New Gourna and Hassan Fathy’s earth architecture for the people of Egypt
The history, challenges and what we can learn about New Gourna, the sustainable town invented and built by Egyptian architect Hassan Fathy.
Luxor
3500 year-old Egyptian Relief Vandalized by Chinese Youth, Restored
A young tourist from Nanjing, China scrawled his name Ding Jinhao onto a 3500 year-old relief in a Luxor, Egypt temple. Big mistake.
Hot Air Balloon Explosion in Egypt Claims 19 Lives
At 7am on Tuesday, a frightful explosion rocked Luxor, where ancient Egyptian antiquities draw scores of tourists each year. The blast that engulfed a hot air balloon in mid air was heard and felt several kilometers away. One Egyptian and 18 foreign tourists are said to have died and the Civil Aviation Minister told Reuters […]
Hassan Fathy’s “New Gourna” Model Village lies Shambles
In 1946 Hassan Fathy, Egypt’s Green architect, built a model village near Luxor called ‘New Gourna’ out of mud. But what happened to this stunning village? Hassan Fathy, author of Earth & Utopia is the Middle East’s father of sustainable architecture. Before it was fashionable or even fathomable, he was championing earth architecture in the […]
Remembering Hassan Fathy – Egypt’s Green Architect Of the People
Who was Hassan Fathy, the earth based architect who inspired the Middle East? Exactly forty years ago, Hassan Fathy published his groundbreaking book on community-inspired mud architecture in Egypt. To mark his book’s 40th anniversary and commemorate his green legacy, we spoke to Salma Samar Damluji who worked with Fathy in Cairo in 1975 and […]
VIDEO: Making Music From The Sun
An earthquake inadvertently converts a statue into a musical installation; Dr. Duffey replicates the effect with his own designs We’ve seen some interesting, creative applications of alternative energy. There is the father and son team in Gaza who created their own solar oven, though they had to stop filling orders when the glass ran out. […]