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 VISION

 

Hassan Fathy's Architectural Philosophy

Dedication

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To my wife, five children and extended family

Content

Acknowledgment                                                                         

Introduction                                                                                  

Chapter 1The Ideology of the Modern Movement            

Chapter 2 Modernism and the Developing Countries         

1. Modernism and Third World Countries     
2. Modernism and Religious Buildings     
3. The Phenomenon of Universality     

 Chapter 3 Mid-Twentieth Century Architecture                 

1. Vernacular Architecture and Regionalism
2. Postmodern Architecture                 
3. Eco-Sustainable Architecture     
4. Earth Architecture     
5. Community Architecture                             

Conclusion                                                                                 

Appendix 1 Chronology of Fathy’s Life and Career             

Appendix 2 Awards, Affiliations Conference sand Competitions

Appendix 3 Glossary                                                             

List of Illustrations                                                                    

Bibliography                                                                                                              

Acknowledgements

This book would not have been possible without the help and support of several people. I would especially like to acknowledge the Aga Khan Trust for Culture for their kind permission to use Hassan Fathy’s archive. I owe more than mere thanks can express to my dear wife Mervat El-shafie, thank you for your love, insight, and faith. To my five children Marwa, Mona, Maha, Engy and Ahmed, as well as my extended family, Ashraf Zaki and Ahmed Tolba, thank you for your sincere love and caring.

Introduction

The Egyptian architect Hassan Fathy (1900-1989), was one of the early architects whose architectural philosophy and theory have contributed to many of the main themes running through the development of the twentieth architecture. Fathy remains a profoundly important figure, partly because of the way in which his work mirrors the complexity of those cultural, traditional, and socio-economic changes that have taken place during the second half of twentieth century. The sheer span of time involved in Fathy’s career, from 1927 to 1989, makes the study of his architecture fascinating as well as challenging. Fathy’s career encompassed the development of modern architecture and the International Style from the 1930s to the 1970s, as well as the formulation of the Postmodern Movement from the 1970s onward. The intention here is not to examine these diverse aspects of recent architecture in detail but to demonstrate the range of architectural approaches that have drawn inspiration from Fathy’s example.

 

Without question, Fathy was one of the most significant architects of modern times and he deserves to be seen as a figure comparable in importance to architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius and Mies van der Rohe. The fact that Fathy’s architecture stands largely in opposition to that of the leaders of the modern movement in no sense reduces his significance. However, his ability to resist the pervasive influence of modernism is a measure of his standing within twentieth-century architecture. It is also significant that Fathy’s international standing as an architect began to increase at the same time as the contributions of the leading figures of modernism began to be subjected to greater critical scrutiny.

 

The most important contribution of Fathy to twentieth century architecture probably lies in his commitment to regionalism. He pulled together a collection of traditional positions and tendencies towards vernacular forms as well as a celebration of local materials and methods of construction. Fathy’s architecture and philosophy also focused attention on particular architectural approaches and themes within scholarly debate and helped bring them onto the architectural agenda. These are earth architecture, self-help building and community architecture and sustainability. Fathy raised questions of entirely different movements and tendencies and his work and philosophy represented a central element in the critical issues and evolution of twentieth century architecture.

 

More has probably been written about the architecture of Fathy than about any other contemporary Egyptian or Arab architect. Although, Fathy’s architecture occupied a curious position in the Islamic world, his reputation spread internationally after the publication of his Architecture for the Poor (1973). Fathy’s book summed up his philosophy and critical views of twentieth-century architecture and contributed to an understanding of his contribution to architecture. Architecture for the Poor was extensively reviewed in the western architectural press, and has remained in print ever since. The significance and complexity of his philosophy was the subject of several monographs, which focused on an appraisal of Fathy’s place in Arab-Egyptian culture in specific, as well as in the international context. The majority of the written materials about Fathy have generally expanded knowledge of Fathy’s ideas and works but they tend to examine these in isolation, and do not consider Fathy’s role in the development of twentieth century architecture as a whole.

 

Other books have drawn attention to Fathy’s influence on the younger generation, but they were mainly limited to Arab architects and make no reference to his influence on Western architects. However, the purpose of this book is to deepen our understanding of Fathy’s approach to design, his place within the larger context of twentieth-century architecture, and the changing perception of his works and philosophy of design. It assesses the complexity of Fathy’s architecture and the richness and range of its intentions. It also examines his attitudes towards modernism and the International Style as well as issues such as auto-colonialism and symbolism in architecture and critical responses to his works and philosophy. The relationship of his philosophy to recent movements, including Post-modernism, community architecture and self-help building, eco-architeture and sustainability, along with tendencies such as neo-vernacular and earth building, are also examined.

Chapter 1

 

THE IDEOLOGY OF THE MODERN MOVEMENT

 

Beyond the evident typology in Fathy’s buildings and the guiding architectural principles which were pioneered through his work, his architecture was shaped by a conceptual framework which developed an understanding of contemporary responses to modern environmental, urban and societal conditions of existence. Fathy’s approach was a transformation of a prevalent modern architecture language to a social metaphor evoking honesty, efficiency, and availability. Fathy’s vision of architecture also extended beyond the utilitarian and the mundane towards its ability to shape people’s lives and contribute to their sense of identity. His concept was that the more people are involved in creating their environment, the more healthy they would be physically and psychologically. This was the standpoint of Fathy’s architecture as well as the basic tenant of his beliefs, which James Richards believed “was in advance of his time”.

 

The way in which Fathy pronounced the inadequacy of the ideology of modernism in fulfilling human needs attracted the attention of the architectural profession worldwide. By questioning the relevance of modernist solutions to the developing world Fathy not only called attention to the limited range of solutions that modernism was able to offer, but also drew international attention to the larger economic, social and cultural objectives which twentieth-century architecture needed to address. Fathy, in fact, gave a voice to the architectural concerns of a vast number of people for whom modern western architecture remained both alien and ultimately irrelevant. 

 

Unlike many of his peers in the twentieth century, Fathy repeatedly questioned the basic assumptions of modern architecture. He continuously re-evaluated the role of the architectural profession, while questioning both the intentions of architectural movements and their cultural relevance in the broader sense. Fathy believed that European and American “New Architecture” and “ubiquitous mass production erodes… culture and environment in the Third World”. He always regarded modernism as a destructive power that helped to reduce the world to a hollow sameness. Fathy argued that his ideas differ from those of modernist architects and believed that one should “differentiate between what is constant and what is arbitrary and spontaneous”. Fathy argued that, one must not drop the constant in life. However, if man were to change every single minute, he would be lost and become without reference to the past. Fathy argued that, once a man loses standards of reference, chaos follows.

 

Fathy’s insistence on restoring traditional values led many architects and critics to regard him as living out a romantic dream in a world of his own, a perception that was tellingly summarised by Prince Charles: “for forty years [Fathy] has had to put up with persistent vitriolic criticism and denigration by the modernist architectural establishment because he continued to espouse the cause of traditional Islamic architecture”. Many academics believe that Fathy’s traditional approach and his style seem out of tune with the prosperous economies and internationalism of large cities and suggest that it is only appropriate to development in rural areas.

 

Critics have also assumed that Fathy is unquestioningly opposed to all that it is modern. In an interview with Fathy, Yorick Blumenfeld suggested that Fathy’s condemnation of modernism was “nostalgia for the past” and wondered if someone “can move backwards”. Fathy believed that one cannot go backwards, but should “bring back the old architecture and move forward”. “I feel the old architecture has value, so why should I change it?” Fathy explained that if new ideas proved better than the old, then architects “may

Imprint

Publisher: BookRix GmbH & Co. KG

Publication Date: 08-24-2019
ISBN: 978-3-7487-1367-8

All Rights Reserved