Hassan Fathi (March 23, 1900 - November 30, 1989) was a prominent Egyptian architect. He was born in Alexandria, and graduated from the Engineer Khanate (currently the Faculty of Engineering) at Fouad I University (currently Cairo University). He was famous for his unique architectural style, which derived its sources from Nubian rural architecture built with mud bricks and from houses and palaces in Old Cairo in the Mamluk and Ottoman eras. Gourna, which he built to accommodate 3,200 families, is part of the history of popular construction, which he founded in what is known as the architecture of the poor.

An international professor of three languages, an engineer, an amateur musician, a playwright, and an inventor, he designed nearly 160 separate projects, ranging from modest country retreats to fully planned communities with police, medical services, markets, schools, theatres, squares, and places of worship, entertainment, and rest. These communities included many buildings. He used ancient design methods and materials, in addition to knowledge of the economic situation in the Egyptian countryside with extensive knowledge of architectural design techniques and ancient cities. He trained the local people to make their own materials and build their own buildings as well.

Fathi began teaching at the Faculty of Fine Arts in 1930. He received many international acclaim for his participation in the construction of the Korea, which is located on the western side of the city of Luxor. The reason for the construction was the resettlement of thieves who were accustomed to robbing tombs in the Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens. This happened. The work received much praise in the well-known British weekly in 1947. Shortly after, this work also received praise in the British Professional Journal, and many articles talking about this project were published in other languages, such as Spanish, French, and Dutch. In 1953, Fathi returned to Cairo. He headed the architectural department of the Faculty of Fine Arts in 1954.

Hassan Fathi participated in designing and supervising the construction of schools for the Egyptian Ministry of Education. In 1957, Fathi became frustrated with bureaucracy and was convinced that designing buildings using traditional methods was appropriate to the climate of the region, which would speak louder than words. He moved to Athens to deal with international planners, to manage the principles of Extensive design, has worked as an advocate for traditional natural energy solutions on major community projects in Iraq and Pakistan, and has traveled and researched extensively for the Future Cities program in Africa.

After returning to Cairo in 1963, he moved to Darb al-Labanah, near the Cairo Citadel, where he lived and worked for the rest of his life. He also gave sermons and private consultations. He was a man with a proven message in an era searching for alternatives in fuel, personal interactions, and economic support. He left the first... His major international position, at the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Boston, in 1969 to complete multiple trips a year as a leading critical member of the architectural profession. His official book on Jurna, which was in limited edition in 1969, became more influential. 1973 when he received a new English title, "Architecture for the poor".

A short period after his participation in the first UN Habitat Conference in 1976 in Vancouver significantly shaped the rest of his activities, as he began serving on the steering committee of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture and founded and established guidelines for its Institute for Appropriate Technology. In 1980 he was awarded the Balzan Prize. ) for architecture and urban planning, and the appropriate livelihood award.

Fathi designed the brick-and-mortar mosque and madrasa at Dar es Salaam, an educational center near APEC, New Mexico, USA. The main buildings were completed in 1981, and he opened Dar al-Islam in 1982. He has held several government positions.

On March 23, 2017, Google celebrated the 117th birth anniversary of the famous architect Hassan Fathi, through a special celebratory logo that appeared on its website dedicated to searching in Arab countries, many European countries, South American countries, Japan, and South Korea. Google said that Hassan Fathi was interested in... By building communities more than constructing buildings, the deceased was a pioneer in providing models of buildings that respect the traditions of places and take into account all aspects of life.

His biography
Architect Hassan Fathi was born on March 23, 1900, in Alexandria Governorate, Egypt, to a wealthy Egyptian family. At the age of eight, he moved with his family to reside in Helwan, south of Cairo. He lived all his life in a house in the Milky Way in the Citadel neighborhood in Cairo. He had three brothers; The eldest is Muhammad, who attended law school (Faculty of Law) and then worked in the judiciary, but his artistic talent prevailed for him, for which he left work in the judiciary. His other brother, Ali, graduated from the Faculty of Engineering and worked in university education until he became the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Alexandria, and Abdel Hamid, who worked as a merchant and helped the poor. Fathi was influenced by the countryside and the condition of the farmers during his visit when he was eighteen years old. He wanted to be an agricultural engineer, but he could not answer the entrance exam. Fathi obtained a diploma in architecture from Engineer Khana (currently the Faculty of Engineering) at King Fouad I University (currently Cairo University).

After graduating, he worked as an engineer in the General Administration of Schools in municipal councils (currently local councils), and his first work was Talkha Primary School in rural Egypt, from which his interest in rural architecture, or as he called it, architecture of the poor, came. Then he was assigned to design a home for the elderly in the Minya Governorate in southern Egypt, and his boss ordered him to make the design classical. Fathi did not accept his intervention and resigned from the job in 1930. He returned to Cairo and met the headmaster of the School of Fine Arts - who was French - and he accepted him as the first Egyptian member of the teaching staff. He taught rural architecture throughout his teaching period due to the spread of classical architecture at this time until 1946,

He was then commissioned to develop a design for the Qurna Village project in Luxor, in 1946. He was appointed head of the School Buildings Administration at the Ministry of Education (currently the Ministry of Education) from 1949 to 1952, during which time he worked as an expert for the United Nations Refugee Relief Organization. Then he returned to work at the School of Fine Arts from 1935 until 1957, when he married Mrs. Aziza Hassanein, sister of Ahmed Hassanein Pasha, the Egyptian traveler and explorer.

He left Egypt in 1959 to work for the Doxiaris Design and Construction Foundation in Athens, Greece, for two years and then returned to Egypt again. The reason he left Egypt was the routine government system and his failure to establish many projects. During the period between 1963 and 1965, he headed a pilot project for youth housing affiliated with the Egyptian Ministry of Scientific Research. In 1966, he worked as an expert for the United Nations on development projects in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. He worked as an expert at the Adlai Stevenson Institute at the University of Chicago between 1975 and 1977. Hassan Fathi died at the age of 89 on November 30, 1989.

an idea
Fathi began his first architectural steps in 1928, and his first project was Talkha Primary School, which was dominated by the classical style, which he studied at the College of Fine Arts. It includes his first works from the period between 1928 and 1945.

Fathi was called the Engineer in recognition of the importance of Fathi's contribution to world architecture that only became clear towards the end of the twentieth century. Weather conditions, public health considerations, and ancient craft skills also influenced his design decisions. Based on the lost structure of ancient buildings, Fathi incorporated stone walls and shapes. Traditional courtyard provides passive cooling.

National Life Stories conducted an oral history interview (467/37) with Hassan Fathi in 1986 for the group of architects living in the British Library.

Qurna village

New Gourna Mosque
The village of New Qurna, west of Luxor, Egypt, began in 1946 AD. The village of Qurna had international fame because of the book The Architecture of the Poor, which tells the story of its construction. The village was established to accommodate those displaced from the areas of the Pharaonic tombs on the western mainland to save them from thefts and attacks on them, especially after specialists and archaeologists discovered that an entire rock inscription had been stolen from one of the royal tombs, so a decision was issued to displace them from the tombs and establish alternative housing for them. The state allocated a budget of one million pounds to build the new village, and the site was chosen to be far from archaeological areas and close to railways and agricultural lands.

Hassan Fathi began the first phase of the village construction project by building 70 houses, with each house having a distinct characteristic from the others so that residents would not be confused. In designing the houses, he relied on local raw materials and materials, and his influence on Islamic architecture was evident. The domes had a unique design and were used instead of the usual wooden plank or iron roof roofs. An additional door in the homes was allocated for livestock, which the residents of the area own, as a form of sanitary isolation, in order to preserve the safety of individuals.

Three schools were built in the village; The first is for boys and the second is for girls. The third was a school for teaching the handicrafts for which the Qurna region was famous, such as alabaster, spinning, weaving, and the manufacture of palm products. Through this school, he also tried to preserve the Pharaonic spirit of creativity in the new generations. Just as Fathi was interested in the educational aspect, he did not neglect the religious aspect that distinguishes the people of the village, or the entertainment aspect to compensate them for their homes from which they were forcefully displaced, as Fathi worked to establish a large mosque at the entrance to the village that carried the most beautiful architectural inscriptions in its design, as he was influenced by Tulunid architecture mixed with With Islamic art in the Fatimid era, and with regard to the entertainment aspect, Fathi created a culture palace that bore his name, and a theater built in the Roman style, along with a swimming pool.

His other works
General work site
1930 Cairo Al-Kashkashin Printing Press, Dekheila Street, Boulak District, Cairo. Designed for Mustafa Bey Kashkashin in modern style.
1930 Cairo La Giadinara booth in Boulak, Cairo. Its features were evident in the use of existing walls and exploitation of spaces.
1930 Cairo, Hosni Omar’s Villa in Giza, a house with a modern character that was designed in cooperation with Ahmed Omar, who was close to the owner of the villa, which was one of the first buildings constructed according to the international style.
1930, Fam Al-Khaleej, Cairo, Villa Sada Al-Bariyya
1932 Cairo Bosphorus Casino is located in Ramses Square, Cairo, and deals with a piece of land located at an angle and one of its sides is curved.
1934, Cairo, Azmi Bey Abd al-Malik’s villa, in which the Western style was used to distribute the rooms around Tallah.
1934 Cairo, Villa El-Bili, Madkour El-Moski’s house and shops, Cairo
1937 Cairo Villa Graves was a turning point in his work towards the new and conventional direction, owned by Mrs. Isabelle Graves.
1937 Fayoum, Villa of Taher Al-Omari Bek
1938 Giza, Villa El Harini
1938 Giza, Villa of Mohamed Fathi
1938 Cairo, Villa Hayat
1938 Cairo, Villa Heshmat
1940 Cairo, Villa Badran
1940 Kafr Al-Hima, Al-Bakleya Rest House
1940 Fayoum Fayoum Farm
1940 Rural hospitals
1941 Villa Ismail Abdel Razzaq Abu Jirj
1941 Villa Farid Bey Al-Shalqan
1941 Bahtim Farm of the Royal Agricultural Society
1941 Kafr Al-Hema, Takla Pasha rest house
1942 Safaga mining company rest house
1942 Cairo, home of the artist Hamed Saeed
1942 Ezbet Al-Basri A typical house in Ezbet Al-Basri
1943 Bani Mazar, Minya, Villa of Hassan Abdel Razek
1943 Cairo, Sayed Al-Bakry’s Villa
1945 Fayoum, the home of Hamdi Saif Al-Nasr
1945 Samalut, Fawzi Bey Qalini’s house
1946 Cairo, Hassanein Mausoleum
1947 Giza, Toson Abu Jabal House
1948 Zagazig, Eid’s residence
1949 Cairo, Villa Aziza Hanem Hassanein
1950 Qena Ceramic Factory
1950 Qena Cultural Center
1950 Giza, Pearl of the Desert
1950 Giza, Monastirli House
1950 Punjab, India Mosque in Medina

1950 Luxor Stoppler House
1951 Cairo, Zaki’s Villa
1952 Jerusalem, Palestine Brick factory
1954 Fayoum, the village of Mit Al-Nasara
1955 Aswan, Alexandria rest house
1955 Giza, Villa of Muhammad Musa
1957 Giza, expansion of Al-Harraniya village
1957 Fares Village Fares School
1957 Gaza, Palestine Housing Arab refugees
1958 Al-Musayyib, Iraq Housing Program in Iraq
1959 Kharga rest house Baum Marpaint Company
1960 Cairo, Ali Bey Fathi’s apartment
1960 Attia Restaurant
1960, Cairo, the home of Maarouf Mahmoud Maarouf
1960 Thami Barns
1960 Niamey, Niger Villa of the Nigerian Ambassador
1960 Algeria University in Algeria
1960 Pakistan A large mosque in Pakistan
1962 Aswan Higher Institute of Folk Arts
1963 Hyderabad, India Villa Sherry Zahir Ahmed
1964 Athens, Greece Carr House
1965, Cairo, Rushdie Said’s home
1967 Giza, Fouad Riad’s house
1967 Cairo, Shahira Mahrez’s apartment
1980 Giza, Mit Rayhan's House, or Nazli Kassaruni's Palace
His writings
Mashrabiya story:
A Tale of Two Villages was published by the Egyptian Ministry of Culture in 1969 AD
The story “Le Pays d`Utopie” in the magazine “La Revue du Caire”.
The book “Architecture of the Poor”:
Architecture and environment book:
The book Natural Energy and Traditional Architecture: Principles and Examples of Hot Dry Climates, United Nations University -> Tokyo, Arab Foundation for Studies and Publishing, first edition 1988.
His sayings
Hassan Fathi There are 800 million poor people in the Third World who are doomed to early death due to poor housing. These are my clients, Hassan Fathi.
Hassan Fathi, as an engineer, as long as I have the ability and means to make people comfortable, God will never forgive me for deliberately raising the temperature inside the house by 17 degrees Celsius Hassan Fathi
Hassan Fathi Modernity does not necessarily mean vitality, and change is not always for the better, Hassan Fathi
Hassan Fathi is a person who cannot build his house, but ten people can build ten homes for themselves, Hassan Fathi
Hassan Fathi God has created in every environment materials that resist its problems, and the architect’s intelligence is in dealing with the materials under his feet because they are the materials that resist the harshness of the place’s environment. Hassan Fathi
Honorary positions
Member of the Supreme Council of Arts and Letters - Egypt.
Honorary member of the American Research Center - Cairo.
Chairman of the International Round Circle for Cairo Architecture Planning on the occasion of its millennium.
Honorary Member of the American Institute of Architecture.
Honorary President of the Permanent Conference of Egyptian Architects, the first 1985, the second 1986, the third 1987 and the fourth 1988.
Member of the jury for the Aga Khan Award in Architecture from 1976 to 1980.
Awards
Awards he received from Egypt
1959, the State Encouragement Award for Fine Arts (gold medal) for the design and implementation of the “New Qurna” village (model in Luxor), and he was the first architect to receive it when this award was established;
1959, Ministry of Education Medal;
1960, Medal of the Egyptian Antiquities Authority;
1967, the State Encouragement Award for Fine Arts, and he was the first architect to receive that award;
1968, First Class Medal of Sciences and Arts.
1988, Memorial Prize of the Faculty of Fine Arts, Minya University.
International awards he won
1980, President's Award, Aga Khan Award for Architecture, Pakistan
1980, first alternative Nobel Prize winner, Sweden
1980, Balzan International Prize Italy.
1984, 1st Gold Medal - International Union of Architects in Paris, France.
1985, Gold Medal from the Royal Institute of British Architects, Britain.
1987, Louis Sullivan Prize for Architecture (Gold Medal) - International Federation of Traditional Buildings and Crafts.
1989, United Nations Human Settlements Program Prize.