Abdel-Wahed El-Wakil

The almost-completed centre appeared on the front cover of the UK Financial Times Magazine on March 10/11 2007.

In 1993, El-Wakil designed a mansion for Thomas Kramer in Miami, Florida. Vincent Scully, in his book ‘Between the Two Towers’ gave it generous mention.

In 1991, the crisis of the Gulf War forced the closure of El-Wakil's offices in the UK. Being aware of the situation, Andrés Duany invited El-Wakil to come to Miami as visiting Professor at the University of Miami. El-Wakil also joined a charette organised by Duany for the development of South Beach. The developer Thomas Kramer, impressed by El-Wakil, asked him to design his new residence on Star Island. Duany presented El-Wakil with several consultancy opportunities of which The Kemer County Development offered him the opportunity to experiment with Traditional Turkish Architecture in the Design of the Country Club. El-Wakil kept a base in Miami until the tragic events of 911.

With the oil boom in 1973, Saudi Arabia provided a majority of commissions for El-Wakil. He undertook the design of a number of grand mansions developing a design approach of internalised spaces of atriums, patios, and courtyards, which appeared unfamiliar to the prevailing trend of extrovert villa type houses.

In 1967, El-Wakil's whole approach to architecture was altered when he met with his mentor professor Hassan Fathy. Having previously built three apartment buildings in the idioms of his former education in modern-style architecture, El-Wakil decided to become an apprentice to Hassan Fathy. As with Frank Lloyd Wright, Hassan Fathy's mention was taboo at the Ain Shams Department of Architecture and that forced El-Wakil to end his teaching post at the Faculty and begin his new education with his mentor.

After five years of working with Hassan Fathy, El-Wakil had the opportunity to design and build a house by the beach of Agamy near Alexandria. The Six-Day War of 1967 had brought Egypt into an economic disaster and again modern building materials became scarce and expensive. It was a unique opportunity for El-Wakil to interpret Hassan Fathy's design philosophy of architecture for the poor. The Halawa house at Agamy made use of the abundant limestone within the area introducing the first indigenous Egyptian architecture in a resort that began with a pseudo French Riviera style and finished with pseudo-Modern.

From 1965 to 1970, he was appointed as an instructor and lecturer at the Architecture Department of his Faculty.

El-Wakil's early education in Egypt was at the British schools of Victoria College and the English School. In 1960, he obtained his GCE and graduated with a distinction in Applied Mathematics, Art, Physics, and Chemistry. In the same year, he joined the Faculty of Engineering at Ain Shams University and in 1965 acquired his BSc in Architecture with Distinction and First Honours Degree. It was while studying for his degree that El-Wakil became acquainted with the writings of English critic John Ruskin. Ruskin's descriptions of what he termed an "arborescent" quality in architecture (a bold structure of decoration, legible at a distance, reveals ever-finer sub-structures as you approach it) had a lasting effect upon him.

Abdel-Wahed El-Wakil (Arabic: عبد الواحد الوكيل, born 7 August 1943) is an Egyptian architect who designed over 15 mosques in Saudi Arabia and is considered by many as the foremost contemporary authority in Islamic architecture. For designing in traditional styles, he is also a representative of New Classical Architecture.