Al Mo'men Mosque

By Lama Al-Kharbouch

Since this art project about peace, I decided to design my own mosque because it is already a peaceful thing, and I thought that I can add more things to show these peacefulness. Actually, my concept for this project is to have some name of God that represent peace such as, Al-Rahman, Al-Raheem, Al-Ghafour, Al-Afou, Al-Ra'ouf, Al-Salam, Al-Haq, and Allah. At the same time, I knew that peace is related to light, so I came up with the shadow’s effect. It is basically about doing windows that have the shape of God’s names and these names (shadows) appear to the mosque in a beautiful way. Since most of people when they pray and talk to God, they look upward, so for this reason, I decided to have these shadows on the top (the ceiling).

Furthermore, since my whole project is about shadow which means sun, I had to think about a specific site that could give me the sun rays to where I exactly want. I had to choose a place where the sun rays at least appear through the four sides.  I did my research and I found a good place where the sun rays could somehow goes through the north side too. So the site is located in the Yunb’a beach, Yunb’a, Saudi Arabia. And this site is also perfect because two stories buildings are not allowed, so nothing will affect the sun rays that I need.

The name of this mosque is Al Mo'men Mosque. I chose this name since peace means Salam in Arabic, and Islam comes from the word Salam, and Muslim people are Mo'men (Belief) in God. So, it is related to peace in somehow. Moreover, Al-Moa'men is one of the God's names.

Regarding the Floor Plan, I did a huge entrance works as a waiting area and seating area. And from the left and the right side I have the w.c for males and females. In addition, I made a huge outdoor praying space (courtyard) and I applied an Islamic texture on the floor, and six water feature on the same space to warm up the outdoor area. Moreover, I did a two pathways from both side and closed them with glass to make it indoor and apply electricity, instead of using the outdoor (praying) space, for people who want to go to the main (mosque) place which has the largest dome. I did the Islamic arches on the inner side of each pathway, which located after the glass. For the entrances, I did three entrances to the mosque, the first one which is the biggest one and two from the main (mosque) place. No entrances from the fourth side (north façade) due to AL-Qiblah.

For the main (mosque) place, at the beginning I made the height of it about 10 meters, but when I did the openings (Names of God) I realized that my concept would not work in this case due to the direction of the shadow. So, since I did not want the shadow to shows or goes to the floor, I came up with the mirror idea. In this case I had to extend the ceiling about 10 meters more, so, the first 10 meter for people and the rest for the effect of the shadows. To do this I had to do a slap under each opening (name) (5 by 7 meters) and its materials are concrete from the bottom (where people can see it) and mirror from the top (which is not visible for them). How this works? Basically, when the sun hits the window and create the shadow, the shadow will goes to the mirror and the mirror will reflect the letters on the ceiling. Since some of the shadow would not appear due to the void of the biggest dome, I also had to make the width larger to let all of the letters appear on the ceiling.

And I applied the praying carpet on the floor, and Islamic texture on the walls. But for the ceiling i had to apply dark color to make the shadows show on it. I also placed the Mihrab and the Minbar and they are shown in the interior render very clearly

Regarding the colors, since mosques are very unique and I wanted to take people's attention to the mosque,  I chose the white concrete color for the walls, and gold color for the domes and some part of the minarets. I think these two colors are really valuable and make any building very especial from a far distance.

For this project, I used five tools (programs) to make it completely done. First of all, I used AutoCad to draw the outlines and the whole floor plan of the mosque. Then I exported to Revit to make the 3D Shape of the mosque, which include walls, columns, minarets, doors, window, and arches. Furthermore, it was so difficult to make the domes in Revit, so I made the dome by using 3Dmax then exported to Revit. After that, I used Lumion to apply materials for walls, doors, roof, and floors, and to render the mosque from outside and inside. Finally, I used Photoshop to edit my renders, to make the shadows, and to make my poster.

The Dome of Peace

By Mohammad Almajedi

The Dome of peace is the name I have chosen for my artwork. I chose this name since I drew a Dome and under it the word Peace in Arabic and English.The Idea of calling it The Dome of peace came to me from The Shrine of Dome of the rock.

My idea is basically to write سلام (salaam) in the Kufic calligraphy and above it the word peace. But peace will be written in a way that is similar to the style of the Kufic calligraphy.

I got influenced to write peace in a similar way to Kufic Calligraphy by the artist Julien Breton. Since the Breton’s style is writing English letters in the form of Arabic calligraphy. So I wrote سلام in a Kufic calligraphy and peace in a similar shape.

I specifically chose the word سلام and peace because they have the same meaning and at the same time they both represent Islam.

The Dome above the two words Symbolizes Islam.

The gold color for the dome was chosen for 2 reasons.

|  1^st reason is that I wanted to give my artwork something related to the Islamic history and I found the dome of the rock a good choice.

|  The 2^nd reason is that in Islam the gold color it paradise and by that I meant to show that the path to paradise is Islam.

As Edgar Degas said “Art is not what you see, but what you make others see”.

In conclusion, I have tried to translate my opinions and thoughts of Islam into art with my humble abilities. And I hope that I made people see what I see.

Mosques and Peace

By Ahmad Jabbour

When we hear about Islam today, we think of scary looking bearded men dressed in black, carrying shot guns and screaming “Allaho Akbar” as they burn down churches or behead people. Mosques are thought to be places where terrorist fanatics join to discuss their next bombing. We can say that the orientalist view point has ruined the reputation of the true Islam. However, we cannot blame orientalism without first analysing the other factors for this popular reputation of Islam. The emerging of terrorist fanatic Islamist groups such as ISIL, AlQaeda, and Jabhet Al Nasra has played a vital role in creating a tag on Muslims as terrorists. However, the truth is that such groups—although seemingly abundant—are a minority, and the kind of Islam that they represent is indeed a false one. The corruption of the international system of knowledge and orientalism print on media and scholarly work in the west only magnify the false belief.

The truth is that Islam comes from the Arabic root Salam which could mean two things. The first is that a muslim should “yosallem” or surrender himself to the will of God. The other meaning, and the more important one is from the word “Salam” meaning peace. So we can see that Islam’s meaning is peace. The teachings of prophet Mohammad and the Quraan all serve to prove this point. A Muslim is ordered by God and the prophet to be good to others of all religions. He is ordered to give money to the poor, help the weak, and be selfless at all times. Mosques are places of worship, peace, of learning the true teachings of Islam, and of serenity.

I chose to do an art piece inspired by Mosques and peace as the two terms go hand in hand. I hope that by my humble project I can, at least, set one person straight on what Islam truly means and of what purpose mosques truly serve.

Historically, the first mosque that was ever created in Islam as we know it is the Nabawi Mosque in Al Madina. It is the first of the three holy sites of Islam. It was right around the time when Muslims had escaped from the horrors and terrors of Mecca tribes and into Madina’s newly converted Muslims. The migrant Muslims had left their homes, money, and lives back and ran into a new life in Madina—filled with hope. Even the prophet Mohammad did not have a home in Madina. But the people there were generous and hospitable that each person from Madina offered his home to a person from Mecca. After a while, however, it was time for the prophet to build a home of his own. It was also the time to find a place for Muslims to meet, pray, and gather around when something related to the Islamic Ummah comes up. So, hand in hand, Muslims built the mosque brick over brick. It was a simple mosque without any extravagant design. It was the house of Prophet Mohammad and a mosque that holds all the daily prayers. Each of its walls witnessed pious prayers, political meetings, round circles where the prophet would teach Muslims about their religion, and even a place to host visitors asking about this new religion.

Other important mosques around that period were the Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, Palestine which is said to be the place from which the Prophet’s Miraaj was from and the second of the three most sacred mosques. And the third most holy mosque is the Ummayad Mosque in Syria.  More and more mosques were starting to be built around the Islamic world and with each new mosque and each call for prayer, more and more people were joining the Islamic ummah. After the death of prophet Mohammad and with the following caliphates, Islam spread widely and more money was coming into the Muslim state as new conquests were done. This meant that there was room for extravagant designs in Mosques. Now, mosques were not only places for worship and gathering. They were also forms of art. They have calligraphy on the walls and huge and beautiful insides decorated with the most beautiful tiles and stones. They sometimes have calligraphy drawn in gold. As the Islamic state spread, Muslims were showing off their mosques to the world. The more beautiful the mosques, the more powerful the state is.

The Peaceful Mosque

By YOUSEF LASHIN

The peaceful mosque is influenced my many modern architects and modern ideas related to peace. There are three main aspects that are taken into consideration to form this concept of a peaceful mosque. These aspects are the influential elements, the elements used to create the mosque and lastly the form of the mosque.

            To begin with one of the influential elements were a video in which Khalid a Muslim man asks non-Muslim strangers in Leicester City Centre, England to listen to a part of the Quran. Most of the reaction was that the voice was peaceful, relaxing and the words have a deep meaning even though they don’t speech the language of the Quran or understand the words. This aspect is what effected the façade of the building, it brought up an idea of making the façade of the mosque with words of the Quran that relates to peace in Islam and that would reflect shadows on the ground inside the mosque. That effect would make the people be able to read these words with great meanings and could affect their lives in order to make the world a more peaceful place. Another influential element would be the modern architects that build modern mosques or futuristic mosques. For example, the Gothenburg Mosque designed by Björn Sahlqvist that is built in Sweden and funded by Saudi Arabia. It had a modern minaret that suits today’s environment which is the people curiosity of finding out what is inside the building which makes architects use glass and openings and of course for many other reasons.  

            Secondly, the elements that are used to create the peaceful mosque. These elements are the main element that any contemporary mosque should incorporate within a mosque. Which are the minaret which is used for acoustic purposes in which the voice of the imam calling for prayer should be heard by the neighbors, the dome in which used also for acoustic purposes in the old times before the invention of speakers and also is as a symbolic representation of the vault of heaven, the mihrab which is also called the Qibla wall usually highly decorated and it is the wall in which points toward the Qaba and it is the direction of prayer and lastly the Minbar in which the imam says his speech in a Friday prayer. Moreover, the peaceful mosques incorporates a garden that is inspired from the garden in Cordoba Mosque that has a symbolic meaning related to paradise. 

            Last but not least, the form of the peaceful mosque that is mainly cubism since it has a symbolic meaning in Islam and also relates to modernism. The symbolic meaning is related to the Qaba which is the house of god that is symmetrical and equal in four sides quoted from boundless.com “Islamic decorations and architectural motifs rely heavily on repeated square, octagonal, and star motifs, symbolizing the infinite and conveying a spirituality without the iconography of other religions.” In addition, cubism relates also to the modern world and it is the first truly modern movement emerge in art by and later on developed in architecture in the 20th century. It evolved during a period of heroic and rapid innovation between Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque.

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References:

The influential video link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSh5yZdEZ24

"Gothenburg Mosque." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc, n.d. Web. 21 Nov. 2015

"Introduction to Mosque Architecture | A Beginner's Guide to the Arts of the Islamic World |Khan Academy." Khan Academy. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Nov. 2015.

"Elements of Traditional Islamic Gardens." People - Opposing Views. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Nov. 2015.

"Geometric Symbolism." Boundless. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Nov. 2015.

"Cubism Movement, Artists and Major Works." The Art Story. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Nov. 2015.

What does Islamic Art and Architecture mean to you?

Salma Said

I asked a few people what Islamic art and architecture meant to them and surprisingly I got many unexpected as well as expected answers. People either explained to me what Islamic art and architecture was or they drew it. I handed out A4 plain white papers and pencils and people just drew what they though of Islamic art or architecture. It was a very interesting experience to see what people thought of Islamic art and architecture. One girl told me that Islamic art doesn’t exist because art in Islam is forbidden which was thought provoking because in this day and age I didn’t expect to run into such a matter. Another girl told me that Islamic art and architecture is how Muslims try to convey their artistic side while incorporating bits of Islam. I also asked my friend’s sister to draw what she thought was Islamic art and architecture. She drew a mosque, the Kaaba, the Qur'an, and a girl praying. When I asked her why she drew a girl praying she had said that praying is a form of Islamic art. And that was one of the things that has been said to me and left me speechless. Before taking this course I though Islamic art merely consisted of calligraphy and Islamic architecture includes only mosques and the Kaaba. However after taking this course I now know that Islamic art and architecture is very wide and diverse with many different designs and patterns. As well as Islamic art and architecture includes different styles: ancient, modern, and contemporary.

The pieces on the board were drawn in pencil, markers, and charcoal.

Biography:

Salma Said, 21, Egyptian raised in Saudi Arabia studying International Relations in the UAE. My interests include politics and feminism. I also enjoy watching TV series such as Suits and Breaking Bad.