Opposite: Ismaili
Centre, DubaiOpposite: Sultan
Bey Hotel, El
GounaDawar El Omda
Hotel, El Gouna“In the beginning we used to try to think as he would think,
and then with time we started developing our work. I don’t
think the Ismaili Centre looks like Fathy’s work, but I am sure
he would have been proud of it because it reflects his teach-
ings,” he added.
Having met at university, El Dahan and Farid joined Fathy’s
architecture firm, the International Institute for Appropriate
Technology, in 1979, a year after their graduation from Cai-
ro University. And although the architects set up their own
practice in 1985 under Rami El Dahan and Soheir Farid Archi-
tects (which was changed to El Dahan and Farid Engineering
Consultants, Ltd. in 1996), Fathy continued to play a mentor-
ship role in their lives until his death in 1989.
“We learned everything from Fathy,” El Dahan said.
“He opened our eyes to the vernacular architecture of every
country, and we have learned from this architecture to pro-
duce our own.”
He, however, argued that vernacular is more than the prod-
uct of the architecture, and is in fact a state of mind.
“We learn from the vernacular, but we cannot produce
vernacular because vernacular exists beyond the architect,”
El Dahan explained. “The Ismaili Centre is not a vernacu-
lar building, but it has some of the teachings of a vernacular
attitude. However, we used the materials in different ways, as
well as the space and height. This is how you contemporise.”
El Dahan and Farid’s commission for the Ismaili Centre was
preceded by a competition for Al Azhar Park, organised by the
Aga Khan Trust for Culture to convert a dusty area in Old Cai-
ro filled with rubble into 30 hectares of expansive greenery. It
also included the restoration of the site’s surrounding Islamic
heritage. The architects’ proposal for a monumental struc-
ture for the Hilltop Restaurant won them the competition, as
well as the appreciation of His Highness the Aga Khan. The
two projects are cited by the architects as two of their most
important pieces of work.
However, there is one particular project that the architects
identify as the defining start to a steady stream of commis-
sions: Kafr El Gouna, the centre village of El Gouna Develop-
ment in Egypt, a man-made resort town owned by Samih Sa-
waris. Located along the Red Sea, the coastal town has a total
land area of 36.92 million m^2 – 15 million of which have so far
been developed.
The project received an honourary prize for the Hassan
Fathy Prize in 2009, as well as an Aga Khan Award for Archi-
tecture nomination.
“They thought it was too much like Fathy’s work although
this is not fair,” El Dahan said of the Aga Khan Award nomina-
tion. “It was a very important project at a very important timeCOVER STORY / 23