Abdel-Wahed El-Wakil
In the same year, he joined the Faculty of Engineering at Ain Shams University and in 1965 acquired his BSc in Architecture with Distinction and First Honours Degree.
Ruskin's descriptions of what he termed an "arborescent" quality in architecture (a bold structure of decoration, legible at a distance, reveals ever-finer sub-structures as you approach it) had a lasting effect upon him.
Having previously built three apartment buildings in the idioms of his former education in modern-style architecture, El-Wakil decided to become an apprentice to Hassan Fathy.
As with Frank Lloyd Wright, Hassan Fathy's mention was taboo at the Ain Shams Department of Architecture and that forced El-Wakil to end his teaching post at the Faculty and begin his new education with his mentor.
It then occurred to Hassan Fathy that the Nubians of Upper Egypt managed to build the most beautiful houses with mud - the humble material below their feet.
After five years of working with Hassan Fathy, El-Wakil had the opportunity to design and build a house by the beach of Agami near Alexandria.
The Halawa house at Agamy made use of the abundant limestone within the area introducing the first indigenous Egyptian architecture in a resort that began with a pseudo French Riviera style and finished with pseudo-Modern.
Beyond Saudi Arabia, El-Wakil designed a contemporary Arab courtyard town house for Farouk Sultan in Kuwait.
By the time the Suleiman mansion had been completed, El-Wakil's work had caught the attention of Sheikh Said Farsi, the mayor of Jeddah, who appointed him as advisor.
With support from Mayor Said Farsi and Deputy Minister Hossam Khashoggi, El-Wakil now proceeded to achieve an opus of over fifteen mosques within a period of ten years.
Designing single-handed, he managed to delve into the evolution of the finest detail, to develop innovative building techniques, and simultaneously to achieve minarets, and vaulted and domed structures, of great daring.
Being directly commissioned by King Fahd and promoted by the mayor of Jeddah, El-Wakil managed to circumvent all the bureaucratic regulations that would have prevented the mosque ever being built.
Not only are the fine ornamental details remarkable, the vast variety of columns and stalactites, pendentives and multiple other elements all created without repetition.
El Wakil has recently designed a boutique hotel in El-Gouna, Red Sea, Egypt, and a mixed-use residential quarter within the Solidere International project Cairo Eastown.
With Prince Sultan, the Saudi astronaut, he worked on developing and restoring a the old Al-'Udhaibat traditional farm in the Wadi Hanifa in Diriyah on the western outskirts of Riyadh.
On a recent visit with the President of Senegal, El-Wakil was invited to develop experimental social housing in mud brick.
