Preston Mosque RIBA Competition
A collaboration with Bradshaw Gass & Hope
Our synopsis of the brief - to create a place for prayer and the contemplation of God. A place for people to come together.
The geometry of the line and the curve, the squares and circle, the cube and sphere appear to generate form in traditional Islamic decorative art and architecture. They could be seen as opposites - the line as masculine and the curve as feminine. When composed together, according to evolved arrangements, a harmonious beauty is created. We see this beauty in the exquisite patterns and spaces of places like the Alhambra in Granada.
Traditional mosque architecture is formed from columns, arches and domes. Straight lines take the force of gravity down towards the centre of the earth - the column. Curved lines bend weight horizontally across space between columns - the arch or the dome. A complex visual language evolved from these fundamental principles.
Islamic patterns are rich in their complexity, with many folds of symmetry. Like in architecture, with the column and the arch, they grow from two similar fundamental principles - the straight line and circle. Highly complex patterns can be drawn with the humble ruler and compass.
Did God give us the line and the curve, the circle and the square? Fundamental elements arranged by the human mind into beautiful, infinitely complex configurations. Our expression of The Divine.
Lines crossing, regions overlapping, squares twisted against and around each other’s centres. Could such manoeuvres, intrinsic to Islamic Art, be reconfigured to create a building that invokes a principle? A building for Preston that is neither local nor conventionally Islamic? A building with abstract archetypal forces that speaks to us all as a global community?
The Qibla - a direct line to the Kaaba. The convention here is to point towards Mecca as if on a flat surface. At small distances this makes sense as the curvature of the Earth is a vast radius. As you move further away it becomes more and more of a symbolic pointing that is eventually unworkable on the atoll of Tematangi. The island is directly opposite Mecca on the globe. It is therefore possible to point in any direction and still draw a direct line towards the Kaaba. Muslims on the international Space Station face even more difficulties.
Could the geometry of straight lines and circles, the bases of traditional Islamic patterns, inform a more precise idea of pointing toward Mecca - symbolic of the spread of the Islamic faith to all corners of the world?
A line cuts through the Earth's surface in Preston, emerging in the centre of the black cube - The Kaaba. This imaginary line, specific to this site in Preston, is exactly 23 degrees off the horizontal based on a vertical line down to the centre of the Earth - or the direction of gravity in Preston. This vertical gravity line will change depending on where you are on the globe. Thus establishing a unique signifier of location. On the island of Tematangi the line to the Kaaba would be coincident with their direction of gravity i.e. vertically down through the Earth.
We have imagined an extruded space angled at 23 degrees. It penetrates into the ground. Our mind continues the line and extends space through the earth, focusing on and connecting to the Kaaba.
The Great Mosque of Samarra in Iraq has a beautiful spiral tower. A form created to signify place. A destination. To bring people in. Climbing steps up to a high view is a quintessential human compulsion.
Externally the form of our tower is cubic and mysterious - much like the Kaaba black cube. Inside our angled tower is a stair. At the top is an opening with dramatic views towards Preston. At the bottom is exposed earth. The staircase alludes to the spiritual journey of life from the ground towards the sky or the line between heaven and earth.
The way into the tower is from the main prayer hall through an opening. The opening is also the Minbar.
The brief asks for the mosque to be open to all people of all faiths. The tower is open for everyone to experience. To get in you would be invited through the most sacred opening. The opening where the Iman shares the teachings of the Quran. He welcomes people of all faiths into the heart of his religion - into a sacred space aligned perfectly with the most sacred centre of Islam.
The tower penetrates the earth like a stake in the ground. A couple of times a year the sun will be positioned directly over the Kaaba. In Preston a perfectly aligned shadow will be cast by the tower.
A surface peels off the ground. Underneath the men’s prayer hall lies to the East. The female prayer hall to the West. Each has its own entrance. In the middle is a two story cubic enclosure which houses all the functional requirements of the Mosque - ablutions, coats, shoe storage etc.
The second floor - the meeting room and library. They sit under the angled roof structure and will have balcony areas looking into the prayer halls. There is a stair and lift up to the external roof.
The roof surface drops down to the West becoming a landscape. Flush with the car park - people can walk directly onto the roof plate. This is our Sahn. A large communal space. A reinterpretation of the traditional courtyard.
Alluding to the rotated overlapping figures in Islamic patterns - the roof aligns with the North South axis. This creates a rotation emphasising the difference between place and the qibla. Connecting the sahn to its context and allowing the tower to commune with a far away Kaaba.
All the trees on the site are retained to preserve the natural environment. The roof landscape would be a carpet of limestone - an abstract manmade sheet in contrast to the grass and trees. We also imagine some intimate gardens and seating areas on the north grassy area. There are 140 car spaces. Entry is from D’Urton Lane. The car park would be grass with permeable tiles.
Our synopsis of the brief - to create a place for prayer and the contemplation of God. A place for people to come together.
The geometry of the line and the curve, the squares and circle, the cube and sphere appear to generate form in traditional Islamic decorative art and architecture. They could be seen as opposites - the line as masculine and the curve as feminine. When composed together, according to evolved arrangements, a harmonious beauty is created. We see this beauty in the exquisite patterns and spaces of places like the Alhambra in Granada.
Traditional mosque architecture is formed from columns, arches and domes. Straight lines take the force of gravity down towards the centre of the earth - the column. Curved lines bend weight horizontally across space between columns - the arch or the dome. A complex visual language evolved from these fundamental principles.
Islamic patterns are rich in their complexity, with many folds of symmetry. Like in architecture, with the column and the arch, they grow from two similar fundamental principles - the straight line and circle. Highly complex patterns can be drawn with the humble ruler and compass.
Did God give us the line and the curve, the circle and the square? Fundamental elements arranged by the human mind into beautiful, infinitely complex configurations. Our expression of The Divine.
Lines crossing, regions overlapping, squares twisted against and around each other’s centres. Could such manoeuvres, intrinsic to Islamic Art, be reconfigured to create a building that invokes a principle? A building for Preston that is neither local nor conventionally Islamic? A building with abstract archetypal forces that speaks to us all as a global community?
The Qibla - a direct line to the Kaaba. The convention here is to point towards Mecca as if on a flat surface. At small distances this makes sense as the curvature of the Earth is a vast radius. As you move further away it becomes more and more of a symbolic pointing that is eventually unworkable on the atoll of Tematangi. The island is directly opposite Mecca on the globe. It is therefore possible to point in any direction and still draw a direct line towards the Kaaba. Muslims on the international Space Station face even more difficulties.
Could the geometry of straight lines and circles, the bases of traditional Islamic patterns, inform a more precise idea of pointing toward Mecca - symbolic of the spread of the Islamic faith to all corners of the world?
A line cuts through the Earth's surface in Preston, emerging in the centre of the black cube - The Kaaba. This imaginary line, specific to this site in Preston, is exactly 23 degrees off the horizontal based on a vertical line down to the centre of the Earth - or the direction of gravity in Preston. This vertical gravity line will change depending on where you are on the globe. Thus establishing a unique signifier of location. On the island of Tematangi the line to the Kaaba would be coincident with their direction of gravity i.e. vertically down through the Earth.
We have imagined an extruded space angled at 23 degrees. It penetrates into the ground. Our mind continues the line and extends space through the earth, focusing on and connecting to the Kaaba.
The Great Mosque of Samarra in Iraq has a beautiful spiral tower. A form created to signify place. A destination. To bring people in. Climbing steps up to a high view is a quintessential human compulsion.
Externally the form of our tower is cubic and mysterious - much like the Kaaba black cube. Inside our angled tower is a stair. At the top is an opening with dramatic views towards Preston. At the bottom is exposed earth. The staircase alludes to the spiritual journey of life from the ground towards the sky or the line between heaven and earth.
The way into the tower is from the main prayer hall through an opening. The opening is also the Minbar.
The brief asks for the mosque to be open to all people of all faiths. The tower is open for everyone to experience. To get in you would be invited through the most sacred opening. The opening where the Iman shares the teachings of the Quran. He welcomes people of all faiths into the heart of his religion - into a sacred space aligned perfectly with the most sacred centre of Islam.
The tower penetrates the earth like a stake in the ground. A couple of times a year the sun will be positioned directly over the Kaaba. In Preston a perfectly aligned shadow will be cast by the tower.
A surface peels off the ground. Underneath the men’s prayer hall lies to the East. The female prayer hall to the West. Each has its own entrance. In the middle is a two story cubic enclosure which houses all the functional requirements of the Mosque - ablutions, coats, shoe storage etc.
The second floor - the meeting room and library. They sit under the angled roof structure and will have balcony areas looking into the prayer halls. There is a stair and lift up to the external roof.
The roof surface drops down to the West becoming a landscape. Flush with the car park - people can walk directly onto the roof plate. This is our Sahn. A large communal space. A reinterpretation of the traditional courtyard.
Alluding to the rotated overlapping figures in Islamic patterns - the roof aligns with the North South axis. This creates a rotation emphasising the difference between place and the qibla. Connecting the sahn to its context and allowing the tower to commune with a far away Kaaba.
All the trees on the site are retained to preserve the natural environment. The roof landscape would be a carpet of limestone - an abstract manmade sheet in contrast to the grass and trees. We also imagine some intimate gardens and seating areas on the north grassy area. There are 140 car spaces. Entry is from D’Urton Lane. The car park would be grass with permeable tiles.
