Jerba: Prototype 366

Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

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Jerba: Prototype 366

Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Firm

L.E.FT Architects with Iheb Guermazi, and Beya Othmani

Type

Cultural › Sculpture Religious

STATUS

Built

YEAR

2023

SIZE

0 sqft - 1000 sqft

BUDGET

Undisclosed

Djerba is home to supposedly 365 mosques, one for each day of the year. This popular myth highlights the concentration of mosques on this small, arid island in the southern Mediterranean. Over time, the Djerbians have developed innovative spatial strategies to address pressing social and environmental challenges. The scarcity of water, and the potential for social conflicts between different ethnic and religious groups (Sunni, Ibadi, Jews, Arabs, Berbers) living on the island compelled the Djerbians to create a unique territorial model. Rather than having an urban center with a central Friday mosque, they divided their densely populated territory into small, equitable agricultural plots where each extended family could be self-sufficient. The island became populated with small-scale, rural, family-run mosques, as the people saw large urban areas as a threat to the delicate social and ecological balance. Despite their large number, Djerba’s mosques share a common characteristic: an effort to reconfigure the form and function of a Muslim space of worship to its most elemental parts.

This installation continued this architectural tradition and envisioned yet another mosque iteration. Prototype 366 is a one-to-one scale mosque, designed for one person, which recasts the typology of the Djerbian mosque within the gallery space in Jeddah. The installation consists of the basic tectonic elements of Djerba's mosques fabricated from cold-rolled carbon steel plates: a standalone mihrab (or niche), a wash basin, and a seat. These features emerge from a mount of Makkah basalt rocks measuring 90 centimeters in height and 5 meters in diameter. Circular in shape, this 17-cubic-meter volume of natural stone becomes a central sacred object around which the visitor circumambulates and engages when performing the liturgical steps of prayer. The gallery wall displays steel plates etched with plans of several studied mosques built on the island, recentering Islamic architecture discourse.