Last winter I stood in a roofless courtyard near Luxor while a mason traced a vault with a reed and no timber frame. The line was not rustic theatre. It was calculation held in the hand, the kind that disappears when drawings refuse to name the people who know the wall.
The old technique was the modern argument
The best lesson from New Gourna is not that every house should imitate a dome. It is that climate, cost, and dignity can be argued through section, thickness, shadow, and repair. A mud wall keeps a record of the day; concrete often keeps only the invoice.
The cheapest material beneath your feet becomes expensive the moment its craft is forgotten.