| Veiling Architecture: Decoration of Domestic Buildings in Upper Egypt 1672-1950 Contributor(s): Abdel-Gawad, Ahmed (Author) |
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ISBN: 9774164873 ISBN-13: 9789774164873 Publisher: American University in Cairo Press OUR PRICE: $20.66 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: June 2012 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Architecture | Design, Drafting, Drawing & Presentation - Architecture | Interior Design - General |
| Dewey: 729.096 |
| Physical Information: 0.5" H x 6.5" W x 9.3" (1.15 lbs) 144 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: In the Nile Valley and desert oases south of Cairo-Upper Egypt-surviving domestic buildings from the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries demonstrate a unique and varied strand of traditional decoration. Intricate patterns in wood, iron, or plaster adorn doorways, balconies, windows, and rooflines in towns and villages throughout the region. One of the most distinctive cultural features of these traditional homes is the decorated wooden balcony-screen-with jigsaw-cut patterns often based on creative repetitions, inversions, and mirrorings of the Arabic letter waw-which was designed to veil the residents from public view while allowing them to take the air and watch the outside world go by. Here, Ahmed Abdel Gawad presents a wide range of these exuberant and largely unknown designs, in both photographs and detailed architectural drawings, for the use and appreciation of designers, decorators, artists, and lovers of vernacular architecture. |
Contributor Bio(s): Abdel-Gawad, Ahmed: - Ahmed Abdel-Gawad is a professor in the faculty of veterinary medicine at Cairo University and also holds a diploma in Islamic architecture from Cairo University. He is the author of Enter in Peace: The Doorways of Cairo Homes, 1872-1950 (AUC Press, 2007). |
