The Egyptian Siwan: Ephemeral Architecture As a Measure of Social Structure

SYNOPSIS

The siwan is a tent made from bright-patterned, appliqueed fabric. It is used in Egypt to accommodate a myriad of ephemeral spatial needs, especially in the urban environment. Where they first appeared and how they evolved throughout history is unclear. Nevertheless, precendents for these cloth-enclosed structures can be seen in ancient military tents, pharaonic decictions of Nile festival celebrations, nomadic housing, and even armatures used for camel transport across the Middle Eastern and African Deserts. Today siwans are used thourghout Egypt to house the activities of official occasions as well as riligious and cultural ceremonies including weddings, funerals and fairs and festivals. One of the most intense uses of siwans is during a moulid festival, the birthday celebration of an Islamic Saint. On the annual occasion of the particularly popular moulid for Sayyida Zeinab the great, great granddaughter of the Prophet Mohammad- hundreds of thousands of Islamic commoners make a pilgrimmage to settle near the mosque where she is enshrined. They occupy the district in an amazing mass, transforming the streets of Cairo into an expansive, colorful, ephemeral landscape. The role of the siwan during this two week event highlights the allegorical relationships among urban design, architectural space and socio-cultural constructs of spatial order and boundaries.

The actual crafting of the khiam (cloth panels) as well as assembly of the siwan tent utilize systems of marking, measuring and proportioning that diminish demarcations between artisan and architect.

This lecture will cover historic antecendents of the siwan as an ephemeral archtype and that of Egyptian festivals and their spatial patterns, highlighting the impacts of present day forces- such as tourism and the transfer of technology on the siwan as an art form. The presentation engages traditional Egyptioan cultural and religious practices as vernacular phenomena that influences the ordering and occupation of the today's urban landscape.

BIOGRAPHY

Architecture is a second profession for me; my passion for the built environment unfolded throught a career in textile design. This transition has been shaped by the earthiness of the familial Sea Island roots, the flatness of cloth, the multi-dimensional experiences of living in Berkeley, California communities; plus, a colorful plethora of ' foreigh' environments I have experienced where the impact of cultural lifeways is so intrinsically woven by relationship between people and the spaces they create and occupy. An emphasis in culture and form heavily informs my views and my approach to architecture-- the way I see, understand and translate ideas about environment.

I was born in Charleston, South Carolina and most of my childhood was spent in Newport, Rhode Island. Gullah culture of the Low Country, however, was a substantive, recurring force in my development because of frequent and extended visits with relatives in Charleston and surrounding Sea Islands. Thourghout the years, going back and forth, I noted the drastic physical changes that resort development brought to the area. Eventually my own family's land was lost to this process. It became very clear to me early in life that how we percieve ourselves and sense of being is critically connected to feelings induced by our environments, especially our concepts of and relationaship to dwelling. For examply, in the Sea Islands, kinship patterns like shared childrearing and food preparation were traditionally similar to the Yoruba settlements of West Africa. Familial households would be arranged in an enclosing pattern around a common communal center. Thourghout my professional development many intangible recollections of this cultural context has been physically and sprictually present im my work.

Extensive travel and work in the Caribbean and travels to East Africa, West Africa and Egypt have expanded my visions and interests in the interrelationships among art, environment and socio-cultural contexts. This also deeply enriches my research in and teaching of architecture.

My graduate work in architecture was completed at the University of California, Berkeley. Post graduate honors include grants and awards from the National Endowments of Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, a Fulbright Fellow and a Florida Endowment for Higher Education ( McKnight) Fellow; including, study at the University of Tanzania, DarEs Salaam and American University, Cairo, Egypt.

I have been honored with a Junior Faculty Teaching Award from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) and, more recently, a peer reviewed Teaching Incentive Award from Florida A&M University (FAMU). Presently, I am representing FAMU as a Consortium faculty at the Virginia Tech Washington / Alexandria Architecture Center. Current academic-related service includes the distinction of serving as an Executive Boarard Member of ACSA. As well, I am co-managing the Martin Luther King, Jr. International Memorial Competition for a memorial honoring the contribution of Dr. King to be located on the Mall in Washington, D.C. I am especially honored to have been invited to serve as a member of the Design Competition Jury.

CURRICULUM VITAE

Current Teaching

Florida A&M University Consortium Faculty at Virginia Tech's Washington / Alexandria Architecture Center, Alexandria, VA.

Upper and Graduate Studio, Theory Courses on Current Issues in Architecture; also, Architecture and Culture.

Degrees

Bachelor of Fine Arts; Textile Design Major, California College of Arts and Crafts, 1970

Master of Achitecture; University of California, Berkeley, 1984

Memberships

National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA)

Association of Collegiate School of Architecture (ACSA)

National Trust for Historic Preservation (NIHP)

International Council on Monuments and Sites ( ICOMOS)

Honors and Awards

Elected to serve as Secretary; Executive Board Member of ACSA 1998-2000

Artist in Residence; Seaside, Florida, 1998

South Carolina Humanities Grant, 1998

National Trust for Historic Preservation Grant, 1997

International Ecotourism Award Finalist; Island Magazine for Cultural Conservation and Architectural Preservation of Downtown Project; Basseterre, St. Kitts), 1996

Design Competition Honorable Mention; "The New American City", Atlanta ( Olymipcs), 1996

State Teaching Incentive Award(TIP) 1995

Binational Fulbright Scholar; Egypt, 1995

Publications

"Aldo Rossi:  Architect and Artist"  Proceedings of the 1999 International Conference, Associated Collegiate Schools of Architecture Press, 1999.

"Deep Structure Vocabulary" (recent art work review in Fiber Arts:   The Stuff of Dreams).  International Review of African American Art, vol. 15, no. 4, Hampton University Museum, 1999.

"Gullah"  Encyclopedia of Vernacular Architecture of the World (edited by Paul Oliver).  Cambridge University Pres, 1997.

"Text as the Site of Cultural Discourse"  Proceedings of the 84th Annual Meeting and Technology Conference.  Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture Press, 1996.

"Gullah Architecture," Diversity in Architectural History (a course/teaching packet).  Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, 1996.

"Architecture in Black Life:  Talking Sace with LaVern Wells-Bowie"   Art on My Mind, bell hooks, The New Press, 1995.

IMAGES

A master craftsman and his apprentice demonstrate how panels of Khiam fabric are designed and dimensionied; (1) folder for delivery or storage,

(2) prepared to be used for construction of a siwan tent,

(3) how panels are connected by loop-stitched rope to form larger units.

The interior of a constructed siwan tent, embellished with a cloth, appliqueed scroll that identifies a particular Dervish order or ownwer.

Ephemeral siwans juxtaposed upon permanent historic landmarks is a common composition on the streets of Cairo, especially during moulid festivals.

A boy standing in the swaged doorway outside his family's residential siwan. Note how this tent is constructed so that the plain woven canvas backing is exposed to the exterior and the colorful appliqueed patterns adorn the interior space. This depiction also demonstrates how siwans are usually furnished with rugs and chairs, often as part of the rental contracts by farash, tradesmen who assemble armatures and erect tents.

At the beginning, the first few days of the moulid, siwans claim spaces and people start to congregate near the mosque.

As days pass the crowd thickens to the extent that curbs, building facades, and other boundaries of the parmenent urban realm at the pedestrian scale can barely be discerned, if at all.

During the day Dervish order offer music and stick dancing to both entertain moulid participants and prepare for the evening's mystical ceremonies.

Inside of a shayk's siwan Islamic men participate in the zirk, a rhythmic saway that is an invocation for spiritual cleansing and which often results in a state of trance. Participation in this activity specifically distinguished those of the popular sector from the more orthodox, often middle and upper class, Moslems.