Imagining a Whole New Architecture: : Hassan Fathy

» bancopolis - Hassan Fathy

After 20 years of working with the adaptation of domes and vaults(based on an Hassan Fathy model)to the real world (where for example it rains, and masons trained at their grandfathers knee are not available)and the Sahel. The techniques are now well established and are known as "Woodless Construction" or "Construction Sans Bois".Methods of training were developed so that for example the Nubian vault became teachable rapidly)

I have great respect for Hassan Fathy but feel that the uncritical adoration his work receives has a negative effect on the potential impact of sun dried earth block buildings particularly using Domes and vaults.

Example 1) As described by Hassan Fathy the Nubian vault has received much attention but very little success, building out from one end is very tricky, even converging from both ends is not easy. Once one accepts that there are problems and genuinely looks for solutions, they are there.

Example 2) Abique, the Islamic university, I was on site during the construction.The design was completely unadapted to the climate, created insolvable problems, all of which is never reported.

-- posted by bancopolis