TOTAL FLOOR AREA
100 sqm
LEFT TEAM
Makram el Kadi, Ziad Jamaleddine
Gentley Smith (PA), , Rafah Farhat, Elias Kateb, Alex Palmer, Shun-Ping Liu, Melissa Sofian, Tong Shu
CONSERVATION ARCHITECT / OWNER REPRESENTATIVE
Arch. Zaher Ghossaini
STEEL CONTRACTOR
ACID
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS
L.E.FT
STRUCTURAL ENGINEER
Antoine Bou Chedid
CALL TO PRAYER
Lawrence Abu Hamdan & Nisrine Khodr
CARPET DESIGN
Lawrence Abu Hamdan with LEFT Architects
PHOTOGRAPHY
Photos 1-4: Ieva Saudargaite
Photos 5-8: Iwan Baan
The design for the Amir Shakib Arslan mosque in the village of Mukhtarah, Lebanon, occupies a renovated cross vaulted space with the addition of a steel structure and a plaza in front.
The slender minaret is formed of thinly sliced steel plates, angled in the direction of Makkah, and linked horizontally through a canopy to a curved wall delineating the entry to the mosque. Atop the minaret, the word Allah (God) is folded biaxially from the minaret, becoming a structural calligraphy rather than a traditional ornamental applique. Seen from one side, Allah is read as solid, from the other side, Allah is read as a void.
Below, at the entry to the mosque, the word Insan (Human Being) is added to the steel plates, to create a Hegelian dialectic of God/Man, putting humanity as an integral part of the equation with God, as a reminder of the humanistic tradition of Islam.
The fight against fundamentalism is above all a cultural war of ideas, and architecture is one of its weapons.