A Non-architect Learning About Architecture

Coming from a background in educational research, I didn’t know much about architecture when I first joined Tahayyuz. I had my own thoughts about the physical environment, and occasional inspiration from social writings about urban space, but I rarely thought about the field of architecture itself.

Here are the 2 biggest things I learned in the last 4 months.

Key learning #1: Being an architect in built Cairo is different from being an architect in empty plots of land.

We’re always building new cities in empty spaces in Egypt, like in New Cairo, New Administrative Capital, and Zayed.

It’s a completely different ballgame to be an architect in empty space vs. an architect in an existing place where people already work, play, and grow.

Architects working in places like Historic Cairo have more complex responsibilities. They work on projects in places where people already have their established lives and communities, their own histories and memories, in contexts with complex political and social dynamics.

Working in existing communities requires a different mindset, process, and skills.

Mindset: People first, not buildings.

Process: They don’t start at the drawing board, they start by learning about the people and the place.

Skills: Technical architectural skills aren’t enough, you need to also be skilled at understanding people’s needs and collaborating about architecture with non-architects, amongst other things.

Key learning #2: Starchitects vs. Mediator architects

Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

The Eiffel Tower in Paris.

Baron Palace in Heliopolis.

Those are structures conceptualized by “STARchitects”. They’re glamorous buildings that steal the show, by architects that are stars of the show.

But, are they genuinely useful buildings?

In my first week working with Tahayyuz Alliance, May gave me a book to read, Architects After Architecture.

One thing from the book really stuck with me: the role of architects as mediators of built space.

“This version of the architect as mediator may not sound as glamorous as the starchitect, but it is a more useful one”

- from the introduction to Architects After Architecture

Here’s what mediator architects do differently from starchitects:

Beauty is not the priority: Their priority is to be sensitive and responsive to the social, spatial, and environmental needs of the people they are creating a building for.

They don't (and can’t) work alone: They co-facilitate design processes that pool together the expertise of other central players, such as historians, anthropologists, artists, ecologists, and anyone whose work relates to the built environment.

Our educational program is about decentralizing the role of architects and making the built environment more just and humane. We’re building for a future where everyone, not just architects, will learn to be mediators in processes that shape the city around us - even someone like me who just learned about architecture 4 months ago.

Book I mentioned: 
Architects After Architecture, edited by Harriet Harriss, Rory Hyde, Roberta Marcaccio

Written by Rana El-Zoheiry