"As the first of what might be called Fathy's "stone period" houses, which were prompted by a governmental ban on the use of mud brick, the Fouad Riad design sets out to solve all of the clients functional needs, as well as proving the irrelevancy of the specific kind of compressive material chosen upon the architect's basic spatial system. Tucked down below a wall that protects it from the heavily travelled Saqqara Road nearby, the house appears to be almost insignificant from the public side, and only reveals itself from the interior or from the private gardens that join it to the oasis beyond. The low, horizontal scale of the structure, as well as the sensitively handled level changes within it, all tend to tie it to the land and give it a timeless sense of permanence and belonging. Dr. Riad had originally intended to only use the house during weekends and vacations but has now come to love it so much that it has become the permanent residence for the family. As in many of the architect's later projects, the lack of on-site project management has resulted in significant changes in his intent, but the strength of the original concept remains intact."
Source: Steele, James. 1989. The Hassan Fathy Collection. A Catalogue of Visual Documents at the Aga Khan Award for Architecture. Bern, Switzerland: The Aga Khan Trust for Culture, 51.
