مختارات من عمارة العالم العربي 1914-2014 (ص 31)

غرض

عنوان

مختارات من عمارة العالم العربي 1914-2014 (ص 31)

المحتوى

SL ipes ‏جم‎
لعن
0
oot ‏(3051-إ5ا3)‎ 6
Egypt
Egypt 1914-1954, global
architecture before globalization
Dr. Mercedes Volait
1914 did not represent a major disruption in the development of
Egyptian architecture, that is, architecture on Egyptian soil. Forces
that had shaped its norms and forms during the previous half
century continued to be at play throughout the subsequent decades.
The relentless quest for modernity pursued by Egypt's rulers, and its
ever-growing state apparatus in the wake of the Ottoman reforms of
the 1830s represent some of these factors. The strategy had intended
te emulate Europe in order to resist its expansion. Although archi-
tectural modernity in the non-Western world is commonly attributed
primarily to colonial agency, its development and domestication
in the Egyptian context occurred within a top-driven endogenous
process, embedded in Ottoman cosmopolitanism, and prone to
various sorts of hybridizations. The British occupation of Egypt,
1882 - 1922 (with Protectorate status from 1914 to 1922) did not
greatly alter this general pattern.
In other words, an established tradition of borrowing and natural-
izing European techniques and aesthetics characterized Egyptian
architecture as it entered the 20th century. Major civil engineer-
ing projects such as hydraulic infrastructure (from the 1830s),
the railway network (starting in 1854), or the digging of the Suez
Canal (1859 - 69), had led many European firms to establish local
branches. By 1893, metallic structures were locally produced (by
the Belgian company Baume & Marpent), and reinforced-concrete
construction, according to the system patented in 1892 by the French
engineer Francois Hennebique, had started the following year. The
turn of the century had seen the launching of large-scale real estate
developments at a time of thriving expansion in the building sector:
the garden suburbs of Garden City, Giza, Maadi and Heliopolis, to
name only the Cairene projects, all started in 1903 - 06. The flow
of European capital and migration, attracted by Egypt’s westerni-
zation, once again a long-term phenomenon, had their share in the
building boom. Foreign residency peaked in 1927 with 225,000
foreigners out of a population of fourteen million. In terms of pro-
fessions, Italians and Eastern Europeans outnumbered any other
nationals in the building industry, from architects and contractors
to ceramists and cabinet makers. The foreign presence decreased
sharply after 1937, and became negligible after the Suez Canal crisis
of 1956, but it had contributed in the meantime, along with local
elites, to the internationalization of Egyptian architecture.
The pace of westernization was sustained by substantial public
commissions, The international competition organized in 1894 for
the Museum of Antiquities, the first to be held in the Middle East,
was followed by many others: the Alexandria railway station in 1912,
a hospital and medical school at Manial al-Roda in 1921-1922, the
premises of Cairo's Mixed Court in 1923 - 1924, the reconstruction
of the historic Mosque of Amr in 1927, for the creation of a Fine
Arts Campus in 1930, to mention but a few. In parallel, a number of
imposing educational facilities, including the Cairo University campus
(1925 - 1937) and al-Azhar University campus (1932 - 1936), together
with hospitals, museums, and administrative buildings, were erected
by the State buildings department, the specialized body within the
ministry of Public Works in charge of most public buildings. Religious
structures were the prerogative of the ministry of Endowments
(Awgaf), itself responsible for a major projects and a promoter of
innovation. The mosque of Aboul Abbas al-Morsi built in 1929 - 39 in
Alexandria, following designs by Eugenio Valzania and Mario Rossi,
featured the first octagonal plan ever considered in Egyptian mosque
architecture. The state's engagement in construction represents a
characteristic of Egyptian architecture that cuts across temporali-
ties and regimes: equipping the nation with modern facilities, from
culture to transportation, from education to healthcare, has been a
concern for almost every ruler, from Khedive tsmail whe ruled from
1863 to 1879 to President Nasser, in office from 1956 to 1970, and
beyond.
The architectural outcome of these globalizing forces was of marked
heterogeneity. Structures of every possible origin and essence coex-
isted side by side. European-style historicism, as illustrated by the
neo-Renaissance design proposed at a 1914 competition for the newly
founded Egyptian University (Ernesto Verrucci) remained fashionable
well into the 1930s for public and domestic architecture alike, Local
expressions of historicism, such as Mamluk revivalism (villa Harari,
1921) and Pharaonicism (Saad Zaghloul mausoleum, 1927 - 1931,
Mustafa Fahmy), flourished. While the Pharaonic cultural move-
ment was short-lived (largely due to the paganism associated with
Ancient Egyptian civilization), Mamluk revivalism had been a recur-
rent theme in Egyptian architecture since the 18705 and persisted
into the 20th century, when the struggle for independence led
to a search for a national idiom in architecture, based on Egypt's
Islamic heritage. French architecture was represented by exces-
sively ornate Art Deco and myriad variations of modern classicism.
A good example is the Cairo Mixed Court (1924 - 1934), featuring
French Renaissance details and elaborate Art Deco ironwork and
flooring, according to plans by the French firm Azéma, Edrei and
Hardy. Exceptions to the mainstream of neo-styles and mild mod-
ernism include the avant-garde residences designed by Auguste
Perret for two eager local modernists, banker Gustave Aghion in
Alexandria (1926 - 30, demolished in 2014) and lawyer Elias Awad
Bey in Cairo (1930 - 1937, demolished in 1970). The Italian commu-
nity developed its own architectural language, along the functionalist
“Mediterranean spirit” advocated by MIAR (Movimento Italiano per
!Architettura Razionale) within the expanding Fascist ideology. Its
early icons were the schools built in Alexandria in 1929 and in Cairo
in 1933 on designs by Clemente Busiri-Vici; strongly promoted by the
local Italian press, their style had a decisive impact on Italian build-
ing in Egypt. The affluent Greek community in Alexandria sponsored
in 1937 an early application of the compact hospital, a new concept
developed by French architect Jean Walter following a mission to the
US and tested in France in 1935. In contrast, and paradoxically, the
British leit few architectural traces of their presence while in power,
besides the winning design for the Qasr al-Aini hospital and medical
school (1923 - 1933, Charles Nicholas & John Edward Dixon-Spain,
arch.) and the Caire University campus (1925 - 1935, Eric Newnum,
arch.) designed in a grand imperial manner reminiscent of Lutyens’
Delhi, although devoid of any reference to its local setting.
As the 1930s came to a close, functionalism and the International
style penetrated more strongly in Egypt, under the lead of Syro-
Lebanese architects such as Raymond Antonious, Charles Ayrout,
Antoine Selim Nahas, Albert Khoury, Albert Zananiri, Jean Kfoury,
among others. The journal al-‘Imara, the first architectural magazine
in the Arabic language edited by Egyptian architect Sayed Karim was
launched in 1939 to promote International style in the country, and
in the region at large. Increased travel of Egyptian elites to Europe,
and later to the USA, was also instrumental in channeling modernist
movement architecture to Egypt. Post-war politics reinforced the
process, with American, and later Russian, aid entering the game.
Education abroad was another factor. Whether Egyptian or non-Egyp-
tian, architects were heavily influenced by what they were exposed to
during their formative years. The series of apartment and administra-
tive buildings designed by Liverpool-trained architect Mahmoud Riad,
who also interned on the site of the Empire State Building in New York,
are good examples of British and American Beaux-Arts style (Misr
Insurance buildings, 1948; The Arab League Headquarters, 1955 and
Cairo Municipality — later Socialist Union — Building, 1959). The villas
designed by Salah Zeitoun in the late 1950s reflect the time he spent
as a Taliesin fellow in 1947 in contact with Frank Lloyd Wright (Richter
house, 1958 - 1961).
Subsidized housing
The interwar years made a difference to one sector in particular:
low-cost and subsidized housing. Most postwar schemes, and indeed
Nasserite projects, are rooted in initiatives developed during Egypt's
so-called “Liberal Experiment period”. As elsewhere, World War One
had caused construction work to stop. The supply of coal and other
building materials had ceased during wartime, and no alternative
power had been devised to continue the manufacturing of bricks,
lime or cement locally. The acute housing shortage that ensued,
coupled with dramatic inflation, affected not only lower income
groups, but indeed the middle class. Governmental intervention
was envisioned in the immediate aftermath of the war in order to
stimulate the construction of affordable dwellings. Land develop-
ment companies and major employers were encouraged to lead the
effort. The Suez Canal Company and the Heliopolis Oasis Company
implemented significant subsidized housing schemes in 1919 - 1923.
In the process, new typologies such as the four-apartment house
with individual gardens in the Heliopolis Housing scheme or attached
dwellings in the new garden suburb of Port-Fuad, were introduced.

هو جزء من

مختارات من عمارة العالم العربي 1914-2014

تاريخ

2014

المنشئ

جورج عربيد