourism is of great importance for the Egyptian government and is their second major source of income. Since the 80ties a world of resorts are evolving along a road on the Red Sea Coast. The all-inclusive resorts open towards the sea but seclude themselves through barriers to the land. For the package tourists a perfect illusion is generated through effort, energy and discipline, which further increase in every newly built resort.
The resorts are economic manifestations and therefore have certain durability. In the older resorts the impression of an ideal world is fading. This causes larger tour operators to withdraw and may initiate a process of city making.
Following an on-site investigation of different aged resorts in Hurghada including investigations into the life of tourists, workers in and around the resorts, the process of becoming a city is exemplarily simulated on a current intact resort in New Hurghada.
It is a manifest of a synergic city, where through images a speculation of the different systems is made. Starting from the borders and its delivery roads the architecture of fantasies are turned by the workers slowly into a hybrid and finally to a world of everyday life.
This project demonstrates only a hypothetical view with different scenarios, but intends to reveal the potential of the resorts on the coast as a global and local city. What is expected as reality and materialized today by planners is questioned through visionary urbanism. Furthermore the narration acts as a tool to question the perfect idea of a resort and could be read as a guideline for upcoming planners. The question is, whether the urban future of Egypt lies in mega projects as proposed by the political elites, or rather in the developments along the coast?

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