Interviewer: Mahmoud Mansi
“I am always working with volunteers and in my opinion the most important factor is to give good example, to gain the trust of your team and empower them instead of using them. You need to be a team player and not a manager.”
Mohamed Gohar
ABOUT THE INTERVIEWEE
Mohamed Gohar is a senior practicing architect with 15 years’ experience working in Egypt and the Arab region. Working on projects spans in housing, institutional and public design, having particular emphasis on historical roots of traditional local architecture and its connection to the modern society. Founder of the project “Description of Alexandria“; a documentation project for the cultural heritage of the city. His work on documenting the cultural heritage of Alexandria has gained much recognition among academics and cultural heritage professionals in Egypt and abroad, and was featured in The Guardian. Gohar’s work has proven further potential to provide a wide scale survey and library for Alexandria’s architecture and culture, and engaging the public and capturing the narratives associated with the built heritage. In addition to this, Gohar is also an artist with artwork driven by the social and cultural influences and has been on display in different local and international exhibitions.
Mohamed Gohar’s TedXAlmedalen Talk in Sweden, 2015
THE INTERVIEW
1- HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: We live in an age where communication and documentation is mainly done through videography, photography and writing, but through your initiative “Description of Alexandria Project” you have chosen to document the heritage of Alexandria through drawings and illustrations. Why have you chosen this tool in specific to communicate your message? And how do you think it impacted people differently?
Mohamed Gohar: “Da vinci classified people into three classes; those who see, those who see when they are shown and those who do not see” in my opinion I believe the majority of any community are in middle category of “those who see, those who see when they are shown”. In my case I am trying to show the invisible Alexandria to my fellow citizens. I am trying to reveal a city that leys under layers of dust and malformation. I could have easily use photographs as medium but the thing with camera is: first, camera has lost its value since most of us take thousands of photos every day and then we keep them in our hard drives or our phones but we rarely revisit them. Secondly, is when you capture a photo you record every thing you see with emphasizing. The camera (and unless you are a professional) scans everything that comes in the lens. That is way I draw, because simply I choose to draw only what helps delivering the message I want. I can draw as many details as the topic of my research needs to and keep the unrequired details abstracted. That technique helps the people to focus and not only see but also observe, think and reflect. Finally, everyone appreciates art no matter his/her cultural level, everyone would like to keep a drawing of his/her city.
2- HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: Taking the City of Alexandria as an example, how do you believe the business environment is impacting the heritage of the city?
Mohamed Gohar: Heritage is not static objects. It evolves and changes according to the needs of people who use it in the current time. Therefore, Heritage deals with so many businesses, professions and users and of course can contradict with the laws and regulations that were set to protect it. So, it is really difficult to find an equation that satisfies everyone. And if you add to this the absence of a sustainable vision that accepts the needs of the market and make it work for the good of the city, the result would definitely be a chaos.
3- HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: If organizations in Alexandria can start a CSR (Community Service Responsibility) initiative to support the city’s heritage, what activities such organizations along with their employees can participate in to support the cause?
Mohamed Gohar: I believe it could focus on informal education in terms of spreading the knowledge – especially among the youth and kids – about the importance and value of our heritage.
4- HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: We are interested to know about your first job ever, and what did you learn most from it?
Mohamed Gohar: It is difficult to say what exactly was my first job, I remember my first payed work which was in 2001 during my studies at the university (Fine Arts, Architecture Department), I used to make a replica of drawings of famous artists. That gave me the opportunity to enhance my drawing skills, read and learn about history and the different theories of art.
5- HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: In your article with The Guardian you mentioned that “Alexandria inhabitants are becoming unable to communicate and listen to each other, are unable to see the city as a living organism.” Why do you believe communication is becoming a challenge? Do you believe it is a global issue or it is different in Alexandria?
Mohamed Gohar: Of course, communication between inhabitants and their cities is a global issue, which is the result of several problems such as the sense of individualism in any capitalist society. We are always running to catch something. We run to work, we run to home, we run to do shopping, etc.., and we forget that we live together in a shared space which is the city. We are only focusing on ourselves and lost the ability to observe, communicate and reflect. But this issue is much worse when you have problems of losing your own heritage and forgetting your identity.
6- HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: You are a talented presenter and lecturer, one of your last lectures was at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina to the members of AWHAS (Initiative of Alexandria World Heritage Simulation) were feedback was remarkable. Can you tell us how do you prepare for your lectures and how do you manage to make them engaging and beneficial?
Mohamed Gohar: Thank you! First of all, I do an investigation about the audience and their backgrounds to determine how much I would go into details. After that, I do a deep scientific research about the topic I talk about. Then, I draw a structure of the talk in my mind. A good talk should have an introduction, core and conclusion, and that should be clear to the audience otherwise one can lose their attention. Then I prepare a strong visual presentation with no or very few texts to give everyone the chance to imagine their own story. But the golden rule is to tell a story and improvise.
7- HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: Mohamed, can you share with us some personal case-studies; situations and challenges that you personally went through in your career, and how you dealt with them?
Mohamed Gohar: Surviving every day is a challenge in itself. But for instance, one of the reputative issues I deal with is when you work in the street and then someone asks aggressively, “What are you doing here?” Then you find yourself unprepared to give a presentation about yourself to someone you do not know how to approach. But, the most challenging situation is trying to teach a kid what is heritage and what is architecture, because you can never anticipate what would be their questions and they are always very curious and challenging.
8- HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: In the Magazine we try to gather different and innovative points of view about managing people and teams. From your workstyle and background, what would be your management style in a large corporate organization?
Mohamed Gohar: I am always working with volunteers and in my opinion the most important factor is to give good example, to gain the trust of your team and empower them instead of using them. You need to be a team player and not a manager. And above all, you need to believe in what you are doing and to be faithful to your cause.
9- HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: You have published several research papers in your career. From your point of view, how does writing and publishing research papers add up to the researcher’s talent and skills?
Mohamed Gohar: Writting is of very important value to everyone, not only a researcher. It helps you organize your idea, visualize your thoughts, and make them readable to the specialist and the non-specialist so you can receive feedbacks which eventually help you to improve yourself.
10- HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: You are directly involved in the development community of Alexandria and Egypt, what is your criticism and your ideas for improvement?
Mohamed Gohar: I do not like to criticize but I rather advise to work together, work in teams and learn from each other.
11- HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: What career advice would you give to young architects?
Mohamed Gohar: To read a lot.
Thank you Mohamed for this interview, for you endeavors, philosophy and for investing your energy into influencing and inspiring society and reserving heritage.
