Al-Mujadilah Center and Mosque for Women – DSR
Al-Mujadilah Center and Mosque for Women in Qatar is the first purpose-built contemporary women’s mosque in the Muslim world. Created to foster a more inclusive Muslim society where women can contribute to shaping contemporary Islamic thought and discourse, Al-Mujadilah is situated in Education City, a 12-square-kilometre campus in Doha comprised of educational and research institutes.
The 50,000-square-foot building features a prayer hall, classrooms, open-air courtyard and multi-purpose spaces. Its signature roof admits and controls light in the main hall. It flattens and extends beyond the building’s footprint to provide shade for exterior spaces and peripheral programs. A field of more than five thousand light wells embedded in the roof slab modulate the abundant natural light to provide a soft, diffuse luminosity in the main hall. The main hall is rotated 17 degrees off axis to point the Qibla wall toward Mecca for prayer. In the Islamic tradition of mosques constructed in harmony with nature, Al-Mujadilah is centered around two olive trees that pierce through the roof and reach toward the sky.
Embedded in an area carved from the dune near the southern entrance is a minaret conceived for this unique building. Traditionally, a muezzin would climb up the minaret to deliver the call to prayer five times each day. From the height of the elevated balcony, his voice would broadcast the call to the entire community. Over time, however, muezzins were replaced by electronic amplification and a recorded message. The Al-Mujadilah minaret reinterprets the ritual of human ascent up the tower. Instead of a muezzin, a cluster of electronic speakers “climbs” 128 feet to the top of a diaphanous steel-mesh tower five times daily. From the summit, the call to prayer is broadcast to the surrounding community. Afterward, the speakers descend back down to the garden. The tower is suspended in the air by cable stays that are anchored to a retaining wall. The tensegrity structure features a screen with a custom perforated pattern that recalls a mashrabiya, an element found in traditional Islamic architecture.
Al-Mujadilah Center and Mosque for Women was initated by Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Chairperson of Qatar Foundation and designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro.
