026 Dome
Mosque
Location
Dubai, UAE
Date
February 2010
Client
Design as Reform / Traffic
Program
Religious / Educational 5.000 m²
Status
Competition
Collaboration
OnOffice
Team
Eugénio Cardoso, Joana Gomes, Ricardo Guedes, Francesco Moncada, Leon Rost
Since the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, the world has been unified by the voluntary embracement of the same system, where economic values take priority over all, and increasingly dominates politics, culture, and the way we are still building the world…
At the same time, the recipe for the Icon developed as a tautological bigness: the biggest skyscraper, the big pyramid, the biggest mall, a big horse head in a building…
The incredible pressure of the market economy was forcing architecture itself into increasingly extravagant conditions. And DUBAI seemed to be the epicenter of that extravagance. The only successful recipe to put the city on the map seemed to be copying other successful recipes…
The volatile condition of the Stock Market may affect the urbanism of the city, but the Cultural Traditions, such as religion, remain CONSTANT…
City profiles are becoming excessive and utterly individualized, where difference has been reversed into SAMENESS. Where religious architecture is commonly the exceptional, in the Dubai's case, exception is GENERIC…
Throughout history, the Mosque program has been increasing, resulting on addition bursting buildings. Our proposal wants to contain all the contemporary religious elements, in a regular shape, avoiding the external ostentation…
The entire structure of the mosque is standing on 5 massive pillars to symbolize the 5 pillars of the Islamic faith. The selective framing provides hierarchal program distribution…
Domes are commonly the main actor in Islamic religious buildings. They are primarily iconic exterior formal representations…
The Mosque of the Domes reforms the typical shape of the mosque. It brings the experience of the domes, as a space of gathering, closer to the devotees. The religious experience comes from within…
The orthogonal wall limits of the mosque, sets the position of the Qibla, within the praying room. Tradition is also present through the chandeliers that set the human scale…
Apart from the underground parking, all the plans are organized concentrically to each dome that defines the space. On the upper level, a library and learning areas provide the introspective ambient to study the holy scripts…
Each dome is covered with tiles forming geometric patterns from all over the Islamic world. The golden geometric facade cut-out of the Domes, responds to the external religious heritage…
