In this blog I would like to talk about contemporary mosques and discuss them. In this term I am going to design a mosque that includes contemporary style and Renaissance's characteristics.
The first mosque that I will discuss about is Al Warqa’a Mosque and located in Dubai in 2015.So the mosques held a special place in cities as places of community, gathering, exchange and spirituality. Also mosques are always open to the public and enabling multitudes of social actives addition to prayer. Further more in Dubai few mosques are enclosed and inaccessible when not in use for prayer with a single side of the building designated for entry.
Furthermore, this mosque is designed by Ibda Design, Ibda Design is an international architecture, urban and interior design practice based in Dubai with collaborating offices in Beirut and Tokyo. The architects used Saudi sandstone for facades of the mosque and the mosque is surrounded with arches which is very common is every mosques so I will definitely use these arch shape to my mosque design. So for the arches they used sandstone as it mentioned before, the reason for using sandstone for the building to look like an extension of the desert environment.
Also they used the ochre tone-coloured walls. These tone walls offer great contrast to the building’s bright white dome. Lastly for the interior walls they used marble lined shape which is for to provide a retreat from the “ harsh element of the material world”.
Here is the floorplan of the Al Warqa’a Mosque;
The second mosque that I am going to talk about is Central Cambridge Mosque, as it seems from its name the mosque located in Cambridge and this mosque design by Marks Barfield Architects, Marks Barfield Architects is a London-based architectural firm founded by husband and wife David Marks and Julia Barfield.
This mosque has internal characteristic which is the timber ‘trees’, it is from the structural support for the roof and the roof lights. Also the geometry of the tree was developed from famous artist called Keith Critchlow. Central Cambridge mosque is a demonstration of how architecture can illustrate religious and cultural philosophy and traditions while utilising the contemporary materials which I will definitely utilise these demonstration to my mosque design for final project.
From the exterior it can easily see able, the tree-pillars are throughout the buildings and its giving it a clear visual view from people. Also David Marks explained that “ The calm oasis was very much a starting point” and he said "The fact that a mosque is a place of tranquillity and calm reflection and the most natural area to do that is in nature, in a garden of trees." The architect used the wood material for the interior and exterior with the arch shape which is very common in every mosque. This mosque include the Dome which is very important for every mosque its symbolise heaven and earth, also I have talked about Dome in my previous blog.
Also the facade of the mosque is with bricks however they are not full bricks they are almost like tiles. The reason for that all of the structure is timber, “the bricks are just for expressing the that they are not structural by putting patterns in the brick” said Barfield. Lastly the mosque is powered by solar power, which covers all of the hot water used, all of the cooling of the building and the heating. It also harvests rainwater for flushing toilets.
The last mosque that will talk about is called Kaftan mosque;
This mosque is located in Riyadh in 2019. The inspiration and basis for the geometry of the mosque is the crystalline plates of a desert. The mosque also included with the sculpted 60m minarets which very important to have a minarets in the mosque. This form and movement in stone extends to the 5th elevation completing an exciting profile, viewed from all angles. The skin of the building appears to rise up from the earth as an emerging crystal mass. Furthermore same way the minarets appear to rise up.
This mosque has been placed over an urban plaza. The plaza provides a public realm and amenity to the district and serves as an outdoor prayer extension to the mosque during religious celebrations. According to architects the major challenge was to develop the geometry in such a way as to support a column free internal environment.
The interior of the mosque is very huge, the volume of the mosque rises to 16m and again inside filtered by light crystalline window slots. The roof of the mosque is structured to illuminate the ceiling and create these flotation and lightness to the ceiling. Therefore, they used triangulated coloured glasses, for abstraction of a traditional decorative support. Lastly, the triangulated side windows features the multi layered Arabic scripts and it can filter light into main hall during the day, so it is very useful to have a well designed windows to illuminate the inside of the building.
Here is the floor plan of the Kaftan mosque;
This research was a very time-consuming one, but I think it was worth the time, I have analysed these three mosques, I have talked about their design materials. Now I am feeling ready to design my mosque by generating my idea by research about contemporary mosques. I will update my blog by posting about the floor plan of the mosque and final design of the mosque.
References:
Dezeen. (2016). Ibda Design uses sandstone and marble for mosque in Dubai. [online] Available at: https://www.dezeen.com/2016/05/02/ibda-design-sandstone-marble-mosque-architecture-al-warqa-a-dubai-united-arab-emirates/ [Accessed 13 Aug. 2023].
Carlson, C. (2021). Marks Barfield Architects designs Cambridge Central Mosque held up by tree-like pillars. [online] Dezeen. Available at: https://www.dezeen.com/2021/01/20/cambridge-central-mosque-marks-barfield-architects/.
www.architecture.com. (n.d.). Cambridge Central Mosque. [online] Available at: https://www.architecture.com/awards-and-competitions-landing-page/awards/riba-regional-awards/riba-east-award-winners/2021/cambridge-central-mosque#:~:text=Central%20Cambridge%20mosque%20is%20a [Accessed 13 Aug. 2023].
Archello. (n.d.). Cambridge Central Mosque | Marks Barfield Architects. [online] Available at: https://archello.com/project/cambridge-central-mosque.
Omrania. (n.d.). KAFD Grand Mosque. [online] Available at: https://omrania.com/project/kafd-grand-mosque/.
Looking at the article on the Cambridge Mosque, there is a sentence about making the space more accessible for women and children. This is something I would like you to consider in your design, if your mosque is to be a progressive space in terms of its design, it should also be in terms of its use.
ReplyDelete