Residents destroy happiness

Architect of Happiness designed Hassan Fathi village Luxor - Mohamed El Edeisy The state of negligence suffered by the village of Luxor has lead to repeated power cuts, a lack of drinking water, a lack of sewage and hospitals unfit for humans. Despite all this, architects and intellectuals in Luxor never imagined it would reach one of the most important castles in the world. The Architect of Happiness designed Hassan Fathi village in the Qurna archeological area, west Luxor. Before passing away in 1989, Architect Hassan said in a radio interview: “The poor in the third world are sentenced to death because of bad housing, and these are my clients.” But it seems that poverty was stronger than the clients of the ‘Architect of Happiness’ (Mohandes el Saada) as the inhabitants of Dar es Salaam village in Mexico City called him. The residents of the Egyptian village which he designed and supervised construction of, removed its main features and replaced the local and natural materials of the heritage village with huge ugly concrete buildings supported by local officals who gave them permission to build on the empty spaces in front of the houses. The heritage houses designed by architect Hassan Fathy included large empty spaces to be an “outlet to the resident” but they became a site for concrete buildings which negates the features of the village and the general aesthetics. The village was constructed to house the displaced people of Qurnah archeological area, who lived over the Pharaonic tombs and included 90 houses. It became synonymous with negligence and corruption and only 15 percent of its original features are left. The house walls are worn out, ceilings cracked and features changed. Some were transformed into livestock pens and chicken coops. The same applies to the Palace of Culture which was a destination for the cultured in government and all over Egypt. Even the mosque of the village wasn’t spared from this mess as the Awqaf Ministry (Ministry of Endowment) took it as an administrative premises before archaeologists succeeded in convincing the endowment directorate of finding an alternative location. The mosque is now subject to collapse after the deteriorated conditions reached breaking point as the cracks are obvious in the walls, especially in the eastern and southern sides of the mosque. The market of the village was a wonderful ecological and architectural masterpiece, now turned into a workshop for maintaining the governorate’s vehicles. Ahmed Elgamal, a theatre director and son of the village, appeals to the Ministry of Culture and UNESCO organisation to implement a project for the rennovation of Hassan Fathy Village which was stopped two years ago without any reasons. Elgamal added: “Mr Francesco Bandarin, director of the World Heritage Centre and Assistant Director-General for Culture, visited the village accompanied by 40 international scientists and experts in architecture. A total survey was done and three committees were formed to preserve and protect what is left of Qurna village, but the project is gone with the wind and what is left of the village which is now threatening the people as it may collapse any time.” College student Mohamed Ali, said: “The residents of the village wish it would return as it was before. The people only demolished Hassan Fathy’s houses and built concrete buildings after the walls wore out and some of them even collpased on people because Architect Hassan Fathy used limestone in the construction which is not suitable for land with groundwater. This caused the fall of the walls and a concentration of salt in the stones.” From his side, Dr Ezzat Saad the Governor of Luxor, said the Ministry of Culture has great interest in the village and the Minister of Culture visited it before explaining that the country will not save money in order to restore what is left of the village which is of historic and architectural heritage."