Hassan Fathy: Architecture for the poor (1969)

Can people be their own architects?

 “Let your buildings grow from the daily lives of the people who live in them.."

Fig1: Hassan Fathy Architecture for the Poor, Market 
Photo credit: http://www.archidatum.com

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 also seeks to surpass the stereotypical norm for architectural design and begins to consider the preservation and fulfillment of tradition, culture and an overall desire for the well being of the humanity his architecture directly contacts. He advocated mud brick instead of concrete and steel, preferred quiet inner courtyards over high-rise apartments and had as his ideal human hands, simple tools and traditional methods instead of highly paid contractors and imported technology (Fig1).

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 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. Implying his ideals, in two different states of India, Mumbai and Kerala (Fig2a&2b), it is seen that the local housing typology seen these two places are very different from one another. This difference is due to the population, culture, traditions and materials available in the regions. These places are designed according to the needs of the inhabitants and has evolved and adapted to the people over time like an organism.

Fig2a: Streets of Mumbai, India
Photo credit: Google.com

Fig2b: Streets of Kerala, India
Photo credit: Google.com

Fig3: Le Corbusier’s domino house, a basic structure,
plan and section
Photo credit: http://www.archidatum.com

Through Fathy’s book, a new vernacular style emerged which was widely ignored by most  architects and casual observers. Egypt’s vernacular designs, where the masses are actually buildings and mainly built without the services of architects (architecture without architects) is built using reinforced concrete and red brick. The refusal of architects to work with this reality to theorize and conceptualize new approaches that accommodate the needs of communities and the available (not the most sustainable) materials has delayed the potential for something interesting to be created here. While some continue to incorporate Hassan Fathy's ideals, millions of square meters of concrete and red brick architecture are rising around Egypt, from the center of the capital to the rural outskirts and small villages. While Hassan Fathy’s “architecture for the poor” is exhibited in the posh districts, the poor have been building in what is closer to Le Corbusier’s domino house (Fig3) than Fathy’s mud brick domed village houses. Pragmatism rather than identity-driven reactionary nostalgia is what drives the poor in how they build. Fathy’s reaction to modernism as a style was to create a style of his own, the poor however are not concerned with style as much as they are with shelter.

Hassan Fathy’s influence continues today.

Fig4: Bouldin's 4 domed mudbrick project, Gaza
Photo credit: https://salonsuisse.atavist.com/lets-rediscover-version-franaise-clone-zh5cs

In response to the official ban of building materials in Gaza, terrifyingly high unemployment, and habitat destruction, Swiss architect Bill Bouldin coordinated an International Labour Organisation building training program to support mud-brick reconstruction in Gaza in 2009. Working together with local architect and the Craterre earth-construction institute, they trained new masons and led a pilot project for four adobe domed-and-vaulted houses without any imported materials (Fig4). The design of these houses was largely inspired by the designs of Hassan Fathy as they use no significant structural wood, steel, or concrete. While Fathy’s reasoning was economic, the Gaza team had no other material choice. The entire project was an inspiring example of how traditional construction, enthusiasm and goodwill can overcome the most stringent project constraints. 

Reference:http://archidatum.com/articles/hassan-fathy-and-the-architecture-for-the-poor-the-controversy-of-success/
http://misfitsarchitecture.com/2013/06/07/architecture-misfits-8-hassan-fathy/