Yacoubian building (or Édifice Yacoubian, as officially named in French upon its completion) is an edifice in Cairo, Egypt, built in 1937. It was the home of the crème de la crème of Egyptian society who lived in the building during the city's heyday of the 1930s and 1940s. Located on No. 34 on Talaat Harb, Cairo, the Art Deco style edifice was named after its owner and businessman Hagop Yacoubian.
The once-chic, now rundown, building serves as a metaphor for Cairo's own deterioration particularly in the 2003 Arabic language novel The Yacoubian Building by Alaa Al Aswany.
Based on the book, an award-winning film was made in 2006 also entitled The Yacoubian Building directed by Marwan Hamed. The film was reportedly the highest-budgeted film in the history of Egyptian cinema at the time.
This is not to be confused with an equally important dominant edifice in Beirut, Lebanon, called Yacoubian Building belonging to the same family.
Famous quotes containing the word building:
“I love art, and I love history, but it is living art and living history that I love.... It is in the interest of living art and living history that I oppose so-called restoration. What history can there be in a building bedaubed with ornament, which cannot at the best be anything but a hopeless and lifeless imitation of the hope and vigour of the earlier world?”
—William Morris (1834–1896)