Hassan Fathy
| Hassan Fathy | |
|---|---|
Hassan Fathy on the right
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| Born |
March 23, 1900 Alexandria, Egypt |
| Died | November 30, 1989 (aged 89) Cairo, Egypt |
| Nationality | Egyptian |
| Occupation | Architect |
| Awards |
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Hassan Fathy (1900–1989, Egyptian Arabic: حسن فتحي) was a noted Egyptian architect who pioneered appropriate technology for building in Egypt, especially by working to reestablish the use of adobe and traditional as opposed to western building designs and lay-outs. Fathy was recognized with the Aga Khan Chairman's Award for Architecture in 1980. In 2017, Google celebrated Fathy with a Google Doodle for "pioneering new methods [in architecture], respecting tradition, and valuing all walks of life".
Hassan Fathy was born in Alexandria in 1900. He trained as an architect in Egypt, graduating in 1926 from the King Fuad University (now Cairo University).
Hassan Fathy was a cosmopolitan trilingual professor-engineer-architect, amateur musician, dramatist, and inventor. He designed nearly 160 separate projects, from modest country retreats to fully planned communities with police, fire, and medical services, markets, schools, theatres, and places for worship and recreation. These communities included many functional buildings such as laundry facilities, ovens, and wells. He utilized ancient design methods and materials, as well as 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.
He began teaching at the College of Fine Arts in 1930 and designed his first adobe buildings in the late 1930s. Fathy gained international critical acclaim for his involvement in the construction of Kurna, located on Luxor's West Bank, built to resettle the tomb robbers that operated in the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens. This project was applauded in a popular British weekly in 1947 and soon after in a British professional journal; further articles were published in Spanish, French and in Dutch.
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