City of Arts and Culture
New Cairo Capital
The project for Egypt’s future administrative capital, announced in 2015 and now in advanced stages of construction, was conceived with the aim of relieving congestion in Cairo and creating the best conditions to host the country’s main institutions: a new city where over six million people will live. In this context, the City of Arts and Culture has been developed, an urban complex designed to house theaters, museums, libraries, universities, and, more broadly, cultural facilities, as well as other activities, covering an area of over 500,000 square meters.
Brand architecture and brand design.
The synthesis of history and contemporaneity
The integration and synthesis of history, institutional significance, and contemporaneity form the foundation of the icon-symbol created for the City of Arts and Culture. The eagle of Saladin has been stylized, depicted in flight with its shadow cast in a shape that references the most famous Egyptian architecture in the world: the pyramids. The reference to the gold and black flag colors further aligns the project with institutional visual codes. The chosen typeface, ‘Cairo,’ is a tribute to the new capital.
The shadow element becomes a recurring motif that forms colorful patterns or a sort of frame, surrounding and organizing the images of the cultural program.
Signage & wayfinding design: orientation hierarchies
An urban area of over 500,000 square meters required orientation tools. Inarea created the map, all the totems, and on-site signage elements, following a hierarchy with a simple and orderly style to allow for the juxtaposition of the Arabic and Latin alphabets.
