What Formed My Thinking

The intellectual formation of an honest architect is not easy; it involves struggle. For me it was the sum of many factors, besides a natural inclination to appreciate art. Among them:

• The values my late father instilled in me in childhood and youth, above all contentment and self-reliance. I owe him a great debt and hold him in great love. We lived in Geneinet Kamish in Sayeda Zeinab, a district that was home to writers and businessmen such as El-Manfaluti, El-Sebai and El-Ramly, and later moved to Zamalek. Growing up in those neighbourhoods I learned a great deal and came to know what belonging means.
• Deep, careful and organised study, at the Faculty of Engineering of Cairo University and at the University of Illinois.
• Wide reading of architectural books and magazines from my second year of architecture, when I subscribed to three foreign architectural journals. I trained myself to study the projects that attracted me in a particular way that I could draw on in later life.
• My voyage to the United States just after the war, on a military transport ship for American soldiers, to join the University of Illinois. The crossing took about 22 days and taught me patience, discipline, endurance and self-reliance, qualities every honest architect needs.
• Studying the main theories of architecture closely, following their development, and drawing out their principles and values to express them in an architectural language suited to our own time.
• Constant visits to good architecture on my annual trips to North America, Europe and Latin America, about forty journeys in all.
• A broad view of the arts, fine art and music alike, together with my interest in photography and my continual reading of religious books and studies, which helped me perceive the creativity visible in the universe.

Written in Arabic by Mostafa Shawky. English translation.