The Story of the Wissa Wassef Cultural Center

Gallery at the Wissa Wassef Center 

Wissa Wassef is a fun thing to say. It's also a fun place to visit! 

    It's also the name of a Coptic Egyptian who studied architecture before El Harraneya village to build his campus and school. The Harraneya is a small village in the Giza governorate, south of the pyramids. Here Wissa Wassef developed a new style of Egyptian tapestry known as the Harraneya Style. He's most noted for his pedagogy, working only with children of the village, and using a process of exploratory learning, where teacher's don't teach so much as children learn through discovery.

Mr. Ikram Noshi explains the process of creating these tapestries

    Ramses Wissa Wassef found that he couldn't really teach anything to the adult artisans of the village. They had their own style and approach, and they were set in their ways. So just like the pied piper, he rounded up the children of the neighborhood, began to teach them how to weave, (without telling them what to weave.)

Left: Mahrous has been weaving with the center since he was a child. Right: A basket of naturally dyed wool that Mahrous uses to weave.  

In the decades that followed, Wassef and the children who grew up at the center developed a new visual language for representing Egyptian life, through the lives and stories of El Harraneya's carpet weavers. His vision for tapestries that explode with all the color and joy of Egyptian life, led world wide recognition for the Art Center and El Harranya.

Wool died deep red from the mather root hangs in a corridor at the center. Wool from sheep is spun and dyed here.

    In 1951 he founded and built the Wissa Wassef Art Center, which served as an exhibition space, cultural center and school for weaving in the development of this distinguished approach. The Ramses Wissa Wassef Art Center won the Aga Khan Award for Architecture from the Aga Khan Development Network in 1983.  

Wissa Wassef Arts and Cultural Center is known not just for it's pedagogy but for it's sustainable approach to agriculture. All of the dyes used in weaving are organic, and many come from plants found on campus. The Architectural style of the center, with traditional Egyptian domes used in villages across the country, was revived by Wissa Wassef and implemented through out the campus. In studios, galleries, and corridors, design is employed to created naturally cooled spaces. In a country like Egypt, humidity is so shielding from sun can actually make a space 10 degrees cooler than spaces facing direct sun. Just like corridors, domes provide natural air conditioning. They are spaces where heat can rise and rooms can naturally depressurize, or promote airflow. 

Wissa Wassef in an architectural marvel, a model of sustainability, and a model of exploratory, intuitive art education, and thus, it's really worth a visit. It's tucked away in the Harraniya village, with signs of urban sprawl rising all around it. for that reason, having a guide can be critical. However our hosts at the center are erudite and adept in sharing the inner workings of this center, and how these incredible, world renown tapestries are constructed. The Wissa Wassef center really rewards people who come to Cairo, seeking a