Hassan Fathy: An Architectural Life

Leila el-Wakil teaches the history of architecture and architectural conservation at the University of Geneva."

Introduction by Leila el-Wakil From `sidereal emptiness' to fertile ground: an `appropriate' architect `Guru' and polymath The right critical distance The state of the matter Multiple authors throwing light on Hassan Fathy 1. Education and training by Leila el-Wakil The apogee of studies the Western way 2. A family passion for music by Jessica Stevens-Campos Fathy, the musician and music lover Muhammad Fathy and oriental music Architecture through the prism of Western classical music 3. The first commissions by Leila el-Wakil The Talkha school project (1928) The early years, in collaboration with Ahmad Hosni Omar Project for the Azmi Building in Zamalek The Bosphore Casino Project for Hassan Pasha Madkour (1934) An exhibition pavilion for a tobacco company (1937) The other modern houses From the Hayat Muhammad Villa (1938) to the Hussein Farid izba (1941) 4. The early steps of a `romantic' in a liberal Egypt by Mercedes Volait The first drawings Egyptian modernism Revolutionising rural architecture 5. The qa`a and the Arab house by Leila el-Wakil The shift towards the `inward-looking' house: the qa`a, the centrepiece of the typology Fathy's art de vivre: refined ambiguity Cairo houses in the years around 1950 The Neo-Mamluk house of Tusun Abu Gabal Two villas for Aziza Hassanein (1938 and 1949) Compositional eclecticism 6. The arts and craftsmanship by Nadia Radwan Hassan Fathy: an `artist'? Fathy and Habib Gorgi: architecture without architects and schools without teachers Fathy and Ramses Wissa Wassef: art and craft at the heart of the model village The `Friends of Art and Life' and Hamed Said's `eco-studio' From Gourna to the `House of the Arts': Fathy among Artists 7. Colourful reveries by Ola Seif The pre-Gourna phase The Gourna phase Post-Gourna The paintings of a fantasist visionary, an architect or a dreamer? 8. Envisioning architecture by Ahmad Hamid 9. The great transformation of the Egyptian peasantry by Samir Radwan 10. The model izba by Leila el-Wakil Literary renewal Architectural renewal and model villages The Fathy family farms (late 1930s) Mud brick : the modern invention of a `heaven-sent' material The model farm experiments at Bahtim The Anhouri farm project at Mazghouna The writings of Mirrit Boutros-Ghali A model farm for the Fayoum Real Estate Corporation (1943) Izbat al-Basri (1945) Hafiz Afifi and Lulu'at al-Sahara (1950) 11. New Gourna by Leila el-Wakil The tools of the model village's invention New Gourna: the African Hellerau Using tradition to build the present The project's launch and failure The projects to save Gourna 12. A narrative in the form of a sonata by Jessica Stevens-Campos Prelude: Dream and Reality Chorale: Man, Society, and Technology Fugue: Architect, Peasant, and Bureaucrat Finale: Gourna Dormant 13. The villages of the fellahs by Leila el-Wakil Plans for an Institute for Ruralism The Kom Ombo rehousing project Harraniya: from the Ramses Wissa Wassef Art Centre (begun 1952) to Fathy's renovation project for the village (1964) New Bariz, the masterpiece brought down by the Six-Day War An attempted collaboration with the United Nations: the development of the oasis of Dar`iya The concept of the vegetable-garden village for Sohar The Sadat Village in Aswan 14. Choisy / Fathy: from constructive rationalism to bioclimatic architecture by Joseph Abram Tradition/Construction Physical environment / Materials Solar protection / Ventilation 15. Clarke / Fathy: reviving traditions by Nicholas Warner The antiquarian and preservationist The influence of Coptic architecture The Use of Mud Brick Buildings for archaeologists A new vernacular architecture? 16. Doxiadis Associates: the nerve centre by Camille Abele First encounters and exchanges The Doxiadis Associates firm Two characters face to face Greater Mussayib Residential blocks and a neighbourhood for New Baghdad (1959) Korangi: a model extension