Global Ecovillage Network/Solution Library/Hassan fathy architecture

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An architect can technically learn everything concerning the construction of vaults and domes in the so-called Hassan Fathy style, within a few weeks. However, 10 years with Hassan Fathy, (and many years after), were still not enough to fully learn what architecture, according to Hassan Fathy, is all about; there is still so much to learn about Harmony, Musicality in Architecture, Culture, Economy, Environment, Climate, Beauty and above all Gratitude and Dignity and Self-realization.

Hassan Fathy, an Egyptian architect saw the value of natural building long before it became popular in the west.

Egyptian architect Hassan Fathy died in 1989 but left behind a legacy of 160 building projects ranging from small projects to large-scale communities complete with mosques and schools. Hassan Fathy is the most famous of the Egyptian Architects, who used traditional materials, means of construction, and vernacular styles in his search for an inexpensive form of architecture for the poor.

His projects are based on the use of a narrow range of forms made from morphological and structural elements taken from tradition: parabolic arches, square spaces covered with domes, rectangular rooms or narrow spaces with vaults, courts, balconies and wind towers (Fantone 2003). Both for the value he attributed to manual work, and for economical and ideological reasons, he resorts, to traditional techniques that drastically reduce the use of machinery and exploit materials that are readily and cheaply available: earth, straw, manual labour, stones.

The brick is, in fact, the only material used in his works. The supporting walls are made either of sun dried bricks made of mud and reinforced with straw (adobe), or of local stones, or fired bricks. Finally, Hassan Fathy respected that nature should take precedence in the design of new structures.

“Architectural form should consider the forces in nature of wind, rain, even how an earthquake shaking it would make it fall in a pattern that follows the geological formation of a mountain,” he once wrote.

We can develop or innovate on the design concept of a project, but on the other hand, I believe that the philosophy of Hassan Fathy in architecture is already entire, and one can only try to understand it more and more.

• Green Building.