Charles Ayrout Explained

Charles Habi
Birth Name:	Charles Habib Ayrout
Birth Place:	Egypt
Occupation:	Architect
Significant Buildings:	Mosseri Building Ayrout Villa, Zamalek Halim Doss Bldg Villa Valadji

Charles Habib Ayrout (Arabic: شارل حبيب عيروط-) (1905 Cairo, Egypt - 1965 Cairo, Egypt) was an architect practising in Cairo and is considered one of that city's 'pioneer' generation, as well as a Belle Epoque/Art Déco (1920–1940) architect for his landmark buildings and villas,.^[1] and was one of the most active builders in its Heliopolis district.^[2] He summarised his approach in 1932 as to “bring to Heliopolis the principles of modern architecture, but not of avantgarde architecture."

Family

His father, Habib Ayrout, was an Egyptian architect and contractor, born into a family originally from Aleppo, Syria.^[3] After being educated in Paris as an engineer-architect, Habib Ayrout participated in the planning and construction of Heliopolis.^[4]

Charles Ayrout had two brothers, the Jesuit priest Henry Habib Ayrout and Max Ayrout, who was also an architect practicing in Cairo.

Style

Ayrout was part of a movement of French educated Syrian-Lebanese Egyptian architects, who were strongly influenced by the French 'modern classicism' of Michel Poux-Spitz and Pol Abraham. This movement also included Antonine Selim Nahas and Raymond Antonious.^[5] However, he stressed on learning the principles of Modrnist architecture, and reapplying them in Egypt as opposed to copying them.

Works in Cairo include

^[6]

• Bldg, 26 July/Hassan Sabri, Zamalek
• 25 Mansour Street, Bab al-Louk
• Ayrout Bldg, Cherif Pasha Street
• Abdel Hamid El Shawarbi Pasha Building, Ramsis Street/26th of July Street
• Ayrout Villa, Zamalek
• Mosseri Building (now Mofti) on Shagaret Al Durr St., Zamalek
• Bishara Bldg, Nile Avenue
• Halim Doss Bldg, Midan Shafakhana
• Ibrahimieh Secondary School, Garden City
• Kahil Bldg, Kantaret al-Dikka
• Bldg Gamal el Dine Abou El Mahassen, Garden City (1951)
• Villa Valadji, Heliopolis

See also

• List of Egyptian architects
• Heliopolis (Cairo Suburb)
• Heliopolis style

References

1. Mercedes Volait Le Caire-Alexandrie: Architectures Européennes 1850-1950 (co-edition IFAO/CEDEJ 2001)
2. Volait . Mercedes . 2006-09-01 . Mediating and domesticating modernity in Egypt : uncovering some forgotten pages . Docomomo Journal.
3. Héliopolis, création et assimilation d’une ville européenne en Égypte au xx^esiècle

   https://books.openedition.org/pufr/3077?lang=en

4. [Timothy Mitchell]
5. R. Stephen Sennott (editor), Encyclopedia of 20th Century Architecture, Vol. 1, Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 2004, pg. 202
6. http://www.egy.com/people/98-10-01.php Cairo's Belle Époque architects 1900 - 1950

Further reading

Studies where Ayrout's work is discussed:

• L’identification d’un ensemble urbain du XXème siècle en Egypte: Héliopolis, Le Caire. by Mercedes Volait and Claudine Piaton.
• L'inscription du discours occidental dans l'architecture et l'urbanisme orientaux by M Zakarya.
• Jaroslaw Dobrowolski and Agnieszka Dobrowolska, Heliopolis: Rebirth of the City of the Sun, American University in Cairo Press, 2006.
• Le rêve fou d’un baron belge by Nabila Massrali and Amira Doss. Al-Ahram Hebdo, 27 April 2005, Issue No. 555.
• "A Change in Looking" (on Bauhaus style) by Sonali Pahwa. Al-Ahram Weekly, 22–28 April 2004, Issue No. 687.

On the Belle Époque architecture in Cairo:

• Cynthia Myntti, Paris Along the Nile: Architecture in Cairo from the Belle Epoque, American University in Cairo Press, 2003.
• Trevor Mostyn, Egypt's Belle Epoque: Cairo and the Age of the Hedonists, Tauris Parke Paperbacks, 2006.
• A list of Cairo's Belle Époque architects 1900 - 1950, compiled by Samir Raafat.