There has been a proliferation of striking contemporary designs for mosques emerging from architecture studios in recent times, with Henning Larsen, BIG and Rux Design all producing radical reinterpretations of this age-old typology. London-based firm Amanda Levete Architects may have conceived the most modern mosque yet, though, triumphing in a key competition to design a new religious complex at the heart of Abu Dhabi’s new World Trade Center development.
Set for construction adjacent to Foster + Partners’ World Trade Center, Levete’s scheme is half mosque, half park, with internal and external spaces laid out according to a diagonal grid that evokes ancient Islamic patterns. As visitors arrive through the park, the trees and columns of the building align to form paths akin to traditional arcades, leading people toward the entrance.
“The mosque is envisaged as a piece of the city, one that reflects the journey from the temporal to the spiritual,” explains Ho Yin Ng, director at Amanda Levete Architects. “Set within a park, the mosque and the garden become one, with the trees and the columns forming an informal vertical landscape and allowing Friday prayers to spill outside.”
Inside, the open-plan space is defined by a perforated roof that was designed using a bespoke computer script, varying the amount of light and shade in different parts of the mosque. The resulting canopy is a soaring lattice that will provide a serene, light-filled retreat for people to pray in, and it blurs the boundary between internal space and the natural environment as sunbeams travel across the void.
The signature roof — conceived as a landscape to be viewed from the upper floors of surrounding skyscrapers — is complemented by a slender tower, a modern abstraction of the traditional minaret. Situated within a reflecting pool, this column of web-like metal ascends toward the sky, acting as a beacon for the mosque and a new architectural landmark in the newest district of Abu Dhabi.
For more modern mosques, explore our collection of eight contemporary twists on this complex religious typology.
Images via Wallpaper Magazine