Charles Habib Ayrout () (1905 Cairo, Egypt1961 Cairo, Egypt) was an architect practising in

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

and is considered one of that city's ' pioneer' generation, as well as a

Belle Epoque Belle may refer to: People and fictional characters * Belle (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Belle (surname), a list of people * Southern belle, a stock character representing a young woman of the American South's upp ...

Art Déco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920s to early 1930s, ...

(1920–1940) architect for his landmark buildings and villas,. and was one of the most active builders in its Heliopolis district. 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 Aleppo is a city in Syria, which serves as the capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Governorates of Syria, governorate of Syria. With an estimated population of 2,098,000 residents it is Syria's largest city by urban area, and ...

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

. After being educated in Paris as an engineer-architect, Habib Ayrout participated in the planning and construction of Heliopolis. Timothy Mitchell ''Rule of Experts: Egypt, Techno-Politics, Modernity'', University of California Press, 2002, pg. 332 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. However, he stressed on learning the principles of Modrnist architecture, and reapplying them in Egypt as opposed to copying them. Works in Cairo include :Cairo's Belle Époque architects 1900 - 1950
compiled by Samir Raafat *Bldg, 26 July/Hassan Sabri,

Zamalek Zamalek ( , ''al zamalek'') is a ''qism'' (ward) within the West District (''hayy gharb'') in the Western Area of Cairo, Egypt. It is an affluent district on a man-made island which is geologically a part of the west bank of the Nile River, wit ...

*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

Family

Style

See also

References

Further reading