Mahmoud Riad (architect)

Mahmoud Riad (also spelt Mahmud Ryad, Arabic: محمود رياض‎; 1905–1979[1]) was a prolific Egyptian architect, urban planner, and housing policy maker.

[2] Plans for Cairo's growth on the desert to its west were overseen by Riad, including Nasr City which was designed by Sayed Karim as a new administrative residential district and broke ground in 1959.

[7] After numerous disagreements with the Minister of Municipal and Village Affairs on Cairo's planning, Riad tendered his resignation in 1965 and accepted an offer as technical advisor to the Ministry of Public Works in Kuwait,[7] where he oversaw the planning and construction of all projects taking place there until his death in 1979 - leading him to establish professional and personal relationships with the likes of Reima Pietila, Sir Colin Buchanan, and Kenzo Tange.“[2] In 1945, Mahmoud Riad wrote a policy paper on providing affordable housing in Majallat al-Imara, stating how the housing problem was a “major national problem that should urgently garner the lion’s share of attention to ensure the peoples’ development.”[8] Riad’s essay analyzed housing policies in a number of western European countries, singling out Austria’s interwar socialist democratic policies of Red Vienna for being the most successful in providing affordable housing, and recommending similar policies in Egypt.

[9] After two years, their elaborate study, Mashru'a li-tawfir Al-sakan lil-tabaqat Al-mahduda Al-dakhl fi misr (The Project to Provide Housing to Limited Income Classes in Egypt) estimated that 140,000 housing units were needed to be built annually, at the rate of 40,000 in the cities and 100,000 in the countryside, identifying that the government was the only agent that had the capacity to carry out such a program.

[9] Taking the study seriously, the Ministry of Social Affairs founded the Department of Popular Homes in 1950, Egypt’s first high office for housing, and appointed Riad as its Director General, giving him official powers to oversee the proposed projects.