Hassan Fathy (Arabic: حسن فتحى) (1989-1899) was a noted Egyptian architect who pioneered appropriate technology for building in Egypt, especially by working to re-establish the use of mud brick (or adobe). The Arabic language (Arabic: ‎ translit: ), or simply Arabic (Arabic: ‎ translit: ), is the largest member of the Semitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family (classification: South Central Semitic) and is closely related to Hebrew and Aramaic. ... Appropriate technology is technology that is most appropriate to the environment and culture it is intended to support. ... Renewal of the surface coating of an adobe wall in Chamisal, New Mexico Adobe is a building material composed of water, sandy clay and straw or other organic materials, which is shaped into bricks using wooden frames and dried in the sun . ...

Fathy trained as an architect in Egypt, graduating in 1926 from the University of King Fuad I (now the University of Cairo). He designed his first mud brick buildings in the late 1930s. He held several government positions and was appointed head of the Architectural Section of the Faculty of Fine Arts, Cairo, in 1954.

Fathy was recognized with the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 1980. The Aga Khan Award for Architecture, established and funded by Aga Khan IV to recognize architectural excellence and community improvement -- including restoration efforts. ...

Fathy utilized ancient design methods and materials. He integrated a knowledge of the rural Egyptian economic situation with a wide knowledge of ancient architectural and town design techniques. He trained local inhabitants to make their own materials and build their own buildings.

Climatic conditions, public health considerations, and ancient craft skills also affected his design decisions. Based on the structural massing of ancient buildings, Fathy incorporated dense brick walls and traditional courtyard forms to provide passive cooling.

Outline of his Life

Hassan Fathy, who was born in Alexandria in 1900 and died in Cairo in 1989, is Egypt's best known architect since Imhotep. In the course of a long career with a crescendo of acclaim sustaining his later decades, the cosmopolitan trilingual professor-engineer-architect, amateur musician, dramatist, and inventor, designed nearly 160 separate projects, from modest country retreats to fully planned communities with police, fire, and medical services, with markets, schools and theatres, with places for worship and others for recreation, including many, like laundry facilities, ovens, and wells that planners less attuned to sociability might call workstations. This article needs to be updated. ... 1900 (MCM) was an exceptional common year starting on Monday. ... Modern Cairo Cairo (Arabic: ‎ translit: ) is the capital city of Egypt (and previously the United Arab Republic) and has a metropolitan area population of approximately 15. ... 1989 (MCMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Architect at his drawing board, 1893 An architect is a person involved in the planning, designing and oversight of a buildings construction. ... Imhotep, the one who comes in peace Imhotep (sometimes spelled Immutef, Imhotep, or Ii-em-Hotep, Egyptian ii-m-ḥtp) was a wizard, and the first architect and physician known by name to written history. ... Look up Career in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The term cosmopolitan refers to an individual who retains cultural roots in his or her country of origin, yet has adopted a wide taste for other cultures, and so lives both a local and global life. ... For other uses, see Fire (disambiguation). ... See drugs, medication, and pharmacology for substances that are used to treat patients. ... school, see School (disambiguation). ...

Although the importance of Fathy's contribution to world architecture became clear only as the twentieth century waned, his contribution to Egypt was obvious decades before, at least to outside observers. As early as halfway through his three building seasons at New Gourna (a town for the resettlement of tomb robbers, designed for beauty and built with mud) the project was being admired abroad. In March 1947 it was applauded in a popular British weekly, half a year later in a British professional journal, and praise from Spanish professionals followed the next year. A year of silence (1949, when Fathy published a literary fable) was followed by attention in one French and two Dutch periodicals, one of which made it the lead story. Please wikify (format) this article as suggested in the Guide to layout and the Manual of Style. ... A professional provides a service in exchange for payment in accordance with established protocols for licensing, ethics, procedures, standards of service and training/certification. ...

Fathy's next major engagement, designing and supervising school construction for Egypt's Ministry of Education, further extended his leave from the College of Fine Arts, where he had begun teaching in 1930. In 1953 he returned, heading the architecture section the next year. In 1957, frustrated with bureaucracy and convinced that buildings would speak louder than words, he moved to Athens to collaborate with international planners evolving the principles of ekistical design under the direction of Constantine Doxiadis. He served as the advocate of traditional natural-energy solutions in major community projects for Iraq and Pakistan and undertook, under related auspices, extended travel and research for a "Cities of the Future" program in Africa. Several countries have government departments named the Ministry of Education Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (Japan) Ministry of Education (India) Ministry of Education (New Zealand) Ministry of Education (Israel) Ministry of Education (Malaysia) Ministry of Education (Singapore) See also: Minister of Education, Department of Education This is... The College of Fine Arts Logo The College of Fine Arts (COFA) is the creative arts wing/campus of the University of New South Wales and is located on Oxford Street, Paddington, Sydney, Australia. ... Bureaucracy is a concept in sociology and political science. ... Athens (Greek: Αθήνα, Athína (IPA: )) is the capital of Greece and one of the most famous cities in the world, named after goddess Athena. ... Cities of the Future is a 12 and a CD single by the Israeli psychedelic trance duo Infected Mushroom. ... Africa is the worlds second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia. ...

Returning to Cairo in 1963, he moved to Darb al-Labbana, near the Citadel, where he lived and worked the rest of his life in the intervals between speaking and consulting engagements. As a man with a riveting message in an era searching for alternatives, in fuel, in personal interactions, in economic supports, he moved from his first major international appearance at the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Boston in 1969, to multiple trips per year as a leading critical member of the architectural profession. His book on Gourna, published in a limited edition in 1969, became even more influential in 1973 with its new English title Architecture for the Poor. His professional mission increasingly took him abroad. His participation in the U.N. Habitat conference in 1976 in Vancouver was followed shortly by two events that significantly shaped the rest of his activities: he began to serve on the steering committee for the nascent Aga Khan Award for Architecture, and he founded and set guiding principles for his Institute of Appropriate Technology. Modern Cairo Cairo (Arabic: ‎ translit: ) is the capital city of Egypt (and previously the United Arab Republic) and has a metropolitan area population of approximately 15. ... 1963 (MCMLXIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (the link is to a full 1963 calendar). ... This article is about a type of fortification. ... Founded in 1994, Alternatives, Action and Communication Network for International Development, is a non-governmental, international solidarity organization based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. ... Fuel is a material with one type of energy which can be transformed into another usable energy. ... The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an organization that promotes cooperation between scientists, defends scientific freedom, encourages scientific responsibility and supports scientific education for the betterment of all humanity. ... 1969 (MCMLXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1969 calendar). ... 1969 (MCMLXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1969 calendar). ... 1973 (MCMLXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday. ... 1976 (MCMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1976 calendar). ... Vancouver (pronounced ) is a Canadian city in the province of British Columbia. ... The Aga Khan Award for Architecture, established and funded by Aga Khan IV to recognize architectural excellence and community improvement -- including restoration efforts. ...

Briefly married to Aziza Hassanein, he left no direct descendants, but the children of his five brothers and sisters, aware of the obligation to preserve the heritage of an uncle of such imposing stature, have taken pains to ensure that the materials transmitting his ideals and his art will remain available in Egypt, for the future benefit of the country for which he cared so deeply.

Sources

Hassan Fathy. Architecture for the Poor : An Experiment in Rural Egypt. University of Chicago Press, March 1976. ISBN 0226239160

Hassan Fathy, Walter Shearer (Editor). Natural Energy and Vernacular Architecture : Principles and Examples, With Reference to Hot Arid Climates. University of Chicago Press, September 1986. ISBN 0226239179

James Steele. An Architecture for People : The Complete Works of Hassan Fathy. Whitney Library of Design, October 1997. ISBN 0823002268

External links

• Biography and images of Fathy's architecture

• Hassan Fat'hy website

• Outline of his life