Al-Mujadilah Center and Mosque for Women – Diller Scofidio + Renfro
Al Mujadilah Center and Mosque for Women in Doha, Qatar, designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, is the first purpose-built contemporary women’s mosque. Located in Education City, the 50,000 square foot building includes a prayer hall, classrooms, an open-air courtyard and flexible spaces. A broad roof with more than five thousand light wells brings soft, controlled daylight into the main hall. The hall is rotated seventeen degrees to orient the Qibla wall toward Mecca, and two olive trees rise through the roof in keeping with the Islamic tradition of building in harmony with nature.
The minaret is reinterpreted as a diaphanous steel mesh tower with a moving cluster of speakers that ascends for the call to prayer and returns to the garden afterward. The project was initiated by Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser for Qatar Foundation.
