Journal article
Mandarin of the Ecological Modern: Hassan Fathy, Nature, and the Postcolonial African City
Environmental history, Vol.31(4), pp.748-773
09/08/2026
DOI: 10.1086/742842
Abstract
In the early 1960s, the Egyptian architect Hassan Fathy traveled throughout West Africa as part of the City of the Future (COF) research project, which aimed to collect data on urban life across the world. This essay examines Fathy’s writings about postcolonial Africa as part of the COF project. It suggests that this work set him apart from a broader consensus among technocratic elites and postcolonial political leaders about the human relationship with the natural world that emphasized an imperative to manage, control, and direct. Instead, Fathy sought to synthesize his long-standing interests in climate, architecture, and urbanism with the question of decolonization on the African continent and concluded that a postcolonial approach to urban architecture and design necessitated a return to precolonial methods of construction and planning, ones embedded in and responsive to city’s ecological contexts.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Mandarin of the Ecological Modern: Hassan Fathy, Nature, and the Postcolonial African City
- Creators
- Robert M. Rouphail - University of Iowa
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Environmental history, Vol.31(4), pp.748-773
- DOI
- 10.1086/742842
- ISSN
- 1084-5453
- eISSN
- 1930-8892
- Publisher
- University of Chicago Press
- Language
- English
- Electronic publication date
- 09/08/2026
- Academic Unit
- History
- Record Identifier
- 9985224338502771
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