Dictionary of islamic architecture

See also:
Mughals
Further reading:
M.Brand and G.D.Lowry, 
Akbar’s India: Art from the
Mughal City of Victory,
New York 1985.
—— 
Fatehpur Sikri,
Bombay 1987.
S.A.A.Rizvi, 
Fatehpur Sikri,
New Delhi 1972.
S.A.A.Rizvi and V.J.Flynn, 
Fatehpur Sikri,
Bombay 1975.
G.H.R.Tillotson, 
Mughal India,
Architectural Guides for
Travellers, London 1990.
Fathy, Hassan
Egyptian architect noted for his use of traditional materials
to build modern Islamic structures.
Born in 1900 the son of a wealthy landowner Hassan
Fathy was brought up in Cairo, Alexandria and
Europe. He studied architecture at the University of
Cairo whence he graduated in 1926. In 1927, on his
first visit to one of the family estates, he was shocked
by the terrible living conditions of the poor and
resolved to find a way to house the poor reasonably.
He also conceived a love for the Egyptian
countryside which was to motivate him for the rest
of his life. He realized that imported western material
and technology was too expensive and inappropriate
for rural housing in Egypt. Instead Fathy thought
that mud brick, the traditional building material of
Egypt, should be used in modern constructions.
Although he realized that traditional designs were
sometimes too cramped and dark for modern
Plan and section of Diwan-i Khass, Fatehpur Sikri
Fathy, Hassan

---

85
housing, Fathy argued that this was not the fault of
the material.
In 1937 Fathy held exhibitions of his work at
Mansoura and Cairo which resulted in several
commissions from wealthy patrons. However, these
buildings were quite expensive and relied on timber
for their flat roofs. With the outbreak of the Second
World War and the resulting shortage of timber, he
had to find a new method of roofing his houses. On
a visit to Upper Egypt Fathy noticed that the Nubian
villages were roofed with mud brick vaults produced
without wooden centring. The method used was to
lean the bricks against an end wall so that all the
bricks leant against each other. Fathy employed the
local Nubian builders and undertook several projects
using these workers. The most important of these
projects was the Nasr House in Fayyum and the
tourist rest-house at Safaga.
In 1946 Fathy was approached by the
Department of Antiquities who wanted to move the
people of Gurna in western Luxor out of the ruins
of ancient Thebes where they had been living. The
Gurnis had been living in the ancient Necropolis
for several generations and some lived in the tombs
themselves. Nevertheless, the Department of
Antiquities issued a decree stating that they wanted
the 7,000 people moved to a new settlement which
was to be designed by Fathy. The settlement was to
contain homes for 1,000 families and include public
buildings like a mosque, a covered market, schools
and a theatre. The houses were built around
courtyards and arranged in neighbourhood groups
which had access to the main streets. Although built
with traditional materials Fathy made use of earth
scientists and structural and mechanical engineers
to improve his designs and ensure that they
worked. Part of the project was to involve the future
inhabitants in the construction, both as a cost-saving
measure and so that they were not alienated from
their new housing.
However, the project faced considerable
difficulties in implementation through the
Mosque designed by Hassan Fathy, New Gurna, Egypt
Fathy, Hassan

---

86
opposition of some of the Gurni Sheikhs and the
slow-moving bur-eaucracy of the Egyptian
Antiquities Department.
In addition there was general suspicion of a
project which involved traditional materials at a time
when Modernism was seen as the only way to build.
In the end only one-fifth of the project was completed
and some parts of the village like the khan and the
craft centre remain unused. Nevertheless, the
mosque is well used and maintained and the
Department of Antiquities has restored the theatre,
belatedly realizing the value of Fathy’s work. Despite
the difficulties New Gurna showed the potential of
mud-brick architecture and the value of training
people in traditional techniques.
Other important projects carried out by Fathy in
the 1950s were at Lu
luat al-Sahara in the Nile Delta
and the village schools project. At Lu
lat al-Sahara
houses were built in pairs, together with a mosque
and a school. The village schools project involved
Fathy in designing a school which was to be the
prototype for village schools throughout Egypt. The
design consisted of domed rooms opening on to
courtyards with ventilation shafts to cool the
interior during the summer. Unfortunately only two
of the schools were built, one at Fares and the other
at Edfu.
In 1957 Fathy left Egypt for several years to work
for an architectural firm in Athens specializing in
the Middle East, and during this time he designed a
traditional housing scheme in Iraq. In the early 1960s
Fathy returned to Egypt where he undertook two
further major projects, a training centre in the Nile
Valley and a new town in the Kharga oasis.
Unfortunately the training centre was subsequently
destroyed because of its bad location and the town
known as New Bariz was abandoned because of the
1967 war.
In the 1970s Fathy began writing books about his
work which were highly successful in universities
throughout the world where the appeal of
Modernism was wearing off. He showed that it was
possible to design and build desirable residences and
functional buildings which respected the traditional
values of a culture and were also cheap. Since the
1970s Fathy’s work in Egypt was concentrated on
private houses and commissions. These buildings
were constructed with increasingly sophisticated
designs based on harmonic units of measurement
derived from the dimensions of the human body.
Probably the most important recent commission was
for a Muslim community in New Mexico known as
Dar al-Salam and built in 1981.