| AUC launches an exhibition celebrating one of Egypt’s most renowned architects |
| By Nadine El Sayed |
| Beginning tomorrow, the American University in Cairo (AUC) will be celebrating the life and works of one of Egypt's greatest architects, the late Ramses Wissa Wassef. To mark the centennial of his birth, the university's Rare Books and Special Collections Library (RBSCL) is putting on an exhibition of his architectural and artistic legacy, opening on February 16. “Ramses Wissa Wassef: The Architect and the Artist” will remain on display at the AUC Library building, on the New Cairo campus, through the end of May.
Born in 1911, Wassef studied architecture in France at L’Ecole des Beaux Arts de Paris, then worked from 1935 until his death in 1974 as an architect, artist and teacher. Over a nearly 40-year career, he designed several Cairo area landmarks, including the Mahmoud Mokhtar Museum, the Virgin Mary Coptic Church in Zamalek and St. George Coptic Church in Heliopolis. His designs carried an oriental touch inspired by the domes and arches found in rural Egyptian villages, specifically the Nubian houses in and around Aswan.
Aside from his work as an architect, he wrote several books on architecture and the philosophy of architecture and creativity and was also known as a patron of arts, creativity and young talents.
Wassef is the founder of an art center carrying his name and dedicated to tapestry weaving and releasing the creativity of young Egyptian villagers.
“Human freedom never has as much meaning and value as when it allows the creative power of the child to come into action,” Wassef is quoted on the center's website. “All children are endowed with a creative power which includes an astonishing variety of potentialities. This power is necessary for the child to build up his own existence.”
The exhibition features artifacts and works of the late Wassef, on loan from his family. On January 29, RBSCL officials announced the launch of Wassef’s architectural drawings collection documenting the architect’s career. The special collection will digitize and describe over 800 architectural plans and drawings of over 60 villas, schools, churches, banks and apartment buildings designed by Wassef between 1945 and 1972.
The RBSCL also holds the papers of famed architect Hassan Fathy as part of a project titled “Creating a Center for Architectural Archives in Egypt: Preservation and Access for the Papers of Hassan Fathy and Ramses Wissa Wassef.” The archival project is funded by a grant from the US National Endowment for the Humanities.
The opening ceremony starts at noon on February 16, with AUC’s board of trustees, university President Lisa Anderson and Wassef’s family in attendance.
“Ramses Wissa Wassef: The Architect and the Artist,” is showing at the Abdullah S. Jumah Exhibition, Room 3014; RBSCL, third floor, AUC New Cairo. |
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