Fathy also overshadows his colleague Ramses Wissa Wassef (who like Fathy engaged with the question of vernacular architecture and perhaps was more successful in balancing modern practicality with vernacular identity without falling in the trap of essentialism).įinally, one of Egypt’s most influential architects of the modern period, Mustafa Fahmy, will never make an appearance in a Western curriculum of the history of modern architecture nor in an Egyptian exhibit, yet Hassan Fathy might. It is difficult to fully comprehend why Hassan Fathy overshadows his contemporaries like Ali Labib Gabr, Antoine Selim Nahas, Mahmoud Riad, who had successful practices, built many buildings and engaged in current discourses. Despite this underwhelming record, Fathy’s oeuvre is celebrated in the West as an example of “other/vernacular modernism” and is celebrated in Egypt mostly by his students as authentic modernity/spirited continuity with the past. With the exception of a mausoleum and few private homes, his ideas printed in his “Gourna, tale of two villages have failed to produce any practical solutions for Egypt’s urban and housing problems. Critically looking at Cairo and Alexandria reveals that they don’t have examples of Fathy’s architecture and ideologies. It focuses mainly on the actual impact of the works of Hassan Fathy and whether it really impacted the "man on the ground"ĭebate has been raging on whether Fathy actually left a mark on Egypt’s urban centers. The article tries to delve into the idea of why Hassan Fathy perhaps emerged as a solitary force in sustainable architecture for the poor in Egypt's New Gourna and perhaps why the resulting force was concentrated on New Gourna as an upcoming urban context and critically shunned Alexandria as a neighboring father town. In this article originally published by The Cairo Observeras Hassan Fathy: Architecture For The Rich, there is a critical re-look and rework of the principles and philosophies of Hassan Fathy's work in New Gourna and his deliberates vis a vis personal ideologies.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |