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.

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.

The large avenues and palaces in Heliopolis are clearly inspired by the boulevards in Western European cities. Clear influences that fit within the art deco can also be found in architecture and decoration.

The French architects Alexandre Marcel and Georges-Louis Claude worked together with the Egyptian architect Habib Ayrout for the practical development. It is mainly under the impetus of the latter that the architecture is punctuated with Egyptian (Moorish and Arabic) and oriental (for example with the Hindu villa) elements. Much attention is paid to large terraces and balconies (mostly supported by columns and pillars), immense gardens and galleries with colonnades. The facades are clearly influenced by Arabic style elements.

An example of this aesthetic coherence of different styles is the Heliopolis Palace Hotel with 300 suites and 54,000 m² of gardens designed by the Belgian architect Ernest Jaspar. A real challenge was the domed ballroom (at that time the biggest ballroom in the world).

The Hindu villa located along the road from the national airport to Cairo. The building is in a dilapidated state, yet it remains remarkable. The mysterious, somewhat ghostly atmosphere that this grotesque villa radiates leaves little to cold. The villa was built between 1907 and 1910. The exterior was designed by Alexandre Marcel. Decorator Georges-Louis Claude decorated the inside. The many oriental elements are reminiscent of Cambodian Angkor Wat. Immediately fall the many images of elephants, snakes, dragons and images of Shiva and Krishna. Moreover, the building is a groundbreaking example of modern use of concrete. Empain lived in the villa for a while, and after him also relatives of him. In 1957 (5 years after the revolution that brought Nasser to power) the villa was sold by his heirs. Since then, little attention has been paid to it for decades, which explains the current state. It became the favorite attraction of vandals and bats. The tourists were barred, a visit was impossible unless the guards were bought. Since 2005, the location is owned by the Egyptian government. In the meantime, the garden has been taken care of, and according to the Egyptian Minister of Antiquities a start was made at the end of November 2016 with the preparation of the first phase of the renovation of the building. Occasional performances are given in the gardens. The intention is to set up a museum in the villa.

Source From Wikipedia