Poverty & Self-Realisation

Recently, I had become fascinated with the idea of starvation and poverty due to my reading of Islam philosophy behind Ramadan. During that fateful Ramadan in 2018, I had the rare opportunity to design Khalid Mosque. With the body weakened and cleansed, one rediscovers his mortality, his temporality, and then his inherent spirituality.

“I realized that I was looking at the living survivor of traditional Egyptian architecture, at a way of building that was a natural growth in the landscape, as much a part of it as the dom-palm tree of the district. It was like a vision of architecture before the Fall: before money, industry, greed and snobbery had severed architecture from its true roots in nature.” Hassan Fathy, Architecture for the Poor.

It was a wonderful experience and lesson of the self within society, and the forces that governs us which cannot be seen with the naked eye. Regardless of race or religion, everyone should try it every year as a reminder of their place in this world. Happy Ramadan :)