The Method and Thinking Behind My Projects

I have always worked with balance and precision, in design and in site supervision alike, committed to my profession and its ethics. I care about the beginning as much as the end. The further I research, the more questions appear that call for thought and further study. On large, important projects I start where the studies of comparable projects around the world left off.

God gave me the ability to visualise the three-dimensional space while drawing the first lines of a plan and its elements, seen from inside and from outside. He also gave me the ability to criticise my own work as I study it, for I believe that a dialogue of ideas refines the result. The defining qualities of my designs are simplicity, purity and honesty of expression.

Since returning from my mission to the United States, my architectural thinking has largely followed the principle that form follows function. But I have always tried to study how the elements of a building are arranged and connected, so that inner and outer space are balanced as a whole, with the structure and any special technical requirements resolved naturally, without contrivance, without unnecessary elements, and without putting anything where it does not belong.

I give the necessary time and thought to the spiritual and aesthetic side that comes from my conscience as an architect. By this I mean that the exterior of any building, with its openings and other main elements, must express truthfully and plainly what lies inside, functionally and aesthetically. The form must never be a borrowed costume.

I believe that architecture, at its simplest, deals with function, yet it can rise to the highest spiritual levels. Outward form is not an architectural goal: authenticity lies in content, not in shape, and any good work has authenticity even when it is contemporary. I stand for an intellectual, functional beauty in architecture that springs from the conscience of a sincere architect. The fine arts and music are the free expression of human feeling, unbound by briefs and functions as architecture is.

I also believe that the architect must be of his time, engaged with every new idea and practice, following rapid progress in technology and in economical methods, without cutting himself off from his roots and his faith. Verses of the Holy Qur'an encourage people to change and move with their age rather than freeze at one stage of life. God created the universe in motion and change, and created man ready to seek knowledge and the secrets of existence, the richest source of creativity.

In most of my projects, residential or public, I try to bring in internal gardens and use them both functionally and aesthetically; they are one of the hallmarks of my designs. Wide glazed openings onto these courtyards at different levels connect inside and outside, giving a sense of space and a beauty that changes with the hours of the day and the seasons of the year. I also add planting, water and sculptural elements that open up varied views.

I always avoid applying decorative elements from historic styles, including the Islamic style, because I believe that imitating their outward features disfigures our great heritage. What matters is to revive the roots, not the husk. The conditions that formed those styles have gone; values and principles endure, while the means of applying them must evolve with time. Still, in some works I do give the design a distinctive character, in the exterior massing or in interior elements, where I feel it belongs.

I place openings, inside and out, only after careful study of climate and furniture layout, and of the spatial relationship between interior and exterior. I designed new details suited to each project, for joinery, metalwork, light fittings and other architectural elements, and these details often reflected both function and spirit. I am glad to have built up a large and varied body of such details, of which I am proud.

In my many and varied industrial projects I always tried to meet the demands of production and economy, and also to give the workforce comfort and a good environment, out of concern for human development itself.

I incorporated works of art (reliefs and frescoes) into my buildings, inside and out, and I can say I was among the first architects to do so. My first attempt was at Cairo Airport in 1960, with murals by the artists Fathy Mahmoud and Salah Abdel Karim. More recently I commissioned copper reliefs and frescoes for the Safir Hotel from the artists Rizk and Salah Abdel Karim.

My thinking as a practising architect is not written down; it is built, in the many kinds of buildings I designed and supervised, together with the specialised engineering research and studies that preparing them required, which were among the reasons for their success once built.

When preparing the first idea for a project, I read the brief several times, then analyse it in detail as circles sized to the required or estimated areas, with the functional and circulation relationships between the main elements drawn in coloured lines and arrows, until the overall pattern of relationships appears as a single idea. I study the site after visiting it several times and photographing its surroundings, and I absorb its regulations and how the building and planning codes apply to it.

For major projects I travelled abroad to visit comparable buildings and the manufacturers of the relevant mechanical and electrical equipment and new finishing materials. Then comes living with the project: understanding the brief and the movement between its parts, picturing the site and its surroundings of roads, buildings and green spaces. I cannot say how long this lasts; it depends on the nature and importance of the project and on my circumstances at the time. I always feel great unease during this period, until I arrive at an idea that convinces me and answers the problem from every side.

When the idea comes from the store of memory, I sketch its first lines in complete calm. I am used to listening to music while I do this, and I always choose a quiet time at home rather than at the office, usually late in the evening or early in the morning. I then draw it on squared paper at 1:200 and then 1:50, a habit I formed after returning from the United States, convinced of its many technical and economic advantages. From these scaled first ideas, the main architectural drawings and then the details are completed in my office, and so the process repeats.

Sometimes the idea for a project comes at any time and in any place, and I write it down. That is what happened during the Cairo Airport competition. After visiting the main airports of Europe and America, on the flight back to Cairo I sketched an idea on the back of my cigarette packet: departing, arriving and transit passengers would all move on one level without crossing each other, whereas every airport I had visited used two levels or more. That idea was the reason the project succeeded.

After my long journey I feel happiness and gratitude when I read what is said and written about me. One writer described Mostafa Shawky as distinguished by balanced architectural thinking and great precision in his work. He cared for details as much as for the whole, had a fine sense of beauty, and searched for essence rather than being dazzled by appearances. He tried always to bind his buildings to nature, greenery and water, and saw heritage as an architectural value and a national treasure to be preserved. The writer concluded that he gave an honourable picture of an architect who gave much to his profession and was given success and renown in return.

I am also proud of the certificate of appreciation given to me by the Second Conference of Egyptian Architects in 1986, chaired by the late Hassan Fathy, which reads: “This certificate is given in appreciation of his creative role in developing contemporary Egyptian architecture and establishing the traditions of a noble profession, and in recognition of his contribution to teaching and training successive generations of architects.”

On this occasion I would like to say to my fellow architects and to students: the time has come to stop fearing contact with the technology of our age. We must absorb this global development so that we can take an active part in developing our societies and solving their problems, without conflict with our social life and our Islamic values.

“And say: Work, for God will see your work, and so will His Messenger and the believers.” (Qur'an 9:105)

Written in Arabic by Mostafa Shawky. English translation.