ADA YVARS AND ALI MANGERA

‘THERE HAVE TO BE SYMBOLS. WITHOUT SYMBOLS PEOPLE FEEL LOST.’

Photo: MYAA

ADA YVARS AND ALI MANGERA

‘THERE HAVE TO BE SYMBOLS. WITHOUT SYMBOLS PEOPLE FEEL LOST.’

Photo: MYAA

OPENNESS AND TOLERANCE: THE RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE OF MANGERA YVARS ARCHITECTS IS IMBUED WITH CULTURAL AND POLITICAL IDEAS. 

“WE WANT TO CREATE AN ENVIRONMENT WHERE EVERYONE FEELS WELCOME.”

A striking duality characterizes the hybrid, partly religious, buildings designed by the London and Barcelona-based firm Mangera Yvars Architects. On the one hand these buildings have a contemporary shape, with flowing, organic volumes that divide and merge. On the other, they are adorned with calligraphy and geometric patterns. The surface ornamentation always relates to a specific history, as though to compensate for the abstractness of the overall shape. The architects Ali Mangera and Ada Yvars were recently asked to work on the sacristy of an iconic church in Barcelona. This raised the question of what requirements apply to designing a religious building.

“Many of the religious buildings in the Western world have something in common,” they explained. “Particularly if you look at a certain type of mosque, such as those designed by the famous Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan, you will notice many similarities with Renaissance cathedrals and other places of worship in the Western world. The differences start to emerge when you go to the Gulf region of The Middle East. Mosques there sometimes have a more puritan aesthetic; they are often more utilitarian, functional and designed to more rigid guidelines. And they are everywhere, which makes them less special in a way. Also culturally and theologically, some in Middle East feel less attached to history and they don’t necessarily value the past, which is sometimes seen as heresy. For example, the house where the Prophet lived is threatened with demolition partly because there is a fear people would visit the house in homage - an act which is frowned upon. The Al-Haram Mosque and Kaaba, the focal point of the Muslim world, is now encircled by high rise developments which have  compromised its historical context. New proposals for Mecca are more about the flow and movement for millions of visitors rather than history, tradition or preservation of a rich architectural past.” 

FACULTY OF ISLAMIC STUDIES, DOHA, QATAR (2015) Photo: James Chadud

- The yearly Hajj, when Muslims from all over the world come to Mecca to pray, shows that ritual is more important than a building like a mosque, for creating a sacred space. Is it ritual that makes a place sacred, rather than architecture?

“An interesting aspect in Islam is that sacred space is ubiquitous. With the exception of a cemetery or an unsanitary place such as a toilet, a Muslim can pray anywhere – in other words, at the time of prayer, the whole earth is a mosque. So the distinction between the sacred and the profane in Islam is perceived in a different way.”

- What does this imply for you as architects when you design a mosque or a space for prayer?

“Our aim is to instil peace and tranquillity, so that people will feel inspired to pray and to contemplate. Of course you could equally pray and contemplate outdoors, in nature, which could be even more spiritual. But what connects many sacred buildings is the sensation of the sublime that manifests itself there. We aim in our architecture to augment that sensation of the sublime.”

- Besides a sense of the sublime, what specific features contribute to the sacredness of a mosque?

“First of all we must point out that two of our partly religious buildings, the Faculty of Islamic Studies in Doha and the North Harrow Community Centre, are not mosques. They are hybrid buildings with diverse functions. Only a small percentage of the total area is dedicated for prayer. One important feature of Muslim prayer is the act of ablution which marks a transition between the world outside and the calm, meditative and spiritual world of a mosque. In the Faculty of Islamic Studies, we created a cascade of water of five or six stories high, wrapped around a staircase. It is like a waterfall: the water descends from a tremendous height and the sound of water permeates the prayer space. Another essential component of prayer is the transformative use of light. In our Doha project, we were inspired by celestial shafts of light such as those in Sinan’s Blue Mosque – an ethereal connection between heaven and earth. With sustainability and solar heat gain in mind, in Doha we created smaller shafts of light that appear as starlight’s which are equally beautiful at dawn and dusk.” 

FACULTY OF ISLAMIC STUDIES, DOHA, QATAR (2015) Photo: Tala Basem Qatar Drone Photography

FACULTY OF ISLAMIC STUDIES, DOHA, QATAR (2015) Photo: Qatar Foundation

- Another feature that catches the eye in the Faculty of Islamic Studies is the calligraphy that covers parts of the building.

“As you can see, it’s a very modern building. The calligraphy helps people understand what the building is about, and makes it accessible to those who purely visit to pray and aren’t specifically interested in the architecture. This was all the more important because the project consists of a university faculty as well as a prayer space. We wanted to make its religious function explicit. So on the walls outside the mosque entrance we have calligraphic inscriptions which are like sacred tablets of stone. They also act as divine signifiers that connect with people in a more direct way. This is quite different to figurative art such as paintings and gargoyles on Christian churches which is more about story telling. 

“As well as the calligraphy, there are more subtle religious cues. The prayer space, for instance, is supported by the ‘Five pillars of Islam’; namely Hajj, Fasting, Charity, Praying and Belief. The pillars are inscribed with sacred verses, and visibly support the mosque above whilst metaphorically acting as the ‘foundations’ of the Islamic belief. Another feature is how the landscape is irrigated by the Four Rivers of Paradise, that descend from the mosque ablution area to create, metaphorically, rivers of water, milk, honey and wine.”

 - The organic forms of the North Harrow Community Centre and the Qatar Faculty of Islamic Studies both suggest landscapes. What prompted you to take landscape as a reference for designing buildings?

“As far as the Doha building is concerned, our aim was to create building conceived as a flowing landscape that merges with the adjacent Oxygen Park. We wanted people to walk around freely and perhaps find a way to their faith, or not. But when we think about a building as a landscape, we don’t mean only a natural landscape. We are also thinking of the cultural and political landscape with which the building connects. What we value is the fact that the mosque is used not only by students on the campus, but also by the wider community of all classes including local residents, workers, students and professors. We wanted to create an environment where everyone feels welcome, irrespective of their social status, class or gender, whether native Qataris or immigrants.

“We try to create levels of meaning that are not obvious, but which are experienced – in other words, we harness the ethereal qualities of architecture, the sound of water, the call to prayer and the use of light and shade. We feel privileged that when we manage in a small way to touch people’s hearts through our architecture. We always try and make our buildings accessible, culturally relevant, and able to inspire. ‘Architecture of faith’ in particular must be inclusive to help facilitate better understanding across communities, building bridges not walls.’

FACULTY OF ISLAMIC STUDIES, DOHA, QATAR (2015) Photo: James Chadud

NORTH HARROW COMMUNITY CENTRE, LONDON, UK (2009) Images: MYAA

GHAZI AL GOSAIBI MOSQUE, JUBAIL, SAUDI ARABIA (2015) Images: MYAA

- In your Doha design you made a fluent, seamless connection between the educational and the religious parts of the building. Why didn’t you articulate both functions as separate entities, to distinguish knowledge from belief?

“The media sometimes portray religious buildings as places for indoctrination. But Islamic institutions played a significant role in the science and culture, in fields like astronomy, mathematics, science and much more. A renaissance took place in Islam much earlier than in the West. Plato’s work for example was already translated into Arabic three centuries before the Renaissance began in the West. We therefore wanted the Doha buil- ding to demonstrate the relative progressiveness of Islam, its openness and tolerance. Our aim was to build on the tradition of the past whilst meeting the needs of future generations.”

- In the North Harrow Community Centre, the prayer space is even more closely integrated into the building. Was this with the same intention?

“The context of the North Harrow project, in London, was very different. The client group consisted mainly of East African Muslim community, of Indian and Persian descent, people who migrated to the UK in the nineteen seventies. The client asked us to design a multi-purpose building with a prayer space that would be accessible to everybody, regardless of faith. It is a very noble gesture to reach out to all communities, because this is how we build understanding and tolerance in society. If you walk past most religious buildings, you’d rarely feel tempted to enter unless you belonged to that faith. In other words, many religious buildings have become tribal and exclusive. But if a building was inviting, for instance if it contains an accessible exhibition, café, or bookshop, then there is a good chance it would attract a wider audience and become a place where people can meet, debate and better understand each other. This would certainly lead to more inclusive communities.”

GHAZI AL GOSAIBI MOSQUE, JUBAIL, SAUDI ARABIA (2015) Images: MYAA

GHAZI AL GOSAIBI MOSQUE, JUBAIL, SAUDI ARABIA (2015) Images: MYAA

- That kind of integration is hard to achieve without first affirming your own identity. Wouldn’t that imply designing a building that explicitly articulates the Islamic identity of the clients? What made you decide to do otherwise?

“We didn’t try to conceal their identity at all. On the contrary, we designed ornamentation for the façade to illustrate the client’s journey from Persia, India and Africa to the UK, using patterns from Delhi’s Red Fort, Tanzania and the work of William Morris. William Morris is interesting because he was inspired by Islamic patterns. At the same time he was also influential in the British Arts and Crafts movement, including in places such Harrow, where our project is being built.” 

- You often use geometric patterns in your architecture. Why?

“We are modern architects of our time, and we don’t choose ornamentation for its own sake and it’s certainly not a crime! But many modern buildings don’t connect to people and are often bland and meaningless. It is fascinating how people around the world express themselves, in whatever culture, through forms of adornment; jewellery, costumes, tattoos and much more. Architecture too should be less generic and more specific, through its materiality and its ability to connect. A façade is a very public urban space and it should be used wisely. Modulating facades and streetscapes can tell stories and invite people, or alternatively they can alienate. Symbols too are important because people feel lost without them. But the way symbols are interpreted, can change over time. It is not necessary to literally recreate the past. A minaret for example was used for the call to prayer, but there no longer a need for this. So why can’t it be wind turbines or viewing platforms or a place to base jump? Repurposing symbols in this way makes them more relevant to contemporary needs.”

MSHEIREB DOWNTOWN DOHA FRIDAY MOSQUE, DOHA, QATAR (2011) Photos: TiME Qatar

PHOTOS: Johan Dehlin