Interests Beyond Architecture

I have many interests, and from time to time I find peace in reading outside my field: astronomy, mathematics, gravity and our ancient civilisations. I take photographs and travel abroad, I have a natural love of music and the fine arts, and I keep trying to understand my faith and to write down reflections. Among my interests:

• Books on astronomy, mathematics and gravity, which tell the story of humanity's struggle to uncover the secrets of the universe, among them Newton's laws of motion and Einstein's theories of energy, time and space.
• When I joined the late Dr William Selim Hanna in studying and preparing the Philae salvage project in 1969, I began reading about Pharaonic civilisation, especially its engineering and building practice, trying to draw out architectural principles, particularly those still applied today, and learning about the lives and works of the great ancient builders.
• Travel, for pleasure or work: about forty-five journeys to most of Europe, North America and Canada, Mexico, Japan, India and the Ivory Coast, as well as Arab countries including Saudi Arabia, Syria, Libya, Kuwait, Morocco and Lebanon. On every trip I made a point of visiting the main public and residential buildings and photographing them in colour; each journey was for me a practical study and a new addition to my architectural store. After each visit I made one or more albums of my own photographs and material from brochures, and I am happy now to look through them and relive those memories.
• Music and song: I enjoy Arabic music by certain composers and singers when the melody is calm, the words good and the voice moving. I listen to the radio regularly, especially local and foreign news and cultural and religious programmes.
• Plants and flowers: I love greenery, and I tend the plants and flowers of the small garden at my home myself; it is simply an outdoor extension of the living room. I care for it constantly and watch it grow through summer and winter. It remains the place where I find peace.
• Reading the Holy Qur'an: I end with my greatest duty, reading the Qur'an and its commentaries, together with my love of religious books and of the relationship between religion and science. From them I learned to contemplate God's creation and the beauty of nature, and how to live by true Islamic values in my private life and in my work as an architect. I have written more than sixty religious reflections.
• And so I have lived in the shade of the Holy Qur'an at peace, seeing the hand of God in every event and every matter, living in His care, and to Him is the return of every destiny.

Written in Arabic by Mostafa Shawky. English translation.