Heliopolis style

Heliopolis style is an early 20th-century architectural style developed in the new suburb of Heliopolis in eastern Cairo, Egypt. The Belgian Cairo Electric Railways and Heliopolis Oases Company, responsible for planning and developing the new suburb, created the new style to implement an exclusive distinctiveness to the design of its buildings. The revival style is a synthesis of Moorish Revival, traditional Arabic, Persian Revival, and European Neoclassical architecture styles.

File:Heliopolis Palace Hotel 4 (2).jpg

Heliopolis Palace Hotel, front facade in the Heliopolis style, in Heliopolis.

File:Heliopolis Palace Hotel 5 (2).jpg

Heliopolis Palace Hotel, rear facade and terrace with details in the Heliopolis style.

Style

The goal of this style was to successfully implement the aesthetic and functional advantages of the influencing styles. Combining the qualities of these types brought Moorish and Persian facades, Arabic spatial volumes, and European floor plans, and Neoclassical and Moorish interiors together in a homogeneous unit.

The Heliopolis style integrated qualities, including:

• climatic adaptation techniques of Arabic northern Africa (implemented in volumes).
• Persian-Moorish Revival sense of architectural style detailing (implemented in facades).
• Euro-Egyptian hospitality social traditions, of the early 20th century era (implemented in plans and interior design).

Examples

The Heliopolis suburb is the only example of this unique architectural style, and is still very well preserved. The Heliopolis style is represented there by a large ensemble of buildings in a wide area with the historic form-language. The Heliopolis Palace, originally a grand hotel opened in 1910 and now a presidential palace, is an exceptional example.

Architects practicing at the time in this style included Charles Ayrout and Henry Habib Ayrout.

See also

• Egyptian Revival architecture
• Heliopolis (Cairo Suburb)
• Timeline of architectural styles

External links

• Celebration of a suburb, Al-Ahram weekly online
• Egypt in Bygone dayes, Photographic resource
• French Architect, Alexandre Marcel
• (Arabic) Heliopolis Company for Housing and Development - Currently responsible for the further development of Heliopolis
• (Dutch) Heliopolis: een Belgische droom in Caïro (Heliopolis: A Belgique dream in Cairo)
• (English) Cairo Landmarks, Photographic resource
• (French) L'Egypte célèbre le centenaire d'Héliopolis (Egypt celebrates the centenary of Heliopolis)
• (French) "Un ensemble urbain Art déco en Egypte : Héliopolis, banlieue du Caire", Volait, Mercedes - Piaton, Claudine, 2003
• (French) " L’identification d’un ensemble urbain du XXème siècle en Egypte : Héliopolis, Le Caire", Volait, Mercedes, 2008
• (German) Egyptian delta light railways Bonds