The Legacy of Hassan Fathy

Timothy Driscoll (TD): Since you bring up crafts, I'd like to talk for a moment. My organization is the International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craft-workers. We represent bricklayers and stonemasons in the US and Canada. About eight years ago we attempted to come up with a program to address the relationship between architecture and crafts, and we now have a two-week summer camp where architectural students in their fourth and fifth years meet with our third- and fourth-year apprentices to try and walk in each other's shoes.

DD: What kinds of results have you seen?

TD: Well, as most of you know, in your first three or four years of practice after architecture school you're not really given much latitude, so in terms of them going to work for some high-profile architectural firm and doing something innovative that can be traced to us—we're not quite there yet. But we've had several architects come to work for an industry organization, which we're very happy about.

DD: Is your program unique?

TD: We're not aware of other craft unions doing this.

AWW: But a lot of young people do not want to follow this path of craftsmanship. That is part of the problem.

DD: I'd like to talk a bit about Fathy's commitment to humanity in general. He cites in Architecture for the Poor a statistic of some billion people who are condemned to die sooner than they otherwise would due to problems that come along with bad housing. In the 10 years since Fathy's death, that number has only increased. Are there people today whose work either builds upon or parallels Fathy's, who offer any glimmer of hope that this statistic might change?