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Islamic Architecture in the New Millennium

© Alia F. Hasan

THE BEGINNINGS OF ISLAMIC ARCHITECTURE
THE KABA MECCA, SAUDI ARABIA



To many Muslims it doesn't make much sense to discuss the architecture of the next millennium when according to the Muslim calendar that won't even happen for another 500 years. But in our global society, the Western world and the Muslim world are inextricably tied. Its difficult to discuss any culture without discussing the rest of the world. One can't discuss mosques in America without mentioning America; likewise, one couldn't praise the newest buildings being raised in the Middle East without giving praise to the sometimes Western architects who designed them.

By now everyone has had their fill of predictions by various experts of what this new millennium holds for us so I won't attempt to add to that with this article. Instead I would rather comment on something I am an expert on-- my own hopes for the next century and what I would like to see in the "Islamic architecture" of the future.

More Mosques

According to many statistics, Islam is currently the fastest growing religion in the US and although Muslim Americans have access to places of worship there are too few true mosques. When you think of the American landscape, the most striking religious structures are churches and synagogues. I would like to see mosques dotting the landscape to more appropriately represent the diversity of American society. I think most Americans don't realize just how many people of Muslim faith exist in this country and how integrated we've become. What can signify that better than architecture? Fortunately, this is a trend that is not too far off. Many Muslim communities have organized themselves and raised money for the building of mosques.

Islamic Architecture Redefining Itself

This may be a bit more controversial, but I would like to see some changes in how Islamic architecture defines itself. In the past there were basic components to this tradition that never changed no matter where it traveled. These included the orientation and shape of the prayer hall, the minaret, and the distinctive Islamic use of calligraphy as decoration. These things can never change nor would I ever want them to change.

What I would like to see addressed is the use of a few Islamic symbols like arches and domes in new buildings as merely symbols of Islamic architecture without having a deeper understanding of Islamic architecture. For myself, there has never been enough in architecture to reproduce buildings and traditions of the past without evaluating them and re-adapting them to our own time and understanding of architecture. For example, it makes more sense to recreate the quality of light or space of a building like the Christian Hagia Sophia and adapt it to a modern building, as many architects have attempted to do, than to reproduce all the physical elements of the Hagia Sophia in a new identical building. I would like to see Islamic architecture and the architecture of the Middle East progress in the same way that architecture of the Western world has, but without losing what is Islamic in this tradition.