 Market building in Hassan Fathy Village | ||
| Hassan Fathy Village · قرية حسن فتحي | ||
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Hassan Fathy Village, Arabic:قرية حسن فتحي, Qaryat Ḥasan Fatḥī, is a never completed and now uninhabited settlement about eight kilometers north of Bārīs west of trunk road 25 in the valley el-Chārga. It was one of the Egyptian architect's most ambitious settlement projects Hassan Fathy. The former name New Baris or Baris el-Gadida (engl. New Baris, Arabic:باريس الجديدة, Barīs al-Hadīda, „New Bārīs“) Is used today for another settlement project.
background
Hassan Fathy (* March 20, 1900 in Alexandria, † November 30, 1989 in Cairo) is probably the most important architect in Egypt of the 20th century. It is tragic that it was not accepted in one's own country and is hardly known in western countries. However, he enjoys great respect among connoisseurs. Throughout his life his architecture was for the lower classes of the population, so his buildings should be made of clay architecture. His buildings should be aesthetically valuable and use the advantages of clay construction such as pleasant air conditioning and inexpensive construction.
Although he was able to carry out around 30 of his 110 projects, most of them are now falling into disrepair. Ultimately, his ideas and buildings were spurned because his modern ideas were not understood. An exhibition under the title “Dream Images of Architecture” in winter 2005 in Frankfurt am Main was able to bring his work closer to the German public.
In addition to his village project in New Qurna, now also called Hassan Fathy Village, was twenty years earlier New Bārīs, today's Hassan Fathy Village, his second largest and last major project. On behalf of the Egyptian Desert Development Organization, a settlement for 250 families of farmers, workers and craftsmen was to be built near springs on 1000 acres of land. The designs for this date from the years 1963–1965, the construction work began in 1964, but was discontinued in 1967 with the beginning of the Israel-Egypt war. Another reason for the discontinuation was a change in Egyptian legislation on earth building. In addition to the residential buildings mentioned, villas for high administrative officials, a market (Sūq), a polyclinic, a primary school, the district administration, a social center with a bank and post office, a museum, a police building, workplaces and warehouses were to be built for the settlement. However, only a few buildings in the center of the settlement were completed.
getting there
The settlement can be easily reached by car or taxi.
mobility
The few buildings can easily be explored on foot.
Tourist Attractions
The few buildings in the settlement center are distributed over around 170 meters in an east-west direction and 80 meters in a north-south direction.
- In the east there are two about 30 × 30 meters in size Villas for the senior officers of the district administration.
- This is followed in the west by the approximately 35 × 20 meter large building of the Social center that should include the bank and post office. But only the outer walls were built. To the south of it is an approximately 30 × 20 meter building, which includes the museum should include.
- In the far north-west is the approximately 30 × 40 meter building of the District Administration.
- To the south of the last-named building is the largest and most imposing building at 55 × 40 meters, the market (Sūq). Outside there are passageways, some of which are designed as domed arcades. In the north and south, on both sides of the inner courtyard, there are twelve barrel-vaulted, further subdivided rooms for traders. In the courtyard you can see the entrances to the shops with their attractively designed gables.
accommodation
Accommodation is usually in the city el-Chārga elected. There is also a seasonally used tent camp northwest of Qaṣr Dūsch.
trips
Visiting the settlement can be combined with a visit to ʿAin Shams ed-Dīn, Qaṣr Dūsch, Bārīs, ʿAin Manāwir and other sites along Highway 25.
literature
- : Architecture for the poor: an experiment in rural Egypt. Chicago [et al.]: Chicago Univ. Press, 1973, ISBN 978-0-226-23916-3 .
- : Hassan Fathy. London: Concept Media [among others], 1985, Architects in the Third World, ISBN 978-9971-84-125-6 .
Web links
- New Baris with a description of the Neu-Baris settlement, which also includes 107 images, including the plans (archnet.org, in English).
- Hassan Fathy with a biography and the list of his projects (archnet.org, in English).
