From mosques that float to water to those that have flat roofs and bounce light across their rafters there is a a sea change in Islamic architecture. James Reinl reports
They are made of concrete yet float on water, drawing briny liquid from the Arabian Gulf through a vein-like system that keeps them cool.
Inside the leviathans, 12-metre high transparent plastic columns support flat ceilings.
In fact, the buoyant structures set to bob alongside Palm Jebel Ali are unlike any mosque you have seen before.
Representing a sea change in Islamic architecture, planners say Dubai's four upcoming floating mosques are part of a new wave of religious construction that is washing over the Emirates.
The avant-garde architects behind the structures say it is time to ditch the standard domed, sandy-coloured buildings that host worshippers from Liwa to Dibba.
The country will soon have a range of futuristic holy buildings that draw on traditional Islamic architectural styles while also reflecting the chic new face of the rapidly modernising Gulf.
"If you look at mosques you may think they have always looked the same - but this is far from the truth," says floating mosque architect Koen Olthuis, creative director of Dutch Docklands.
"Look at the history of Islamic architecture and you will see it has been changing for the past 1,500 years, and mosques are still changing.
"Even the mosques of 500 years ago are very different to the ones we find today. They have similar elements, such as the minaret, but are always changing. Now, in the UAE, we have a new environment, so we thought when designing this mosque it was time to take a new step," Olthuis says.
21st century thinking
While developer Nakheel has yet to finalise plans for Palm Jebel Ali, the four floating mosques are set to be tethered to a vast floating poem that bobs between the fronds and the palm's outer rim. The Arabic verse was famously penned by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.
It reads: "Take wisdom from the wise: Not everyone who rides a horse is a jockey.
It takes a man of vision to write on water. Great men rise to great challenges." Floating structures are increasingly being regarded as ideal for 21st century living, for when global warming causes the anticipated rise in sea levels, buoyant buildings will be able to go with the flow.
This fact elevated architect Olthuis - who has already designed a floating church in Amsterdam among a host of structures to use wafer-like slabs of foam and concrete - to be nominated for the TIME Magazine list of The 100 People Who Shape Our World.
While being environmentally wary, the floating mosques are also environmentally friendly, pumping water from the Arabian Gulf through a plumbing system that cools the building down by 15 degrees Celsius, slashing air conditioning costs by as much as 40 per cent.
Although the floating buildings mark a departure from the typical yellow, stone and concrete structures found across the UAE, they still feature the minarets and arches that appear consistently in Islamic architecture.
Olthuis reinvented other norms of Muslim holy buildings, abandoning the typical domed roof and instead supporting a flat ceiling with two rows of transparent blue composite plastic columns.
"The idea inside a mosque is to create a large open space where the view is not interrupted by columns - that is why mosques traditionally used domed roofs, so you do not need any columns," he says.
"For this reason, the columns in the floating mosque are transparent. For me, it was quite an exciting way of creating the large open space that has traditionally been preferred in Muslim holy buildings." Likewise, award-winning Arab architect Jafar Tukan decided to avoid domes on his designs for Sheikha Salama Mosque in Al Ain's town centre and the Central Market Mosque in Abu Dhabi.
The 3,860-capacity mosque in Al Ain will be completed in 2009 and feature a futuristic "beehive" of flat roofs that ascend in the direction of Makkah, set to become the biggest modern mosque in the UAE's garden city, sitting upon a 36,000sqm site beside the central souk.
Tukan's contribution in the capital sports equally flat roofs and square doorways, making a sleek addition to the parks, fountains, souks and skyscrapers of central Abu Dhabi's Dh2.7 billion facelift.
"Traditionally, the mosques built in the northern part of the Islamic world: Syria,Turkey and Palestine, had a dome as the main structural feature," says Tukan, chairman of Consolidated Consultants and winner of the 2001 Aga Khan Award for Architecture.
"While the dome may have symbolic or mystical meaning, the main reason it was used was because of structural necessity. If you are building in stone which is readily available in these areas then the dome is one of the shapes you can use for this size of build ing. Then when mosques started being developed in other parts of the Arab World, the shape of the dome was the prototype, so it was used everywhere else." Tukan says buildings were traditionally constructed in the Emirates using timber beams and flat roofs, adding that the absence of stone locally meant domes were almost impossible to create with the available materials.
Although his flat-roofed mosques in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain appear markedly different to what many see as the traditional style, the architect says they are actually more akin to Gulf construction norms.
As such, the flat-roof style is apparent on Tukan's mosques, as well as the floating contribution of Olthuis.
But while each architect has been willing to revamp holy buildings, there is one typical mosque element visible on all three structures the minaret.
The retention of these distinctive spires can be readily called into question since their traditional function granting the muezzin an opportune position for making the adhan call to prayer has been superseded by microphones and speaker systems.
"In principal, we could do away with the minarets altogether," says Tukan. "But even when, for example, we look at very modern and innovative churches, there is always some kind of architectural indication of a spire.
"I think there is some emotional or symbolic significance that is attached to these elements. So we keep them, even if we design shorter minarets, they still differentiate the structure from, for example, a house or a library."
Lighting the way
Tukan's mosques maintain the minarets, using them to afford loudspeakers an elevated position for broadcasting the adhan, while Olthuis's floating mosques use the spires to "make the mosques a prominent marker on the landscape and allow people to get their bearings when on the palm", he says.
Another element the archi tects selected for modern mosque manipulation illustrates a famous phrase from the holy book: Let there be light.
While the floating mosque channels sunbeams through the roof using giant, plastic columns,Tukan relays an eerie glow through his Al Ain structure by bouncing rays across the rafters.
"There are many references and statements in the Quran that say God is the light of the heavens and the Earth, and many verses that accentuate the importance of light in the life of a Muslim," says Tukan. "This needs to be reflected inside a mosque, and this is why I feel I should always allow a lot of natural light into the inner aspect of the mosque and fulfil this symbolism of God and the proximity of heaven." While Tukan says the new mosques were deliberately designed "away from the typical stereotype", conservative worshippers need not fear this is more evolution than revolution.
Indeed, Tukan says mosque architecture floating or otherwise will be one of the means by which the Gulf maintains its identity in rapidly changing times.
"We are now living in a world that is globalised and the authentic cultural identities seem to be fading away," says Tukan.
"The whole world is turning into a very greyish, cultural melting pot. We all use computers, watch television, fly in aeroplanes and drive the same cars.
"But perhaps communities need an identity preservation mechanism. Something that will allow this world to maintain its variety of cultures, and something that means all cities do not look the same.
"With these mosques, I wanted to show that what has been an accepted form for this kind of building can be changed and yet still create something that is interesting, valuable, and functional, while also maintaining the qualities of the location."
© Emirates Today 2007
