Countless work has
been published on the phenomena of dwelling. How people inhabit spaces, seek
shelter from the elements and gather in communities is a topic of great
interest to those who design these spaces in order to fully facilitate harmony
between the space and the inhabitant. Modernism brought about a reorientation
in these ideals, a new view at dwelling. A key text to mark the end of this
movement as noted by Diane Ghirardo in her book Architecture After Modernism is the book Architecture for the Poor by Hassan Fathy.1
In his work Fathy address key changes
to the way one should think about mass housing from a design standpoint as well
as a bureaucratic one. Fathy had the opportunity to design and build a new
settlement for a group of people, the Gourni, who were at the time living among
the tombs at Luxor and making a living from grave robbing. Placing an emphasis on individuality as well
as culture and tradition, the Gourna Project had a chance for success beyond
that of typical government housing, but bureaucratic powers were startled by the
project’s attention to detail and the project was ultimately terminated for
fear of the project becoming too expensive. This paper will attempt to address
how culture, tradition, and individuality are important in mass housing and how
the lessons of Fathy could potentially be used in similar projects outside the
third world and in today’s standards.
1 Fathy, Hassan. Architecture for the Poor: An Experiment in
Rural Egypt. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976.
Ghirardo, Diane. Architecture After Modernism. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1996.
Much of the
critique about architecture has to do with specific styles, an interesting
dilemma because architects insist that their designs are not powered by styles.
However, one cannot argue that different regions, cultures, and sometimes
religions create such different designs that sometimes referring to a specific
style is the most coherent way of researching specific groups of buildings.
Also from a construction point of view, style can be helpful when attempting to
create something that fits with the regional specifics. A style can be a source
of pride for a specific culture. Egypt however, did not have a style that was
original to itself. While Egypt’s temples and palaces are studied the world
over simple domestic architecture was typically borrowed and so became a medley
of traditions from the surrounding regions, the result being a complete lack of
cultural pride by Egyptians in their architectural heritage. 2
“Tradition
is the social analogy of personal habit, and in art has the same effect, of
releasing the artist from distracting and inessential decisions so that he can
give his whole attention to the vital ones”3. Tradition
in architecture is typically given the role of public buildings and residences
because in the modern world it seems like what is coined “Traditional
Architecture” has somehow taken a back seat to the contemporary. The ease and cost
of building traditional architecture in the United States makes it the prime
choice for structures where form is less important than function and so it has
become boring without any thought to the spaces themselves. In Fathy’s work
however, a need for tradition was demanded because of the climate and
availability of building materials required that he work using the
methodologies created by his predecessors. This is a valuable lesson for
contemporary architects today. “Modernity does not always mean liveliness and
change is not always for the better” 4.
2 Fathy, Hassan. Architecture for
the Poor: An Experiment in Rural Egypt. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 1976.
3 Fathy, Hassan. Architecture for the Poor: An Experiment in Rural Egypt. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1976.
4 Fathy, Hassan. Architecture for the Poor: An Experiment in Rural Egypt. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1976.
With the world
progressing thoroughly into a global economy and the ability to have parts made
in China with materials from Germany all being assembled at a site in New York,
the architect can easily loose sight both of the intended occupant of the space
he or she has created but also the tradition for that region, until we begin to
see bland layers of technicality that lack a sense of placement and depth. “The
individual artist’s duty is to keep the tradition going, with his own invention
and insight to give it that addition momentum that will save it from coming to
a standstill, until it will have reached the end of its cycle and completed its
full development” 5.
Before the advent of the role of architect, the client would work directly with the buildings, expressing each desire and watching his wishes be carried out. The disconnect between the owner and the craftsman in modern construction has created entire neighborhoods of identical houses, row upon row. Housing for the masses is a different question entirely. How when one architect can spend several years on one home for one family just to be able to have that dwelling fit the needs of that individual family can one possibly begin to consider designing for 200,000 families? What happens then is statistics are involved and people begin to be lumped into groups based on size and age and then the designer only has to develop several designs which are then conveniently mixed about to create a dwelling site which caters to all the factors present, except that now a few families are representatives of thousands and the individuality of those thousands of families has been lost. The government funding this project is not concerned with this however. All the government sees is poor people who need roofs over their heads and not a people that need a fresh start. Because of this certain aspects begin to suffer. “The labor processes can be classified as follows: 1) creative labor; 2) technical labor; 3)administrative and organizational labor; 4) skilled labor; 5) semiskilled labor; 6) unskilled labor” 6.
5 Fathy, Hassan. Architecture for
the Poor: An Experiment in Rural Egypt. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 1976.
6 Fathy, Hassan. Architecture for the Poor: An Experiment in Rural Egypt. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1976.
Each of these
various classes is necessary to the completion of the project. Remove any one
and the project will not be completed. In order to economize then designers
often skimp on certain aspects of the overall whole. For example Creative Labor
can be drastically reduced by the previously mentioned practice of designing by
statistics and only creating a very few styles of home for very many different
families to inhabit. Technical Labor can be reduced by reducing the quality of
the home, and so on until the government funded home is bland, characterless
and damaging to the family’s health that will eventually live there.7
This is one of the primary problems
with other modern housing projects typified by the Pruitt-Igoe housing blocks
of St. Louis. On top of this the Housing Act of 1937 laid out that the goals
for public housing be “decent, safe, and sanitary”, and where these goals meant
to be the minimum guidelines they in fact became the typical plan for public
housing(Fig.1).8
How then should the dilemma of public
housing be addressed? Fathy would propose that you give each individual family
it’s necessary means to provide for itself and it would, and would do so
according to its varied and independent needs, thus producing a rich community
that was fueled off the fulfillment of their work. Examples of this do exist.
In China entire villages were created family by family underground, partly out
of material necessity and partly because by moving their dwelling underground
the ground is left open for crops to be cultivated (Fig. 3, 4, 5). The Dogons,
a people that number a quarter million that live along the plateau of Bandigara
have fashioned mud huts, the complexity of design and master planning of which
is simply incredible (Fig. 6,7).9
7
Fathy, Hassan.
Architecture for the Poor: An Experiment
in Rural Egypt. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976
8 Bauer, Catherine. “The Social Front of
Modern Architecture in the 1930s.” The Journal of the Society of Architectural
Historians, Vol. 24, No. 1 (Mar., 1965), pp. 48-52
9 Rudofsky, Bernard. Architecture
Without Architects. New York: Modern Museum of Art, 1964.
The truth of the
matter is though that this is not a viable option for the majority of the
world’s poor. The disadvantages that Fathy has in his project, the terrain,
remoteness, and climate are actually advantages to him if using this system.
The poor in a New Jersey slum would not be able to simply find ways to make
shelter aside from their typical use of refuse and given the modern drug
problems of many of the underprivileged a monetary donation by the state to
provide for materials would probably never make it to the lumber yard (Fig. 8,
9). Here lies the other advantage of Fathy’s situation, the ground. His ability
to make sufficient mud bricks on site makes this project perfect for an
exercise with the inhabitant where both share the responsibility for the
construction. While the idea is of true worth, the builder owner relationship
that he suggests needs substantial development before it can be used beyond the
Egyptian countryside. 10
The spread of the
American Ideal into areas where it has no place has proved to be very damaging
to local customs and traditions. Where Egyptian craftsman would typically
construct their millwork from pieces of smaller timbers, due to the
availability of wood, and were able to create very complex and unique patterns,
now they see pristine solid wood doors on American homes and simply copy them.
This goes back to the problem of American traditional architecture. The
creation of standardized materials, while allowing certain constructions to be
built simply, everything begins to look the same when used incorrectly. A
resurgence of craft into the built mainstream would not only provide for a much
greater complexity, it would also return jobs to the craftsman who know their
work better than anyone else.11
10 Fathy, Hassan. Architecture for
the Poor: An Experiment in Rural Egypt. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 1976
11 Fathy, Hassan. Architecture for the Poor: An Experiment in
Rural Egypt. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976
This is where modernism begins to lose some of
its design credibility. With the focus on a function driven form and a removal
of detail from structure, standardization makes perfect sense. But there can
only be so many of the typical modernist forms before they too become bland and
unappealing. In his work with New Gourna Fathy attempted on many fronts to
bring the craftsman back into the design. In his setting this was especially
wise, it was a ground to begin to convince the people who were going to be living
there to be excited about the prospects of both being able to work on their
homes and to revive certain cultural techniques that had begun to die out. This
has deep social implications. Many of the poor in third world areas such as
Egypt are so because their trade is no longer needed. If one can find a way to
revive the need for that trade and juxtapose it with a modern design technique,
tradition may be preserved while design can progress.12
Again, Fathy was lucky to have the availability of the mud and to be almost required to use it because of budget. The technique that he used in his project was revived from an ancient Nubian tradition of corbelling that was becoming harder to find. By using this material he was able to revive a lost art while taking advantage of a plentiful resource. Beyond that fact, the masons whose craft was to build these mud brick structures were so efficient that the construction of nine-hundred homes in at a rate of thirty houses per month was not unreasonable. A clear lesson can be learned her for modern design. Construction is the civilized world rarely takes the time to think about local resources and techniques and often specify certain systems and techniques that are very difficult and expensive simply because the material or the skill of that specific workforce is not available, therefore the need for outside labor and shipping of materials must be added to the budget. Knowing that in the context of the construction site there is a specific material or group with specific talents would be a great asset to any design, and as designers this must be carefully planned.13
12 Fathy, Hassan. Architecture for the Poor: An Experiment in Rural Egypt. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1976
13 Fathy, Hassan. Architecture for the Poor: An Experiment in Rural Egypt. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1976
With the
reestablishment of the relationship between the designer and the craftsman the
only party unspoken for is the owner, the inhabitant. Fathy had much difficulty
however, getting any input whatsoever from the Gourni people. This can only be
expected. A people fully content with where they are and how they live being
asked to pick up and move to a new location away from the only source of income
that they’ve ever known has no motive to move. While this may not be entirely
true for projects attempting to house people in similar situations elsewhere,
the desire to stay where one feels safe and secure, and with all the
accoutrements of home would be very difficult even if promising a well design
place to dwell. How then should the crucial party be reached, for without their
input the entire system of individualized design would be flawed. 14
In
order to make an attempt to design for the Gourni people without their input,
Fathy made two studies that he hoped would allow him to grasp a style that
would suit these people. First he made a study of the vernacular architecture
at old Gourna, making specific note of buildings with the least luxury.
Secondly, he compared his designs to the landscape, and by setting his design
to flow around the natural terrain, as well as several things of great
importance to the Gourni people, his designs began to be more tailored to the
people who would live there.15
Another
major consideration Fathy must make in order to make his houses work is the
extreme climate in northern Egypt. Passive strategies for this climate call for
large thermal masses that take a long time to heat up, but store heat allowing
it to radiate throughout the considerable cooler night. Here a mud brick
construction is the perfect material choice.16
14 Fathy, Hassan. Architecture for the Poor: An Experiment in Rural Egypt. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1976
15 Fathy, Hassan. Architecture for the Poor: An Experiment in Rural Egypt. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1976
Typical thermal massing techniques involve the
use of concrete with a transfer coefficient of .8 where mud bricks have a
coefficient of .22, thus allowing them much longer periods of heating and cooling.
Ventilation is also a key factor in this climate. Because of the dryness of the
air cooling can be achieved simply by the movement of air, therefore adequate
ventilation is mandatory.17
When designing for
maximum passive gain and ventilation orientation must be derived from the sun
and the wind. Designing for homes in large quantities like the Gourna Project
presents some interesting difficulties because of reflected radiation off of
neighbor’s houses which can sometimes be more intense than the sun itself.
Fathy in his design chose to orient the houses so that the living rooms face
south rather than north despite the harsh desert sun. He did this because while
the southern side receives the most radiation from the sun the angle at which
is impacts the south-facing wall is much greater than the angle at which
radiation impacts the north facing walls that is reflected off surrounding
homes. Any light that does directly impact the southern wall can be nearly
eliminated by the addition of an overhang to shade that elevation. The northern
façade would be designed in such a way as to allow sufficient northern breezes
to enter the building and carry the hot air up and out of clerestory windows
that would line the top of the walls which were extended an extra half story to
allow for the hot air to rise. This attention to detail, the dominance of
passive strategies seems second nature in Fathy’s work. To him it makes perfect
sense that when designing for poor who have no means to afford the extravagant
costs associated with temperature control and electric lighting, to use systems
where these luxuries are not required. At what point in modern design were
these critical details deemed unnecessary in public housing projects.18
17 Fathy, Hassan. Architecture for
the Poor: An Experiment in Rural Egypt. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 1976
18 Fathy, Hassan. Architecture for
the Poor: An Experiment in Rural Egypt. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 1976
“The rational approach was abandoned, because
it would have required open minds and a real kind of collaboration and
teamwork: architects working with engineers and social scientists, continuously
trying to find better solutions, making experiments and testing them, working
with business and government to encourage more research, experiment, and
improvement” 19 (Fig. 10). Working
at this level of detail provides many opportunities to bring those lost local
customs back into the design. One such detail the Malkaf, or wind catch, is a
chimney like element that rises above the roofline to catch cooler fresher air
and funnel it into the heart of the home. Baffles are often placed within this
airway that may be wetted to add humidity to the air and in turn cool the room.20
Fathy compares
community to a shoe. When it’s new it’s rough and awkward but with use it
breaks in and becomes comfortable. Likewise a community, through multiple
generations begins to achieve complexity through the quirks and stigmas that
imply individuality. Therefore to successfully pick up one fully functioning
community and move a deep investment in social studies must be made. Everything
must be known from the number of children each family has to knowing personal
grudges and community gossip. “The visual character of a village, like the habits
of its population may change beyond recognition while to the undiscerning eye
of the statistician it remains exactly the same. Statistics will completely
miss such vital information as how the people celebrate personal and religious
feasts. By remaining ignorant, for example, of the custom whereby anyone who
has come back from Cairo stays the first night not in his own house but in the
mayor’s madyafa, to give out news, an architect would fail to make provision
for the custom”21.
19
Bauer,
Catherine. “The Social Front of Modern Architecture in the 1930s.” The
Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Vol. 24, No. 1 (Mar.,
1965), pp. 48-52
20 Fathy, Hassan. Architecture for
the Poor: An Experiment in Rural Egypt. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 1976
21 Fathy, Hassan. Architecture for
the Poor: An Experiment in Rural Egypt. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 1976
The layout of this
new development proves to be the part of the design where an in depth knowledge
of kinship structure and local customs is most necessary. Egyptian peasant
towns are typically composed of many tightly pack homes both to protect from
hostile nature of the countryside and to preserve precious farmland from sprawl.
Preserving local custom in street design proved to be very difficult. While
typical straight lines can provide certain efficiency they are a true western
icon which has no place in the Egyptian countryside. Straight lines also bring
buildings together in parallel lines that can create monotony in the street
elevation by pressing each home together and squeezing out vegetation. In New
Gourna the homes were composed in blocks which allows for a semi private
entrance on the courtyard side while the density of each block brings a level
of urbanity to the development the complexity of which adds vibrancy to the
lifestyles of the inhabitants. Furthermore the courtyards created by these
blocks carry a local signature of the Arab world. Because of the harshness of
the ground in the desert the sky was the focal point of divine concentration to
those who inhabit this par t of the planet. The courtyard then allowed for the
house to have a central room onto which windows would open allowing the viewer
to see sky from any window in the house without having to see the ground
itself. These courtyards are the last stronghold for sanctity in the Arab home,
the addition of a fountain creates a path from harsh world outside, through a
cleansing mediator into the heart of the home. In his layout Fathy designed
each home around a courtyard and in turn each group of homes around another
courtyard with each block of homes designed for one badana, or tribe.22
22 Fathy, Hassan. Architecture for
the Poor: An Experiment in Rural Egypt. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 1976
Each badana
consists of ten or so families each centered around a central patriarch living
independently, but with strong internal ties. For example a member of one
badana would not shop for groceries at the shop of another and so forth. In
this way the courtyard was able to act as a common ground for meetings of the
entire badana on the occasion of weddings and ceremonies of the like.23
Knowing this specific kinship
structure was necessary for the success of the design for not only must each
family must have its own individualized home but each badana its own
individualized block. A designer without this knowledge could have all too
easily separated these badanas according to family and because of it the entire
development would fail because of his or her lack of understand of these social
underpinnings.24
Above and beyond
the family orientations and its requirement on layout the simple question of
subsistence became a worry for Fathy during this project. While in Old Gourna
the people were able to make a living from the scourging of tombs, the act that
was the reason for their relocation in the first place. By moving them to a new
location however and stripping them of the only income they’ve ever known this
entire people was now virtually unemployed. The new development did allocate
roughly 2,500 acres for farmland but this was only enough to grow food for
about 3,000 people leaving an excess of 3,000 still without a way to survive.25
23 Fathy, Hassan. Architecture for
the Poor: An Experiment in Rural Egypt. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 1976
24 Fathy, Hassan. Architecture for
the Poor: An Experiment in Rural Egypt. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 1976
25 Fathy, Hassan. Architecture for
the Poor: An Experiment in Rural Egypt. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 1976
Two apparent answers could potentially
relieve this problem. This first is somewhat in line with the Gournis previous
occupation which is that their location is strategically placed near the great
monuments and the ability to take advantage of tourism from these sites could
greatly help support the Gourni people. The second option while requiring a
considerably more skill is to revive culture and traditional crafts and trade
that had been lost over the years.26
Alabaster turning, blanket weaving,
construction and jewelry if reinstated into the community could be sold to
surrounding areas for enough profit to allow Gourna to not only survive but
prosper and not only would their livelihood no longer be at risk but they would
have the opportunity to maintain tradition that was being lost for future
generations.27
“The
most serious assaults on the Modern Movement had lasting impacts. Four
books
published within less than a decade signaled the forthcoming change: Jane
Jacob’s
The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961), Robert Venturi’s
Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture (1966),
Aldo Rossi’s The
Architecture of the City (1966), and Hassan Fathy’s Architecture
for the Poor
(first published as Gourna: A Tale of Two Villages, in 1969).28”
26 Fathy, Hassan. Architecture for
the Poor: An Experiment in Rural Egypt. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 1976
27 Fathy, Hassan. Architecture for
the Poor: An Experiment in Rural Egypt. Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1976
28 Bauer, Catherine. “The Social Front of Modern
Architecture in the 1930s.” The Journal of the Society of Architectural
Historians, Vol. 24, No. 1 (Mar., 1965), pp. 48-52
Architecture for the Poor is a critical text to mark the end of modernism because
Hassan Fathy’s design work is centralized around a collectiveness, a focus on
individuality but furthermore he seeks to surpass the stereotypical norm for
architectural design and begins to make serious commitments to the preservation
and fulfillment of tradition, culture and an overall desire for the wellbeing
of the humanity his architecture directly contacts.
His attention to detail moves beyond
the strive for harmony beyond form and function and begins to look at dwelling
as an organism much like the work or Le Corbusier but by design each organism
for each person a level of symbiosis begins to be achieved that is lacking in
the work of the great modernist designers.29
“Pietro Belluschi defined communal
architecture as, “” a communal art, not produced by a few intellectuals or
specialist but by the spontaneous and continuing activity of a whole people
with a common heritage, acting under a community of experience.”30
That quote summarizes the entire work
of Hassan Fathy and sets a standard that was unheard of in typical modern
design. For designers in the postwar era this is a standard that should be
strived for, to use a collective of professionals to design spaces that are
individually tailored for each inhabitant where the attention to detail leaves
nothing overlooked. From such a design process a knowledge of form should
emerge to rival that of the modernist greats.
29 Fathy, Hassan. Architecture for the Poor: An Experiment in
Rural Egypt. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976
30 Rudofsky, Bernard. Architecture Without Architects. New
York: Modern Museum of Art, 1964.
Images
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Bibliography
Bauer, Catherine. “The Social Front of Modern
Architecture in the 1930s.” The Journal of the Society of Architectural
Historians, Vol. 24, No. 1 (Mar., 1965), pp. 48-52
Fathy, Hassan. Architecture for the Poor: An Experiment in
Rural Egypt. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976.
Ghirardo, Diane. Architecture After Modernism. New York:
Thames and Hudson, 1996.
Rudofsky, Bernard. Architecture Without Architects. New York: Modern Museum of Art,
1964.
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