#shoubra

For the past fifty years Egyptian architect Hassan Fathy has been celebrated in and outside Egypt as the father of Egyptian vernacular (read primitive) modern architecture.

If one takes a closer look at the existing conditions in urban Egypt, other forms of "self-built" "architecture without architects" can be found. There is the ubiquitous concrete structure filled with exposed red brick which to my eyes is the true vernacular language of modern Egyptian architecture.

But there are also slightly more refined variations on that self-built brick and concrete architecture that dates a bit further back prior to the current condition of sprawling informality. And some of those examples stand today and they have inspired a more recent generation of that typology. Here are some examples.

The taller building, in Shoubra, is built with a basic concrete structure of slabs supported by columns and connected by a stair. The walls and facade are of exposed red brick. The balconies and window are on a fixed grid. Decorative elements are added such as the brick detail above the building entrence which consists of three parallel vertical lines of brick extrusions. Balconies are personalized by the residents.

The shortest building in the image above follows a similar format to the building above. Notice the play with positive and negative space on the facade. Also in Shoubra.

The building above represents a further level of articulation on the model represented in the first two examples. This building is essentially following the same format but goes further in the direction of Architecture (with a capital A) by finishing the surfaces, enforcing symmetry and regulating doors and windows. This example dates from the 1950s or late 1940s. Located in Shoubra.

An earlier example of this model. Near Al Saleeba Street.

This building type is long ignored and hasn't been studied. In a profession that values exceptions over the everyday (celebrating high modernism, criticizing exceptional conditions such as slums, or cynically looking at badly conceived facade architecture) the model presented here is nothing short of fill, everyday, maybe even mediocre.