ARCHITECTURE

FOR HUMANITY
Architectural Design Approaches of Hassan Fathy and YB Mangunwijaya
ANALYSIS FRAMEWORK

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“Everyone, rich or poor…deserves a shelter for the soul”

Samuel Mockbee, Architecture of Decency, 2004
INTRODUCTION

This study presents the architectural approaches of the two most important figures in the built environment that
championed a generation of creative design carried out in the service of the greater public and humanity. Their
theoretical, philosophical and design praxis has expanded architectural design as an active social activism, and
has been regarded as remarkably important and generative.

It is an honor for us to analyze and present the architectural design methodologies of both the late Hassan Fathy
and the late YB Mangunwijaya . We hope this study will benefit in the betterment of architectural knowledge
and the built environment.

OBJECTIVES

1. To analyze and understand the thinking and theoretical approaches of both architects.

2. To learn from their past experiences of exemplary works, and try to abstract their approaches in order to
create a more reflexive and responsive design methods in our academic progression and experience.

3. To outline the similarities and differences of their approaches in responding to architectural and
contextual needs.

4. To understand the established mechanism of design and implementation process of these two great
architects.
ARCHITECTS’ BACKGROUND

HASSAN FATHY
(Alexandria, Egypt, 23 March 1900 - Cairo, Egypt, 30 November 1989)

Education:
• University of Cairo, Egypt (1926)

Professional Activities:
• Architect/ Engineer
• Writer
• Lecturer
• Musician and Dramatist

Teaching Experiences:
• University of Cairo, Egypt

Other Affiliations/ Activities:

• Steering Committee, Aga Khan Award for Architecture
• Founder of Institute of Appropriate Technology
• Member of the High Council of Arts and Letters, Egypt
• Honorary Fellow, American Research Centre, Egypt
• Honorary Fellow, American Institute of Architecture

Source: wikipedia.org
WORKS BY HASSAN FATHY

Hassan Fathy is noted for pioneering the use of appropriate technology for building in Egypt. His works mostly re-
establish the use of adobe/ mud brick and other traditional system as opposed to Western’s concepts and systems.

Fathy has build more than 100 projects both in his hometown, Egypt as well as internationally. Some of his most
important architectural works are:

1. New Gourna Village, Egypt

2. Arab Refugee Housing, Palestine
3. Hamdi Seif al-Nasr House, Egypt
4. Iraq Housing Programme, Iraq
5. New Baris Village, Egypt
6. Nile Festival Village, Egypt
7. Polk House, USA
8. Roxbury Mosque, USA
9. Sudan Conference Centre and Mosque, Sudan
10. Wehda Mosque and Islamic Centre, Egypt

Fathy’s experience in designing and building the New Gourna Village extended his effort in building for the poor by
publishing a very influential book titled Architecture For The Poor (1973).

Fathy also serve as a delegated consultant for the United Nations Refugee World Assistance, as well as consultant
for other institutions and international aid agencies.
AWARDS RECEIVED BY HASSAN FATHY

1980
Chairman’s Award,
Aga Khan Award for Architecture
1959
Encouragement Prize for
Fine Arts and Gold Medal
1980
Right Livelihood Award

1967 1984
National Prize for Gold Medal for Union
Fine Arts and Internationale des
Republic Decoration Architectes
1980
Balzan Prize for
Architecture and Urban
Planning
Project Name: New Gourna Village, Egypt
Project Type: Housing Development, New Town Planning
Usage: Residential, Urban Design and Development
The idea for the village was launched by the Egyptian
Department of Antiquities as a potentially cost-effective
solution to the problem of relocating an entire entrenched
community of entrepreneurial excavators that had established
itself over the royal necropolis in Luxor, Egypt.

The Village was meant to be a prototype but rather than

subscribing to the current idea of using a limited number of
unit types, Fathy took the unprecedented approach of seeking
to satisfy the individual needs of each family in the design.
In his book Architecture For The Poor,
Fathy justified his decision to build each
houses in New Gourna unique and different
by quoting;

“In nature, no two men are alike. Even if

they are twins and physically identical, they
will differ in their dreams. The architecture
of the house emerges from the dream; this
is why in villages built by their inhabitants
we will find no two houses identical”.

Source: Architecture For The Poor, 1973

Source: archnet.org
ARCHITECTS’ BACKGROUND

YUSUF BILYARTA MANGUNWIJAYA

(Ambarawa, Central Java, 6 May 1929 - Jakarta,Indonesia, 10 February 1999)

Education:
• Institut Teknologi Bandung, Indonesia (1959)
• Rheinisch Westfaelische Technische Hochschule, Germany (1960-1966)
• Fellow Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies, USA (1978)

Professional Activities:
• Architect
• Writer
• Catholic Religious Leader
• Lecturer/ Teacher

Teaching Experiences:
• Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia
• Initiated the Elementary Education Dynamics Foundation for SD Kanisius Mangunan, Indonesia

Other Affiliations/ Activities:

• Humanitarian Activist

Source: wikipedia.org
WORKS BY YB MANGUNWIJAYA

Mangunwijaya has always been regarded as Indonesia’s Father of Modern Architecture and his interests and works
were mainly associated with his sympathy towards the poor and marginal community as well as religious building
complexes.

Some of his most important architectural works are:

1. Pemukiman Warga Tepi Kali Chode, Yogyakarta

2. Kompleks Religi Sendangsono, Yogyakarta
3. Gedung Keuskupan Agung Semarang
4. Gedung Bentara Budaya, Jakarta
5. Gereja Katolik Jetis, Yogyakarta
6. Gereja Katolik Cilincing, Jakarta
7. Markas Kowihan II
8. Biara Trappist Gedono, Salatiga, Semarang
9. Gereja Maria Assumpta, Klaten
10. Gereja Maria Sapta Duka, Mendut

Mangunwijaya was also the author of numerous literary works, architectural books and journals, religious books
and was an active writer on social critic issues.

His most important literary fiction is Burung-Burung Manyar.

AWARDS RECEIVED BY YB MANGUNWIJAYA

1992
Aga Khan Award for Architecture
for Cooperative Housing for Slum
1975
Dwellers of Kali Chode
Radio Nederland ‘s
Golden Windmill Award
for fiction literature 1996
Ramon Magsaysay Award
for the literary fiction
Burung-Burung Manyar

1991
Golden Indonesian Institute
of Architect Award for
Marian Shrine in
Sendangsono 1995
Ruth and Ralph Erskine Award for
Cooperative Housing for Slum
Dwellers of Kali Chode
Source: archnet.org
Laid between two important rivers, this village started out as
illegal squatters that explains the location below the highway
bridge and its proximity to the river.

Burnt down year after year by the local government so as to

discourage these squatters from ‘breeding’ illegally here, the
community still held strong and with the help from
Mangunwijaya, who encouraged and inspired the people to
legalized and build this settlement from waste materials.
 “The problem of the poor inhabitants of the
Chode-Riverside was evidently not
architecture, but, as I gradually learned
from them, how to minimize their
inferiority feelings - the common feelings
of people that were rejected and
abandoned; the everyday feelings of people
that lived with permanent fear of being
swept away one day by the capitalistic
policies of development and
modernization.”
YB Mangunwijaya’s speech
in accepting the Ruth and Ralph Erskine Award
Sweden, 1995

Source: Swedish Association of Architects

THEORETICAL APPROACHES

Both Hassan Fathy and Mangunwijaya are best known for their active role in developing and implementing
humanitarian approaches in their architectural polemic theories. We will outline their theories in order to learn
and understand them in an analytical comparative way.

YB MANGUNWIJAYA HASSAN FATHY

“jeritan suara hati nurani masyarakat” “architecture for the poor”

A collective approach in problem solving is seen as Answers to today’s problem in the world of built
the most appropriate way in helping the poor and environment are to response to each unique
marginalized community humans’ dream and reality

Theology of Liberation and Contextualized Traditionalist - Innovative Approach

Approaches

innovation and appropriation in

local conditions creativity local traditions innovation
(community (community
participation) participation)

Source: Menuju Kampung Pemerdekaan, 2002

THEORETICAL APPROACHES

YB MANGUNWIJAYA HASSAN FATHY

Universal Humanism Traditionalist

spiritual beliefs socio-cultural socio-cultural appropriation of

technology

Material Values Material Values

sense recycle-use modesty locality locality modesty plasticity form-value

Unique Characteristics Unique Characteristcs

pride poverty = ugly non-standard non-standard unique aspiration

THEORETICAL APPROACHES

YB MANGUNWIJAYA HASSAN FATHY

Cross-Collaboration Practice: Cross-Collaboration Practice:

Social Knowledge

artists NGOs technicians

sociologists

religious
writers, poets, movements anthropologists economists
journalists
THEORETICAL APPROACHES

YB MANGUNWIJAYA HASSAN FATHY

Function of the Architect: Function of the Architect:

“ARCHITECT AS SOCIAL LEADER” “ARCHITECT AS SOCIAL LEADER”

from societal from micro level; from all level of

point of view community development, intervention
capacity building

“ARCHITECT AS SOCIAL WORKER”

from communal from macro level;

point of view geographical, political-
economical, socio-cultural
REFERENCES

1. Fathy, H., Architecture For The Poor: an Experiment in Rural Egypt, University of Chicago Press, CA, 1973.

2. Khudori, D., Menuju Kampung Pemerdekaan, Yayasan Pondok Rakyat, Jakarta, 2002.

3. Bell, B. & Wakeford, K. (ed.), Expanding Architecture: Design as Activism, Metropolis Books, NY, 2008.

4. Frampton, K. (et al.), Modernity and Community: Architecture in the Islamic World, Aga Khan Awards for
Architecture, Thames & Hudson, London, 2001.

5. Silas, J., The Kampung Improvement Programme of Indonesia, John Willey & Sons, NY, 1984

6. www.arkitekt.se/erskine

7. www.wikipedia.org

8. www.archnet.org
END