ARCHiNOS Brings the Past Back to Life
7 December 2015
Architects have to be skilled in presenting comprehensible three-dimensional representations of buildings and spaces that do not physically exist but are just conceived as designs for future construction. Dr Tarek Swelim, a renowned historian of Islamic architecture, required ARCHiNOS Architecture to do the opposite: to re-create a splendid city that vanished 1,110 years ago, and to show how its grand mosque –the oldest one surviving intact in Cairo—changed over the centuries. The resulting drawings, 3D renders, and plans are now out, illustrating the impressive and definitive book Ibn Tulun: His Lost City and Great Mosque, just published by the American University in Cairo and now available from booksellers. The book features extraordinary photographs by Matjaž Kačičnik, who collaborated with ARCHiNOS on past projects.
Picture: The courtyard of the mosque of Ahmad Ibn Tulun in the 9th century A.D., according to Tarek Swelim’s research.
Karim al-Faramawy with Joanna Dyżewska and Jarosław Dobrowolski