Architecture for the Poor : an experiment in rural Egypt / Hassan Fathy

Foreword / William R. Polk -- Preface -- Prelude: dream and reality -- Paradise lost: the countryside -- Mud brick: sole hope for rural reconstruction -- Mud for roofing, bahtim: trial and error -- Nubia: survival of an ancient technique of Vaulting -- The Nubian Masons at work: first successes -- Ezbet el Basry: Iblis in Ambush -- A Tomb Robbery Begets a Pilot Housing Project -- Birth of New Gourna: the site -- Man, society and technology -- Architectural character -- The process of decision making -- Tradition's role -- Saving individuality in the village -- Traditional village crafts restores -- The us of mud brick an economic necessity -- Reestablishment ofthe "trinity": owner, architect, and craftsman -- Vernacular architecture of Old Gourna -- Change with constancy -- Climate and architecture -- Orientation of houses determined partly by sun, partly by wind -- The Malkaf, or Wind Catch -- Society and architecture -- Kinship structure and local custom -- Socieconomic considerations -- Rural crafts in Gourna -- The plan of New Gourna -- Public service buildings and amenities -- The peasant house -- Combating Bilharzia -- Gourna, a pilot project -- The cooperative system -- In-service training -- Gourna not an end in itself -- A stillborn experiment, Mit-el-Nasara -- National program for rural reconstruction -- Fugue: architect, peasant, and Bureaucrat -- Finale: Gourna Dormant.