Native structure studio Cubeinside has accomplished a red-brick mosque in Bangladesh, eschewing conventional ornamentation in favour of “timeless” geometric types.
Situated close to the Arial Kha River in rural Madaripur, Bait Ur Raiyan Mosque is housed inside a rectilinear brick quantity, topped by a central dome and minarets at every of its 4 corners.
Whereas mosque buildings generally incorporate components of conventional Islamic ornamentation, Dhaka-based Cubeinside purposefully created a stripped-back constructing that’s hoped to really feel “sacred but intimate”.
“The venture transient had the agency necessities of getting the standard symbolic components of a mosque just like the dome, minarets and arch,” defined Cubeinside.
“Islam prescribes symbolic or suggestive method fairly than literal illustration of any type – this makes geometry one of the vital important instruments within the abstraction of symbolism in mosque design,” the studio added.
“This imposed criterion was taken as fairly a chance to train the abstraction of the standard symbols in mosque structure by the idea of ‘summary semiotics’.”
Surrounded by low brick partitions and areas of planting, Bait Ur Raiyan Mosque is raised on a plinth of darkish marble. Steps lead as much as an entrance set inside a deep-set brick arch.
This arch is among the many solely particulars on the in any other case clean exterior, which is shaped of domestically sourced bricks, with others being perforated brickwork and slender vertical openings at every of the mosque’s corners for air flow.
“To attain timeless materiality, purple brick and stones are used, which return a great distance in Bangladeshi mosque heritage,” defined the studio.
“The deep purple of the brick brings a couple of mellow distinction to the encircling greenery of the world.”
As soon as inside, a single prayer corridor sits beneath the mosque’s central dome, which has been raised barely to create a halo-like skylight.
The brick exterior has been left uncovered internally, complemented by a marble ground, concrete ceiling and a stone-lined mihrab – a distinct segment that factors towards Mecca – that’s bisected by a tall, slender window.
Studio Morphogenesis wraps waterside mosque in Bangladesh in perforated pink concrete
Giant sections of glazing cowl the perforated sections of the wall, permitting the pure air flow to be managed.
“The dome here’s a floating dome, permitting the daylight by the inside, giving an expertise of the vastness of the sky,” mentioned Cubeinside. “The only-storey mosque with a lofty top provides the customers a superb expertise by way of spatial high quality.”
4 minarets rise from every nook of Bait Ur Raiyan Mosque, described by the studio as “sculptural components hovering in direction of the sky”.
To the north, a smaller standalone brick construction fronted by a colonnade incorporates an ablution space and bathrooms alongside rooms for the muezzin and imam.
Elsewhere in Bangladesh, Studio Morphogenesis additionally not too long ago supplied a contemporary tackle mosque structure on the Zebun Nessa Mosque in Dhaka, which is completed in perforated, pink-toned concrete.
Different mosques featured on Dezeen embody one in Kuwait by Babnimnim Design Studio with a rotated sq. type and one in Muscat by Altqadum that encompasses a cone-shaped minaret.
The images is by Asif Salman.
