Modern Mosque

A contemporary mosque that keeps the traditional elements and changes only their geometry: the dome becomes a continuous perforated shell over the prayer hall, and the minaret a single unadorned shaft.

The shell is a single surface from the ground on one side to the ground on the other. It removes the distinction between wall and dome, which is a modern move, but it keeps the room beneath it square and oriented, which is not.

The perforation is set out from the inside. Its density is calculated to give the prayer hall an even, glare-free light at the times of day the hall is actually used, and the external pattern is what that calculation happens to look like.

The minaret is a plain shaft with no balcony and no cap. At night it is lit from within the perforation, so it reads as a line of light rather than a lit object.