Two versions of 'New Gourna' and the dilemma of sustainability in new urban communities in Egypt

K. G. Ahmed, L. Elgizawi

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

1 Citation (Scopus)

Abstract

Gourna, a vernacular village in Upper Egypt was built above the Pharonic heritage site. In order to protect the monuments from theft, the Egyptian government commissioned Hassan Fathy in the 1940s to design a new settlement for the Gourna residents. Unfortunately, the project failed as most of the residents refused to move to the new village. Recently the government repeated the attempt, but this time the second version of the New Gourna was significantly different from Fathy's one. The main objective of this paper is to investigate if the second version of New Gourna is going to overcome the problems associated with Fathy's New Gourna and deals successfully with the sustainable vernacular architecture of the region. It has been found that both of the two 'New Gourna' projects reveal how the top-down official processes might end up with either a superficial mimicry to the authentic sustainable vernacular architecture or an imposed alien built environment.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationSustainable Development and Planning IV
PublisherWITPress
Pages691-701
Number of pages11
Volume120
ISBN (Print)9781845641818
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2009
Event4th International Conference on Sustainable Development and Planning, Sustainable Development 2009 - , Cyprus
Duration: May 13 2009May 15 2009

Other

Other4th International Conference on Sustainable Development and Planning, Sustainable Development 2009
Country/TerritoryCyprus
Period5/13/095/15/09

Keywords

  • Gourna
  • Sustainability
  • Urban communities
  • Vernacular architecture

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Environmental Science(all)

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