{"product_id":"hassan-fathy-the-piercing-star-a-living-architecture","title":"Hassan Fathy The Piercing Star: A Living Architecture","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis two-volume boxed set about legendary Egyptian architect Hassan Fathy differs from other books about him by exploring the personality and intentions of the highly complex persona rather than just his architecture. To do so, this comprehensive publication examines Fathy's life story, writings, architectural projects, and inspirations in two volumes, subdivided into four parts.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eVolume I, \u003ci\u003eBiography and Writings\u003c\/i\u003e, Part I, \"A Transcendent Life\" provides an extensively researched profile of Fathy gleaned from information uncovered in interviews of clients, family members, friends, former employees and acquaintances, plus new translations of his numerous letters and journals.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePart II, \"A Hassan Fathy Reader\", is the result of these translations. When Fathy offered his archive to the Aga Khan Award for Architecture just before his death, they commissioned Chant Avedissian to catalog it; his list contains 242 entries for the writings, which are in Arabic, English or French. This Reader contains a voluminous edited selection from both this list and other sources.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eVolume II, \u003ci\u003eArchitecture and Inspirations\u003c\/i\u003e, Part III, \"A Living Architecture\", covers Fathy's architectural oeuvre chronologically. Thorough descriptions of each project accompany reproductions of the architect's own drawings, and photographs by Fathy or by friends or photographers he has hired, as well as images by the author of extant buildings and digital renderings created to represent those not realized.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePart IV, \"Universal Sources of Creativity\", includes each of the many architectural, historical, cultural and philosophical sources that stoked his vivid imagination, examining the influences that emerge in a myriad of ways in his architecture.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAfter initially conforming to western trends, the creative evolution documented here reveals Fathy's commitment to create a singular architectural language that represents the history and culture of his country and religion. His search for a signature style is first revealed in gouaches shown in the book, and he spent a lifetime mastering the skill he needed to realize that idyllic vision. Nubia facilitated that journey, and the technique of building arches, vaults and domes in mud brick that he discovered there led to the life-changing commission from the Egyptian Department of Antiquities in 1945 to design and build New Gourna village. The difficulties he encountered are all addressed here, accompanied by beautiful images by Greek photographer Dimitri Papadimos.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAfter work on Gourna halted in 1948, Fathy completed several residential projects and schools, but the misrepresentations that followed sent him into self-exile with Doxiadis Associates in Athens in 1957, in a phase documented with rare images obtained from the Constantinos Doxiadis archive. Soon after Gamal Abdel Nasser became the President of Egypt in 1956, he enticed Fathy to return home by offering him the Directorship of the Pilot Project for Housing. Discovery of an aquifer beneath the Kharga Oasis led the Organization for Desert Development to propose an agricultural community called new Baris there; Fathy's previous experience with a similar project made him the logical choice to do it. New photography by the author, and specially commissioned site plans complement Fathy's own documentation of this important project.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAlways an inveterate multitasker, Fathy also accepted a commission in 1965 by the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in collaboration with the United Nations to design prototypical villages in Ad-Dir'iyah, near Riyadh, and Al Jumum near Makkah, for others to be built throughout the Kingdom.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe author's long experience in this region has facilitated the addition of extensive new information and images about these sparsely understood assignments.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Itasca Books","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":54526397153555,"sku":"9780998529899","price":750.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0948\/3521\/2563\/files\/9780998529899ita_35191a5e-cc13-4c9e-b603-ad2df23e368d.jpg?v=1785852737","url":"https:\/\/danuc.net\/products\/hassan-fathy-the-piercing-star-a-living-architecture","provider":"Danu's Wardrobe","version":"1.0","type":"link"}