The Legacy of Hassan Fathy

RA: So aren't we saying that if you take a building out of its culture it's not going to work?

DD: What about these so-called New Urbanist projects and the neo-traditional town planning projects? There's one in Houston that just started up and the plots were sold almost instantly. That implies people feel that such projects could meet social and environmental needs, could be something more sustainable.

AV: Well, you have to look at who bought them. It's not really meeting a social need. It's meeting a need for people who want to make their life structure an object of desire. And what kinds of materials will these buildings be built with? I think they're pretty conventional. It raises the question not only of forms and materials, but also the nature of authenticity. I think this is the problem we have in this country, trying to find something that is, indeed, authentic. What's selling is some image of authenticity. I think what's interesting about Fathy's work is that he was somehow able to find a compromise between being original, on the one hand, and, on the other, appropriating and synthesizing. He was able to do things that were original, but to do them in ways that were embedded within the culture. What would be sustainable yet also authentic in the United States? I don't think there's an architect who can answer that question today.

JS: On the issue of authenticity, Fathy said that tradition is the social analogue of personal habit. I think that's true. What traditions are today are whatever people do. And those traditions change. Fathy also said that traditions that can be retained are valuable, while the ones that can't be retained should be discarded. To answer Hasan-Uddin Khan's question about whether Fathy was authentic or not, I've written down some interesting transitions: Roman architecture followed Greek architecture—the Romans copied it, but they also reinvented and evolved it. Ottoman architecture followed Christian architecture. Hellenistic architecture followed Greek architecture. Renaissance architecture followed Roman architecture. Frank Lloyd Wright was influenced by Japan. Who is authentic? We find ourselves throughout the history of architecture borrowing, adapting, evolving—that's what the human species does.