The Legacy of Hassan Fathy

In a building, materials are one issue. But there is also the architecture, the design, the composition of the building. All these things came from the elements and components of an architecture that has no tension—everything is in repose. Everything follows nature. The parabolic arch and the catenary are the forms of nature. Any object that you throw in the air will come down in the trajectory of this arch. Yet very few architects know the equation of this curve. The catenary was used in pharaonic times not just as a structural element but also as a constructional element, by tilting it and thus making it possible to build vaults without wooden forms. But the principle of the catenary never appeared in Western history books until the 18th century and the schools of engineering. This is the importance of understanding that science is universal and timeless—it is only technology that is particular. Technology is the way you do something to solve a problem, the way you overcome limitations. Fathy said that an artist without limitations cannot create his art. When you have limitations, the mind is so creative that it begins to absorb these problems and from the intricacy of the solutions come the expressions that we call architecture. Fathy saw architecture as a choreography of movement: going upstairs, coming down, looking out from a loggia. It was not just a matter of building materials, of mud brick or whatever, it was a way of looking at life. So you can't say this is Islamic or not. The pointed arch is not a form, or a style. It is first and foremost a structure, a structural arch that hides the catenary that solves a problem.

The fatal blow to traditional architecture was the destruction of the traditional craftsman, the mason. He was the one that kept tradition going. When you lose the craftsman, I believe, you lose architecture. When I nominated my mason for [a prestigious architecture award], they sent me— the snobs—a message saying, "We didn't create this award for masons." "Well, I replied, whom did you make it for? For mit professors only?" It is through these craftsmen that the architecture of the Third World can flourish. It is not by importing steel from England.