travelling tradesmen, during the day they could sell their products, while at night could be used as lodging. The khans of medieval times were surrounded by walls arranged to form a square, secured by towers, with only one entrance. A standard khan had two built-together parts: the outer open courtyard surrounded by domed arcades and the building dedicated to prayer in the middle. The fortress-like character of the exterior was eased by the ornamentation of the façade. Inside the khan shops operated, and were used as storage for feedstuffs for the livestock.
The main purpose of the Khan designed by Hassan Fathy was to bring consumers to New Gourna. Therefore, unlike the medieval khans, which were nearly never placed inside the habitat, the khan designed by Fathy is in the middle of the village. There is only one distinct commonality between the Khan of New Gourna and the traditional ones;
the typical courtyard surrounded by walls can be found in the layout in the village, too.
A fundamental part of the Khan imagined by Fathy were the domed arcades. The shops were placed closer to the main square, while the lodgings were at the back.
Other public buildings on the main square were the Mosque and the Theatre, but the Village Hall was also in an important spot, beside the Mosque. The public buildings received a lot of criticism, they did not attract visitors. Their functionality is also questionable when reimagining a village. Subsequently looking back on the project the lesson to be learnt from the past of more than seventy years is that the part of the main square was overrated considering the true needs of the residents; only the Mosque functions now according to the original plans.
PUBLIC BUILDINGS IN NEW GOURNA The Khan
Judit Bielik
Archive photo of the Khan. Source: RBSCL, AUC
Inner courtyard of the Khan after removing the debris. Photo: Zs. Vasáros, 2018. Windows and doors of the Khan. Photo: Zs. Vasáros, 2015.
Eastern façade of the Khan during the renovation process. Photo: G. Sági, 2019.
Detail of the Cattle Market. Photo: Zs. Vasáros, 2015.
In Fathy’s concept for New Gourna the Market had an outstanding role due to both its function and its position within the structure of the settlement. The plot designated for New Gourna was separated by the railway which turned north at the south-east corner of the land. This curve defined the position of the Cattle Market, which served as an entrance for visitors arriving to the village. Visitors entered the area of the market via a double gate, then, on the opposite side of the Market they could enter the village of New Gourna along the main road through another gate.
Traditionally the Market was the main area of business: local traders and salesmen from nearby villages were selling their product here on market days. The selection in the local shops was often very restricted, normally only offering non-perishable goods for everyday use, e.g. coffee, sugar, oil. Other products like grain, vegetables, eggs could be bought at the market once a week. Besides food it was common practice to also trade with livestock, such as cattle, donkeys and camels. Markets in most villages did not have their own designated buildings, otherwise unused pieces of land were usually fenced off for this purpose.
However, the market in New Gourna was significantly different: it received its own building which served as the permanent location for the weekly markets, with mangers for the animals and planted trees.
The Market is in the south-eastern corner of the village and is accessible throughout a double gate. Through here a road leads to the gate on the other side of the Market which opens up to the village. On market days this road was occupied by grain salesmen.
Nearby the entrance of the market, to the right was a café which was covered by six domes.
The café building was followed by fourteen stables. The empty plot on the left side along the road was shaded by planted trees, with long stables underneath with water access for the animals.
The project received a lot of criticism and in the end was not fully built; only the Mosque, the Khan, the Schools, and the Market were constructed from the planned public buildings.
Compared to the scale of the village the Market was considered to be overly big, the area was very large in scale to the needs of a village this size.
During the surveying it was only possible to collect data from certain parts of the building:
the fourteen stables were found in a fairly good condition during our first visit, but by 2018 it deteriorated significantly: the arches partly collapsed, some of their openings were walled up. The land around the Market was completely built in, the openings on the outer façade are mostly walled up to allow for building houses along the walls of the Market.
The Market has not been fulfilling its primary function, it is not being used, therefore it is in a run-down condition. The Cattle Market as a function is not justified in New Gourna like it used to be, its remaining parts are being put to use to contemporary needs: the building of the double gate gives space to a whitewash shop and a weaving manufacory, the empty plot which was meant to be the marketplace and the massive land around it is slowly taken over by the village.