Zliten Campus at Asmariya University
for Islamic Sciences, Libya.
Giving new form to Islamic architecture
TONY KETTLE, international principal at the architectural practice RMJM, says the global downturn has revived interest in traditional Islamic forms of architecture across the Middle East, and sees the emergence of new sustainable designs that create a ‘sense of place’.
01 December 2009
THE global recession has had a significant impact on hundreds of markets across the world, but there are some areas, especially in the Middle East, that have found benefit from the downturn.
Events of the past year have brought about a dramatic change in the way architecture and design are delivered across the region and as a result, we have seen movement away from ‘iconic’ to the rebirth of traditional Islamic architecture where ‘natural order’ through sustainability and community living are again high on the agenda, giving a sense of ‘place’ to the region.
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The mosque at Asmariya university. |
Post downturn, things are very different and that’s a good thing. There has been a re-examination of what is good, and what the drivers should be going forward. There has been the realisation that energy matters to us all, that new buildings should be socially responsible and contribute to the environment rather than attempt to rule it.
There has also been the realisation that the Middle East is based on an Islamic culture worthy of celebration, with humanistic values that are more relevant than ever. With this comes a re-examination of traditional Islamic forms, of the patterns (visually, physically and metaphorically) that help reinforce a sense of place. ‘Place’ is that beautiful and elusive animal that belongs to one environment, one climate, and one culture. Capturing that ‘sense of place’ is what truly makes a piece of architecture special. This is in direct comparison to ‘international architecture’ which by its very definition may be transplanted anywhere in the world without loss of meaning.
Moving forward, there is now a fantastic potential to create architecture that is responsive not just to commercial and climatic drivers but also to cultural drivers. Through the study of Islamic geometry (the geometry of nature), there is the potential to invent new forms of architecture relevant to the Middle East.
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The central square at Asmariya university ... truly traditional. |
One leading academic, Dr Khaled Azzam, the dean of the UK-based Prince’s School for Traditional Arts, describes Islamic geometry as ‘the essential structure of everything’. “Geometry is the language of the natural order, it is the handwriting of God. You understand that there is a very beautiful harmony happening here. By looking at the growth of a flower and looking at the flow of water, by looking at the sunset and the sunrise, by looking at ourselves, the proportion of hands and faces, you start to see patterns and a pattern of existence,” he says.
In Islam, sacred geometry has become a branch of religious philosophy, inseparable from the theology it expresses. This then has become the object of sacred geometry, that is, to have a profound understanding of the system of rules that underlie these reflections of the natural world, and through this to gain deeper insight into the mysteries of the creator. In Islam, sacred geometry offers a vehicle for both praise and enlightenment.
In contemporary architecture, the use of Islamic geometry has generally been through use of applied decoration, of geometrical motifs or the replication of historical models, displacing both style and meaning. This misses the point. Islamic geometry is based on mathematical systems found throughout nature, namely: root three, root two, and Golden Ratio proportions. Islam teaches that there is a natural order of things, which results in beauty. This order comes from integrating geometry in the underlying principles of the object and following this through each and every aspect of the design.
The result should be a new contemporary form of architecture, related very much to the Middle East and reinforcing a sense of place that defines what is beautiful and special about the Islamic environment. In this way, we will move on from the iconic to a more sustainable form of architecture, bringing back a sense of community and family, which has always been so strongly associated with this region.
This is not to say that, in moderation, iconic does not have its place in the future of Islamic architecture; rather in lesser quantity and higher quality, these buildings become extraordinary once again.
