This series tries to document the hybrid urban landscapes that are taking shape in Mumbai and Cairo, two rapidly growing metropolises that are invading and cannibalizing their own landscapes , in the attempt of building the premises of their future as world class cities. Far from ignoring the difficulties to keep up with the pressure that comes from fast urbanization, this series tries to document the contrasts and paradoxes that arose from this kind of development. The metropolises do not grow and densify progressively: they subsume rural areas and transform them into highly urbanized territories with features of outstanding verticality and density, and there are no intermediate steps. The lush Indian forest and the Egyptian desert lie directly next to high rise buildings, and the ensuing hybrid landscapes frequently end up exhibiting post-apocalyptic looks rather than the comfortable, safe and affordable dream-life promised in the real estate billboards. On the other end, developers are feeding an enormous construction boom in the inner city which is turning older neighborhoods, which are often homegrown, lively and human-scaled into ordered but controlled, modern but exclusive quarters. What may look like an aesthetic or economic contrast only, may hide a crucial issue for contemporary urbanism: cities can be at the same time a device of social and cultural integration or a device of separation and marginalization. The tendency towards one of the two extremes is related to the physical characteristics, the functions and the uses that urban space assumes. This clash between the mainstream image of the contemporary megalopolis made of shining high-rises and the lesser acknowledged spatial reality of many, if not most, of its inhabitants, is not occurring only in Mumbai and Cairo; rather, it is a common feature of many cities around the world. More and more often deep socio-economic conflicts are rooted in the quest for urban space, which has turned into a low-intensity but daily battlefield. Urbano Urbani & Mina Ameen