Maps of understanding

Did he find the existence of Mustafa Fahmy's building in any way restrictive?

"Yes, I was restrained, but as an architect you always are. In the case of the Nile Gallery, I had to preserve the skeleton of the building. I like to see this, though, less as a restriction than as a reference, both to history and to memory."

Though responsible for the design of many museums and institutional buildings, including the National Museum of Jordan, the International Islamic University in Malaysia, and various projects in Mexico and the United States, Abdel-Halim insists that the Nile gallery is unique among his output.

photo: Khaled El-Fiqi

"I could only have built it in Egypt," he claims. "You can only produce authentic buildings if you are placed in a context in which you are at home. When working on the Nile Gallery, I was not building it for the Ministry of Culture, or for anyone, I was just building it." Abdel-Halim also built a philosophy around the gallery.

Abdel-Halim's agenda becomes apparent as soon as you walk into the gallery. The foyer deliberately recreates the feeling of entering a mosque, though one with a transparent octagonal dome. The octagon is echoed in the floor design and on the walls of the entrance. In front of the entrance are large glass doors that give a preview of the gallery -- a modern space with glass ceilings and exposed air-conditioning ducts. Islamic motifs are thus self-consciously mixed with modern artifacts. Abdel-Halim, however, refuses to designate his architecture "Islamic".

"We don't do an Islamic style; we do architecture which is appropriate and meaningful in context. Architecture is always constructed within a context -- historical, cultural, social. So if you look at the Egyptian context, and what I would like to call Egyptian' architecture, the strongest three influences are ancient Egyptian, Coptic and Islamic".

"When you say that the Nile Gallery entrance feels Islamic, that is because it plays a serious role in restructuring the architecture. Recognising the failure of modernism, the Nile Gallery attempts to be full of meaning; it is not a modern, neutral, rational, empty, building but full of feeling. It is connected to the traditions of building in context but also opens itself to the future in a way that acknowledges the role of art in the life of the future. So I can say, with some measure of modesty or immodesty, that this is a key building in the process of redefining art and architecture in the coming era. It was designed with that commitment in mind."

"Octagons are part of all Islamic and Coptic architecture... so this octagonal shape in the entrance of the gallery tries to produce a point of order, a point of orientation, so that you are in a space that is recognisable. It is built of stone, which ties the familiarity of form to a familiarity of material -- and stone is a very authentic, very Egyptian material. After the entrance, you then see the glass doors opening to the grand hall and through that you see all this modern stuff. Now this juxtaposition is very important. You enter from a very familiar space, architecturally, form-wise and so on, then from the glass opening you see the gallery, and the gallery is a new world... We acknowledge the context of the site: the Opera House, in Cairo, Egypt. The stone envelope of the building is familiar, it is not meant to shock you, it is meant to attract you and to familiarise you. Once you pass through the entrance we want to introduce you to the new stuff. Inside is the art, which is the purpose of this building. Art is a discovery. We want to suggest that discovery need not be too shocking but you can discover things while you are on familiar ground, and this is much better".

The entrance, Abdel-Halim's "familiar ground," leads into the large hall of the main gallery -- a bright, cool, space enveloped in walls of chiseled sandstone. The transparent ceiling, at least, with its exposed ducts and white steel structures bears obvious comparison with the Centre Pompidou in Paris. But Abdel-Halim is quick to point out the differences.

"It's not Pompidou. It does more than Pompidou. The Centre Pompidou is an attempt made by French architects to confront the same issue that we are confronting. 'What sort of building, what sort of architecture, in the twentieth century, can exist in a context that is completely historical?' Pompidou took a completely different direction from us. Pompidou is completely technological; it is in complete contrast with the background of Paris; it is ultra modern. We did not do that. But we did want to use natural light; hence, the transparent roof to permit the natural light to come in all year round. So, the question arose: how are we going to deal with these other technical things? We either decide to conceal them or to expose them, and we decided to expose them."

"All these steel structures, the ducts, the lighting, and the pipes can be part of art. Here, we are different from Pompidou. Pompidou is a celebration of technology. We wanted to say that technology and industrial materials are not to be celebrated but to be incorporated. In other words, there is some effort to be made. Look at the roof, you find steel structures and wire trusses. The steel is needed structurally, but the shaping of it and its form is crafty. We don't accept industrial materials and technological equipment as they are; we take them and we work on them in the same manner as a craftsman would work on a piece of stone... this idea is very important for the making of the Nile Gallery."

The gallery space is itself compartmentalised, across three levels.

"Previously, this gallery was one large space. What we introduced is a series of galleries. You go into the first hall, then you take a staircase and go to the second. There is a certain system of proportion in the gallery which I think an important aspect of the design itself and an integral part of Egyptian architecture."

"The rationale [behind breaking down the gallery into smaller spaces] is that you have to feel some boundaries, you have to be in a bounded place in order to comprehend or to conceive something. The notion of the old art gallery, like the old Nile Gallery or like the Louvre before its renovation, with large halls and corridors, has been revised. And the idea is to create a space for the piece of art so that the painting or sculpture is in a context. The psychological sphere or the space has to be defined for the viewer."

"Also this idea of sequences and breaking down of space into smaller compartments enhances the sense of discovery. Before its modification, the Louvre was very tiring and very boring. Gallery after gallery and so on. Modernising the Louvre involved breaking it down into sequences to create a kind of journey of discovery. People used to be fascinated by supermarkets, but people who really enjoy shopping don't go to supermarkets, they go to small antique shops... Architects used to design huge empty spaces for offices, supermarkets, etc. Now, this notion has been revised. Now we understand that any successful space has to be based on discovery, some measure of a participatory attitude from the users. People must be engaged."

Although not functioning, there is a café on the first floor of the gallery and space for an outdoor café, from which an exterior staircase leads into the upstairs galleries and, from there, to the restaurant.

"The idea was to create a social milieu, an environment for art... The perception of art in Egypt is problematic. It has always been the domain of the elite, and actually this is very far away from the truth of art."

The Nile Gallery also houses a bookstore, a library, a cinema and a gallery space "for youth to display their work".

"Art should be familiar and accessible to all but there is an attitude of 'security culture' in arts institutions. I hope that they won't handle this gallery this way."

"I am optimistic that it will not become an elitist gallery though it all depends on the management. A creative management with authority and funds could make the gallery accessible to a wide public. The Nile Gallery has that potential. It has hallways, cafés, restaurants, and you could make something wonderful out of it. But while the architecture can help facilitate making a success of the place much depends on management policies."

"Buildings," Abdel-Halim asserts, "are not just buildings. They are maps of understanding."

He believes that Egyptian architecture is built on a deep comprehension that human beings are part of a much larger order. "Egyptian monuments, whether ancient, Coptic, or Islamic are scripts that show that Egyptians have understood that they are part of a universe that is much larger than they are, and we are a continuation of that tradition... "

"I will tell you of a very amazing experience. We finished building the gallery and it was a purely architectural piece, before they put any of the paintings in it. Then Ahmed Fouad Selim, who is the director of the Gezira collection, brought the paintings to the gallery. I was standing with him while they were hanging them. The minute that you hang the painting in the designated space is the magical moment. Something happens... the light comes in, and the experience starts happening, and it's quite amazing. That's when you can tell whether or not the art gallery works." He laughs. "It works."

Interview by Maggie Morgan