Resumen La condición de arquitectura alternativa apunta a procesos individualistasalejados de convencionalismos de contexto. La internacionalización de los postulados modernos condujo a la crítica a eludir en sus análisis construcciones de revitalización de una arquitectura considerada comoexcesivamente identitaria. Este artículo analiza el esfuerzo del arquitectoegipcio Hassan Fathy (1900-1989) por reivindicar, a todas las escalas, lasabiduría de la edificación tradicional durante un periodo coincidente con la modernidad occidental. La escasez de hierro y cemento en Egipto, tras la II Guerra Mundial, fomentó la recuperación de una construcción de bajo coste adaptada a las circunstancias y recursos materiales del lugar. La durabilidad de la arquitectura popular que permanecía conservada desde tiempos remotos, y sobre todo su eficacia en el control climático, fomentó en Fathy el deseo de aprendizaje de métodos y dispositivos tradicionales tanto constructivos como espaciales que fueron reinterpretados con una lectura moderna, desde el ámbito doméstico al urbano, en la morfología y materialización de sus proyectos.AbstractThe “alternative” architectural condition points to individualistic processes that give results far removed from the conventionalisms of context. The internationalization of the modern postulates led the critique to leave constructive procedures in the analyses of revitalization of an architecture considered as excessively identitarian, to one side.This article analyses the effort of the Egyptian architect Hassan Fathy (1900-1989) to defend at all levels, during a period coinciding with Western modernity, the wisdom of traditional inherited edification.The scarcity of iron and cement in Egypt, after the Second World War, boosted the recovery of a low-cost construction adapted to the climatic conditions and the material resources available locally. Popular architecture’s durability, especially its utilitarian aspect, preservedsince ancient times and, in particular, its effectiveness in climate control, inspired in Fathy the desire to learn traditional constructive and spatial devices. The questioning of the figure of the “Muallim”, or Master Mason, which had become a source of inherited knowledge, with regards vernacular constructive systems, added to his own analysis of popular architecture, gave him a knowledge of autochthonous materials and passive mechanisms of environmental control that were reinterpreted with a modern reading in the materialization of both his domestic and urban projects.
Accounting for Sustainable Development over the Long-Run: Lessons from Germany
