The Legacy of Hassan Fathy

HK: The architects of the Development Workshop who were working in Iran before the revolution went into the villages, worked with the villagers. These architects actually learned how to build vaults with Fathy, took their technology across to Iran and taught it to the local masons in a setting where the conditions were suitable for adapting the ideas well. There's a fair number of schools built there, and there were four or five villages that were actually built after the Development Workshop left. But once their patronage in the country was gone the program died out.

Audience member: I want to ask Mr. Driscoll what else his organization is doing.

TD: Our union, in conjunction with 19 others across the globe, formed the International Construction Institute, whose goal is the betterment of construction workers throughout the world. An adjunct of the ici is the Hassan Fathy Institute for Construction Workers. We simply appropriated the name, but we find it quite fitting because his principles are guiding us. The aspect of Hassan Fathy that appeals most to us, quite logically, is the role of the craftsman and how he fits into the building process. We are following up on the Istanbul Statement from the 1994 Human Settlements Conference, a best-practices document from the craftsperson's point of view. The Hassan Fathy Institute is now helping, mostly through in-kind contributions, to provide craft training for workers overseas, so far in Egypt, El Salvador and Poland.

http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/199904/the.legacy.of.hassan.fathy.htm