Use your dome
Flashing LED towers, aluminium cladding and ornate facades would be a controversial part of any new development, so it is no surprise that their application to new mosques has got traditionalists rattled.
Not that opposition has stopped contemporary architects, both Muslim and non-Muslim, from floating revolutionary new ideas for mosques over the last decade. Many of the new generation feel that religious buildings, which have long been representative of the cities in which they are built, should represent progress as well as tradition.
"What we are doing today is copying the past. The past is a beautiful memory but we can't just copy it for today," explains Emirati architect Omran Al Owais.
"Otherwise what is going to happen in 40 years time when my grandson tells people that his grandfather was an architect? People will say, what did he do? And my grandson will have to say that I only copied the past."
Both Muslim and non-Muslim architects are redefining the mosque for a 21st century generation.
Al Owais believes that while new mosques such as those in Casablanca and Abu Dhabi are undoubtedly beautiful, architects should not be afraid to experiment with new concepts. One of his ideas is to replace the traditional call to prayer with an LED-lit minaret, so that people will know when to go to pray whatever they are doing.
Equally, his latest mosque design does not have a dome, since air-conditioning and modern speakers can fulfil both the climatic and atmospheric function it has always served. Similarly, in terms of construction, the function of a dome was to have a raised roof without pillars – but with today's materials architects do not need pillars to keep the roof up.
"Today I am trying to bring up new things to help me as a Muslim. When I am driving my car, talking on the phone, I can't hear the call to prayer outside, but I can see it. So we can use new technology like LED lights to send the message to me while I am driving my car," he says.
It is a sentiment that Iranian architect Fari Hattam, director at Aedas, agrees with. Hattam says Islamic architecture today tends to fall into three categories: stick-on architecture, where superficial patterns and calligraphy are arbitrarily incorporated into a design, international architecture, where designers forget they are designing for the Middle East, and finally hybrid architecture, where culture and history are translated into a contemporary form.
Hattam's designs for contemporary mosques in both Dubai and Qatar sought to push this concept of Islamic architecture forward and, like Al Owais, avoid simply imitating the architecture of the past.
"The form of my mosque is quite simple. Externally, it consists of three elements: a dome, a cube and a minaret. By making a dominant statement with the first, I was in a fix about how to incorporate the cube. By extending the dome to the ground, the cube section was forced underground. This created a space which was to become a museum celebrating the life story of Prophet Mohammed," he explains.
Owing to the fact that the Quran is the most important element in Islam and contains 30 chapters, the envelope of the building is divided into 30 segments, which contain the writings of the Quran. Another section of the dome is divided into five segments, representing the five pillars of Islam.
"The calligraphy on the mosque's glass also intimates the five pillars, beginning with dark-shaded glass near the bottom, which becomes lighter as it moves towards the top. This gesture is meant to symbolise Hajj to Mecca. The minaret also includes the 99 names of Allah in the Quran," he said.
Hattam's mosque is certainly focused on Islamic concepts and function, but it is also overtly modern in form.
"The architecture of the Islamic world throughout history has adapted and responded to different cultures and existing traditions, this has led to what we define today as Islamic architecture," Hattam says.
"My focus has been on how the component of Islamic architecture can be incorporated into a contemporary context."
Context does not always have to apply to concepts either, as Danish architect Bjarke Ingels will testify. Ingels is one of a new breed of non-Muslim architects who have turned their hands to mosque design, in his case a Grand Mosque for the Danish capital, Copenhagen.
"We started analysing the different elements of what a mosque actually does. The mosque is an architectural infrastructure for a series of rituals, and it has certain necessary elements to allow people to perform those rituals," he explains.
"We wanted to be faithful to all these elements, and to make sure the infrastructure supported the rituals, but we also wanted to convert the architectural style to fit with a Nordic country like Denmark."
One such regional characteristic is that the Grand Mosque's roof has designed to be open to the sky, letting in the light rather than blocking out the heat.
Back in the Middle East, Jordanian architect Khaled Azzam is about as far from Ingels, Al Owais and Hattam in terms of architectural style as you can get. But the designer of the King Hussein Mosque in Jordan, which was built in honour of the former king in 2003, still feels that contemporary mosques should not simply seek to imitate the past.
"The idea of a mosque is something that is very simple. It's an open space with doors at the back so that people can come to prayer," says Azzam.
"But one of the things that concerned me is that a lot of these modern mosques just sit there. Nobody goes to pray in them and they're isolated from the community."
This was something that Azzam tried hard not to replicate with his design for the King Hussein Mosque. Although from afar the building resembles a hill-top fortress, as you approach the mosque it opens up, using high ceilings, arches and outside space to welcome worshippers and visitors inside.
"I was very concerned that in the Arab world traditional culture is removed from us. I wanted people to feel it as a building that belongs to them and is part of their heritage."
And just as Azzam has designed the King Hussein mosque to reflect Jordanian heritage and culture, Al Owais wants his modern designs to reflect the UAE's progress and successes in 2010.
"A mosque is always intended to show off a place, and for me it is a tool for showing off a culture and financial power and mind power, the educational level of a people," he says.
"In my project I am admitting that Dubai is an international city and we're engaged with the international world. Everything we are doing is connected somehow."
Dr. EMAD H. ISMAEEL
University of Mosul
Mosul - Iraq
Web Site: http://sites.google.com/site/emadhanee/
Tel : +964 (0)770 164 93 74
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