STORY 01
DINOCRATE
Ideas last. Ideas change lives for years and years. Every single time we wander the streets of a pre-planned city, we are experimenting with the dreams of someone else. There is a good dream and there is also an incubus (nightmare). Or maybe both exist in one vision. Is Alexandria a good dream, or a bad one? Do we have the liberty to question a 2000-year-old dream? I guess yes. This dream is shaping my reality. Or maybe I am the one who changes the dream. I wish we, the architects, would taste what we cook… Our dreamer was Dinocrates, being not an Alexandrian did not prevent him from building what he had imagined was good for me. Dinocrates drew very linear and very long streets which does not fit my nature. I wish he would have consulted me before he envisioned my city. I would have told him “Dino, look, I totally understand you but, Alexandrians prefer short streets whether angular or curved, they make us happier. Oh, God! Look what you have done! Do you know how they misuse your design now? They drive very fast, pollute my air and in the end, they fight together. Dino, are you happy now? I can not find any space just to walk because of the cars. Dino, yesterday, I was passing by the street that is named after you in Azaritta. Can you imagine that it is full of coffee shops! They arrange their tables and chairs in the street itself. Will you remain silent?”… I had a dream.
Mohamed gohar 