Hassan Fathy, Akil Samy House, Dahshur, Egypt, 1979

Hassan Fathy (1900-1989) is an Egyptian engineering architect and professor mostly known for his pioneering work of using appropriate technology for building in Egypt. He is a typical example of an vernacular architect.  By using adobe and other traditional materials he takes a step back from the popular internationally acknowledged western building designs. He is also known by many people for his book “architecture for the poor” where he explains his plan for building the village of New Gourna. Accomplishing this without the use of steel and concrete, because of his aversion towards these “expensive” materials. These accomplishments were rewarded in 1980 by the Aga Khan Chairman’s Award for architecture.

The Akil Sami House is a perfect example of Fathy’s work, but here he used local limestone instead of local mud-brick. Because of a governmental ban and the questionable strength of the soil he wasn’t able to use mud-brick. The design of the house is very traditional Egyptian. This is seen in the use of cupola, the windows and the pergola. There are 4 different sized cupolas. The architect opted for traditionally arched shaped windows, completed with the detailing of the stained glass windows. Inside the architect created lots of different levels, including the pergola. These levels interact with each other but still divide up the room in to smaller, more defined spaces. Also visible is the high ceilings. This gives the rooms a more vertical oriented dimension.

In the model, the difference in heights is visible, as well as the cupola and the wooden detailing of the pergola.

References

• Yari Gonbadini Mohammad – H. Fathy, Casa di Samy, 1979 – Corso di Arredamento e Architettura d’Interni 1^st year prof. Ottolini 1990-1991
• Lo Galbo Allessandro, Scudeletti Nicole – Hassan Fathy, Samy House a Dashure, Egitto 1979 – Corso di Arredamento e Architettura d’Interni 1^st year prof. Ottolini 2000/2001
• Fathy, Hassan (1976). Architecture for the Poor : An Experiment in Rural Egypt. University of Chicago
• Steele, James. 1997. An Architecture for People: The Complete Works of Hassan Fathy. London, United Kingdom: Thames and Hudson.

Authors
Fariza Kalitsova
Sarah Carpentier
Matthieu Najm