This article investigates an important, yet unexplored aspect of Hassan Fathy's work, namely his 1957–1961 collaboration with the prolific international firm, Doxiadis Associates. Focusing on Fathy's proposals for mass housing in Iraq and Pakistan, the article examines how the Egyptian architect recast his famous 1945 project of New Gourna in a new perspective, to calibrate his social and formal sensibilities according to Doxiadis's scientific and developmentalist ethos. The goal is to demonstrate that Fathy's thought was complexly intertwined with larger mid-twentieth century architectural debates on culture and modernity, and as such, it transcended any essentialist discourses of identity that often appropriated his notion of vernacular architecture.