Keywords

1 Introduction

The globalization created a competition between cities for a share in the world’s tourism, businesses, investment, and attention. Due to the fact that some cities form the economic and cultural backbone of nations, they are increasingly becoming the focus of this international competition for funds and fame through the transformation of their urban environment into a branded visual image.

A main character for urbanization for any city is its visual image, with successful urban branded spaces as one of its main elements, thus drawing tourists and residents. Urban spaces are commonly located in the center of the city, which can be a place for tourists and residents to meet and celebrate, for open markets or political events.

The identity of a place is probably synonymous with its uniqueness, character, historic context, and roots. It is crucial for city branding. Downtown living has become an important marketing tool in the city's branding. It is of utmost importance for a downtown that it retains is character. Historic buildings and neighborhoods can contribute strongly to the character of a downtown.

In this context, historic preservation can help cities retain their unique character and diversity in downtown areas, thus laying a foundation to develop their unique place brands. Simultaneously, historic areas can be used as a marketing resource for place branding.

2 Research Problem

Successful urban branded spaces are rare to find in many Egyptian cities, despite their profound importance in the formation of the urban visual image and attraction. Thus, a set of research questions were developed to help to explore the relation between the historic and valuable images and identity of the urban spaces and city branding in order to achieve the proposed framework.

These questions can be summarized as follows:

  • What are the main basic aspects for designing urban branded spaces?

  • What are the main criteria to construct urban branded spaces, especially historical urban spaces?

  • What are the attributes and concepts that show significant positive impact to improve the identity of the square and to transform the Opera Square to a branded urban space.

  • Can the strength points in the studied area (Opera Square) convert the square into an urban branded space?

3 Objectives and Hypotheses

The paper aimed to achieve a proposed framework for evaluating the level of success of Opera Square from the urban aspects to improve the identity of the square and thus enhance the branding strength of the square; as these urban spaces will be considered as a nucleus for the development of the surrounded urban area, and so improve the city branding.

4 Methodology

The research methodology is qualitative and is based on two main parts:

The first part:

Reviewing literature of the identity and unique image of urban spaces and city branding in books, scientific journals, and research projects. A theoretical framework was adopted; various qualities of branded urban spaces as suggested by the most leading urban theorists and planners are categorized into 5 main aspects that should be taken into consideration while planning to convert an urban space into an urban branded space; see Fig. 1 (Abdelaal & Hussein, 2012). The research study will focus only on the urban aspect, which includes a set of dimensions, which have a group of indicators, and each indicator will be defined through several key design concepts. These concepts were used to conduct the proposed framework.

Fig. 1
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Basic aspects for designing urban branded spaces

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The second part:

This part is based on the empirical study and includes the following steps:

  • Data collection and site documentation.

  • Data analysis of the strength and weakness points occurred in the study area.

  • Evaluation of the indicators of the urban aspects with the different urban elements in the study area.

  • Formulation of the proposed framework and the objective of the research study; see Fig. 2.

    Fig. 2
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    Second part of the research methodology

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5 City Branding: Overview and Definitions

City branding arose as a field of study in the 2000s, and today, destination branding is on the radar of most developed nations, as well as increasingly among developing countries seeking an enhanced image to attract direct investment, tourism, and trade and improve international relations. However, in recent years, branding discussions have moved toward city brands, reflecting the growing importance of cities in national and global economies and as attractors of investment and people.

Branding of a place is critical due to several reasons, most commonly to promote economic growth. This is due to the fact that a strong brand can achieve a shift in the perception of a place that has a poor image among external and internal constituents, form a vision for potential and future of the community, and enhance its local, regional, and/or international awareness and position. It can even transform unfavorable stereotypes related to a place more appealing.

Brand image is the way customers currently view a brand and signify what it currently stands for. This overall impression is a product from many sources (Vanolo, 2008).

Kavaratzis and Ashworth (2005) stated that places are brandable entities if they can be differentiatable from each other by their characteristics. Due to the intensely growing competition for investors, skilled workers, and tourists, substantial efforts to differentiate places have frequently been noticed in recent years. Hence, place branding today refers to the application of proper marketing strategies to differentiate cities and countries from the competition, regarding economic, social, political, and cultural aspects.

So from this point of view, city branding concept can be defined as “the practice of developing a strategy that underlines the value the place offers to its target publics, namely residents, workers, employers, investors, tourists, and so on” (Biçakçi, 2012).

5.1 Place Branding: Overview and Link to Identity

“Identity” is defined as the properties of an individual or group which differentiate them from others. Conversely, Urban identity is defined with natural and artificial urban elements and sociocultural characteristics of urban environments. The urban identity has 2 major components: “social” (socioeconomic, sociocultural, and psychological) and “environmental” (natural and artificial) (Örer, 1993).

Thus, place branding depends upon its identity, experience, and image. The common conception is that if the brand is not based on identity then the branding efforts can only lead to a brand “estranged” to the place, especially to its residents.

Place identity was defined as a subdivision of self-identity by environmental psychologists, consisting of cognitions about the physical world. Three main constructs that can be used to account for the psychology of place were identified by environmental psychologists: “place attachment,” “place identity,” and “sense of place” (Fig. 3).

Fig. 3
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Relation between place branding and place identity

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They also formulated a three-part definition of place: location—the geographical space providing the setting for social interactions; locale—the setting for informal and institutional social relations; and sense of place—the local set of feeling that subjectively and emotionally attaching people to places. See Fig. 4 (Knez, 2005).

Fig. 4
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A holistic approach between place branding and place identity

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6 Historic Preservation, Place Identity, and Place Branding

The focus of this part is on the identity of urban structure in the city since it aims to show the contribution of historic areas to place brand. A city should positively discriminate itself from its competitors to identify its own characteristics to be able to ensure that it becomes a competitive and effective place brand in the global marketplace. This is where a city can benefit from the preservation of its cultural heritage which in return would promote an authentic sense of place that would be a great aid to attracting the people to visit and utilize this place.

The downtown area contains the historic buildings and old long-standing inner-city neighborhoods. These provide a unique streetscape in addition to defining and shaping the new development. A healthy downtown retains its historic fabric, while simultaneously allowing new development and the retrofitting historic buildings with modern facilities. A distinctive downtown exhibits a harmonic mix between historic elements, modern facilities, and sensible rehabilitations joining preservation and modern life.

There is always a competition between preservationists and developers over downtown areas. Comprehensive historic preservation can be only guaranteed if a city government considers the integration of historic preservation plans into community master plans.

Paradoxically, historic preservation is a very modern activity, as well-preserved historic buildings can reflect a city's modern culture in addition to its ancient past. Therefore, a lot of cities nowadays try to market their cultural facilities—such as art museums and concert halls—as proof of cultural richness to lure both tourists and new inhabitants. In summary, historic city centers play a pivotal role in differentiating a city from its competitors and to highlight livability and attractiveness, thus drawing talent to the city (Brien, 2012).

7 The Basic Urban Aspects, Dimensions, and Indicators to Design a Historical Branded Urban Space

Branding of places links the urban image to the elements of the urban form, and historical and cultural identity. It aims to develop new and creative way of communicating the image of the city to the rest of the region or the world. From this point of view, the aim of this part is to find the relation between various qualities and aspects of branded urban spaces. The research will subdivide the urban aspect into several dimensions, and each dimension has a set of indicators. These indicators will be defined through a group of concepts to reach the proposed framework, as shown in Table 1 (Abdelaal & Hussein, 2012 & Hefnawy, 2018).

Table 23.1 Relation between various qualities and aspects of branded urban spaces
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8 Case Study: Opera Square

8.1 Reasons for Selecting “Opera Square”

There are many reasons for selecting Opera Square, and the most important of them are:

  • The location of the square in historic districts in Cairo’s center. It is one of the very important historic central squares in Cairo because of its historical value:

  • It directly overlooked the oldest opera house in Egypt, which had a historic, architectural, and functional value (until it was burned to the ground).

  • The square also includes the statue of Ibrahim Pasha and the Azbakiya Gardens.

The square suffers from the traffic bottlenecks, which have degraded the visual image and increased environmental pollution. Figure 5 shows the main elements and the buildings surrounded Opera Square.

Fig. 5
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Main elements of the Opera Square

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8.2 Historical Background and Urban Morphology

Opera Square and Ibrahim Pasha Square are all names of the square that witnessed one of the most important cultural and artistic renaissance features of Egypt. Built during Khedive Ismail Era, its name was changed repeatedly as it was first known as “Teatro Square” followed by “Opera Square” and later on “Ibrahim Pasha Square” after moving Ibrahim Pasha Statue from EL-Attaba Square, and finally after 23 July revolution in 1952, it returned to be “Opera Square." Figure 6 shows the basic information, accessibility, and location of the square.

Fig. 6
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Basic information and map showing location and accessibility of the Opera Square

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8.3 Site Documentation

The documentation of Opera Square was categorized into five main categories: surrounded buildings (style, color and texture, and skyline), main streets, streetscape elements, different activities, and main features of the square, as shown in Fig. 7.

Fig. 7
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Site documentation of the Opera Square

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8.4 Analysis and Evaluation

The response of Opera Square visitors was assessed through a field survey, observations (Fig. 8), and questionnaires.

Fig. 8
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Main observations at Opera Square

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A questionnaire was distributed among 30 persons of the street visitors, to evaluate the Opera Square from the urban aspect. It consisted of two main parts, where:

The first part includes:

  • Questions about the main indicators and dimensions of the urban aspects.

  • A three-point rating scale was used to answer the questions. The scale ranged from 1 to 3 (1—poor, 2—average, and 3—good). The mean values of the ratings of the questions were calculated for each indicator of the urban aspects.

  • The scale was divided into three-part score, where the first part is from 0 to 4 (poor), the second part from 5 to 7 (average), and the third part from 8 to 10.

The second part includes:

  • Three direct questions about the problems that faces the people in the square and their recommendations to improve the advantages of the square from the urban aspects.

Table 2 expresses the main points of strength and weakness in Opera Square based on the observation, while Fig. 9 evaluates the relation between the urban aspects and the different dimensions, indicators, and concepts of an historical branded urban space based on the questionnaires.

Table 23.2 Analysis of the Opera Square
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Fig. 9
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Evaluation of the relation between the urban aspects and the different dimensions, indicators, and concepts of an historical branded urban space

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9 Conclusion

The research study reached the following conclusions:

Historic preservation aims to retain a city’s real cultural assets, and with a good plan to preserve and use them appropriately, the cultural resources can significantly contribute to the city’s livability, thus helping a city to develop an effective place brand. Therefore, historic preservation can be an effective mean for branding.

The paper concluded a proposed framework which is useful in developing and enhancing a historical branded urban space. It revealed the key design aspects, dimensions, indicators, and concepts of successful historical urban branded spaces, as shown in Fig. 10.

Fig. 10
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Proposed framework of historical branded urban space

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The visual image elements of any urban space could have one or more of these characteristics: singularity (though it is unique in shape, color, proportion, surface and in contrast to its surroundings recognizable), dominance (through its size, height, and other physical characteristics improves image quality), clarity and simplicity (simple forms are easily recognizable), exposure, and unity or equivalence (elements should be in relation to each other).

Linking the visual image to the cultural, economic, social activities is of profound importance, and these activities should originate from the place and encourage its translation by different advertising elements.

Emphasize the squares identity, through using a group of buildings and landmarks, giving them a unique identity, and making the appropriate treatment for building facades overlooking these squares to fit their architectural style.

The need to link squares visually to the surrounded urban environment, by enforcing the paths and entrances leading to it.

The importance of conducting activities that are related to the history and the visual image of a place (as celebrations) and promoting its translation through various advertising methods to suit the desired branded image.