Mosque Architecture for the Twenty-First Century
What does a mosque look like when it is built not by history but by intention? Architects, scholars and communities are asking the question afresh.
For most of Muslim history, mosque architecture was local: it absorbed the materials, the climate and the aesthetic of wherever Islam arrived. The mosques of West Africa are built from mud-brick and timber; those of Persia are tiled in turquoise and gold; those of Southeast Asia are timber-framed and many-roofed. There is no single Islamic mosque form, only a constellation of solutions to the common problem of a space for prayer.
That tradition of adaptation is alive today in new hands. A generation of Muslim architects — trained in London, Rotterdam, Istanbul and Kuala Lumpur — is asking what the contemporary mosque should be, and coming up with answers that surprise. Some propose mosques without domes or minarets, relying instead on light, acoustic and proportion to create a sense of the sacred.
