A city that defies expectations, this is what many visitors often express about the Senegalese capital, Dakar. As Africa's most western port city, which gained independence from the French in 1960, Dakar is a regional hub for diversity and culture. While it's often described as an unexpectedly sleek and "modern" city, with its characteristic and sometimes colorful monolithic buildings, Dakar is in fact in constant development and each of its districts tends to reflect a different style and focus, depending on its inhabitants and the dominating functions.
Courtesy of BCT Design Group and Gensler | The Wildset
Master plans are comprehensive design strategies that guide the future development of cities, districts, or large-scale projects. From a design and architectural perspective, they strive to balance the need for flexibility, long-term vision, and the integration of infrastructure with the public realm. Key themes in master planning often include sustainable development, urban connectivity, and cultural integration. Master plans shape not only the physical environment but also the social fabric of communities by emphasizing walkability, mixed-use spaces, and the blending of natural and built environments. These large-scale frameworks showcase the role architecture plays in shaping the future of urban life.
This curated selection of Unbuilt Architecture,submitted by the ArchDaily community, illustrates a range of visionary urban strategies. Whether it’s the revival of the village of Ad-Damun in Palestine, reconnecting with a rich historical past, or the bold reconstruction of the Al-Nouri Complex in Iraq as a cultural and spiritual hub, some of these projects engage with complex narratives of memory and restoration. From the sustainable design of Mokolo Green Scarf City in Cameroon to the marine research center in Yemen, these projects showcase diverse approaches to architectural challenges, focusing on community, environment, and the preservation of cultural heritage. By addressing unique regional contexts, these proposals reflect a broader commitment to rethinking how architecture can foster resilience and inclusivity.
The recently released “Abijo Mosque Documentary” explores the journey of designing and building the Abijo Mosque in Lagos, Nigeria. The documentary provides a detailed narrative of the design process and the cultural context around the new structure. Designed by Patrickwaheed Design Consultancy (PWDC), the mosque is a testament to the integration of traditional materials and contemporary architecture. The Abijo Mosque design also helps “build the case for a Nigerian architectural language.”
Rehabilitation involves repairing, renovating, altering, or reconstructing any building or structure. It addresses the need to significantly improve a building's failing features, primarily through strengthening or replacing elements to restore the structure's optimal performance. The impact of building rehabilitation on the physical environment is significant. It is a sustainable strategy for preserving the built environment and mitigating the construction industry's impact on climate change.
However, its social impact is also considerable when viewed as a fundamental framework for sustainable outcomes. Rehabilitation can serve as a model that brings community members together for inclusive repair and restoration of structures. This positively affects communal life quality, social integration, environmental sustainability, and community perception of local architecture.
For centuries, arid environments have solved the problem of light, privacy, and heat through a statement architectural feature of Islamic and Arab architecture, the mashrabiya. Crafted from geometric patterns traditionally made from short lengths of turned wood, the mashrabiya features lattice-like patterns that form large areas. Traditionally, it was used to catch wind and offer passive cooling in the dry Middle Eastern desert heat. Frequently used on the side street of a built structure, water jars, and basins were placed inside it to activate evaporative cooling. The cool air from the street would pass through the wooden screen, providing air movement for the occupants.
Similar to the Indian jali, the vernacular language also offers a playful experience with daylight while still maintaining a certain degree of privacy. Traced back to Ottoman origins, the perforated screens protected occupants’ from the sun while simultaneously letting daylight through in calculated doses. Although the mashrabiya was a statement in arab and Islamic architecture languages, it wasn’t until 1987 that the archetypal element began appearing with a revised contemporary application.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is now home to the world’s first 3D-printedmosque, spanning an area of 5,600 sqm. Located within the Al-Jawhara suburb of Jeddah, the mosque stands as a tribute to the late equestrian Abdulaziz Abdullah Sharbatly. The project by Forsan Real Estate utilizes cutting-edge 3D printing technology from Guanli.
Sumaya Dabbagh, the founder of Dabbagh Architects, based in the UAE, stands at the forefront of architectural innovation with a focus on identity and connection to place. Her recent participation in the Sharjah Architecture Triennial’s second edition “Earth to Earth" is a showcase of cumulative ideas that Dabbagh Architects has been fostering through their projects. Onsite in Sharjah, ArchDaily had the chance to speak to the architect about her exploration at the Triennial, as well as her broader architecture practice and its impact on the Global South.
Religious architecture has always had a unique power to transcend the physical realm, transporting visitors to a spiritual journey. In many belief systems, it serves as a space between the earthly and the universal divine. This designed experience can often be facilitated through different choices, where light, form, materiality, and circulation play essential roles. Furthermore, architecture and design hold the power to have a profound impact on one’s lived spiritual experience.
This exploration of religious architecture in the global south showcases the integration of tradition and contemporary innovation. Whether it’s the Omani Mosque, where heritage and Islamic tradition are honored, or the Abrahamic Family House that features a mosque, a church, and a synagogue in dialogue and coexistence. Form and public access are explored through a design in Brazil, while a monastery in Uganda expands its size to serve guests and novitiate.
Friday, September 8th, a 6.8-magnitude earthquake hit Morocco’s High Atlas Mountain range. The epicenter was located just 72 kilometers southwest of Marrakech, the country’s fourth-largest city and a popular tourist destination. The quake is the strongest to hit the nation’s center in more than a century. Estimates put the number of victims at over 2,000 and more injured, but as several towns and villages remain inaccessible high in the mountains, the number is expected to increase. In addition to the human toll, several historical landmarks, including UNESCO World Heritage sites, have been affected, while eyewitnesses in the foothills of the mountains report that several remote towns have been completely destroyed, according to CNN.
The Islamic Architecture style has a diverse history, spanning over a millennium, stretching from Western Africa to Europe to Eastern Asia. Beginning in early 7th century Arabia, this form of architecture emerged with the rise of the Islamic civilization. In fact, Al Masjid Al Nabawi, the first Mosque to ever be constructed was built in 622, in Medina, Saudi Arabia. Moreover, early Islamic architecture was influenced by the pre-existing styles around the region, such as Roman, Byzantine, and Persian qualities.
Today, Islamic architecture is known for its acute attention to detail, craftsmanship, and its spiritual symbolism. Furthermore, as color plays an essential role in architecture, influencing the emotional experience of the space, different colors have been utilized over the years in Islamic Architecture to evoke certain meanings. In Islamic Architecture, colors hold significant spiritual symbolism, reflecting the values and beliefs of the Islamic faith. Four core colors, Green, Blue, Gold, and White, are each used to convey various cultural, religious, and symbolic meanings.
Read on to discover the use of these colors in various Islamic architectural icons around the world.
The mosque; the Islamic holy place of prayer, carries a distinct structural characteristic and identity. It is a serene and spiritual architecture that brings individuals closer to their faith and divine entity. Prophet Muhammad's original house in Medina (in present-day Saudi Arabia) is believed to be the first place of prayer, and served as a model for early mosque architecture; a mud-brick structure with living quarters on one side of an enclosed rectangular courtyard. Soon after, the allocation of open spaces in the center of towns where Muslims could gather and pray became more frequent, resulting in several spaces of worship with a universal spatial characteristic: their orientation towards Mecca.
The design process of the mosque started with a single enclosed geometric form, reinforcing the idea of spirituality and seclusion. Soon after, this simple spatial prototype evolved into the first formal hypostyle mosque, known for its vast prayer hall and series or arcades. Variations of this model saw the first mosque in Medina, known as the Quba Mosque (622 CE), the Kairouan Mosque in Tunis (670 CE), and the Umayyad mosque in Damascus (715 CE), some of which incorporated column details from ancient Greek and Roman architecture. However, the role of mosques evolved throughout the years from just a place of worship to an architecture that helps in re-establishing the values of Islam and offers contributions to society, including educational, civic, and ceremonial.
Ramadan Pavilion. Image Courtesy of Victoria & Albert Museum
Ramadan Tent Project and V&A present the Ramadan Pavilion 2023, an architectural installation inspired by the holy month of Ramadan, which starts today. The Ramadan Pavilion 2023 is designed by architect Shahed Saleem and will be open to the public at the Exhibition Road Courtyard of the V&A South Kensington until May 1, 2023. As part of the annual festival, the pavilion is accompanied by a series of events, performances, and workshops curated by the Ramadan Tent Project.
Under the theme of "Mosque: a cross-cultural building", the 4th cycle of the Abdullatif Alfozan Award for Mosque Architecture (2020-2023) has announced its 5 winning projects hailing from Australia, Turkey, Serbia, Slovenia, and Mozambique. The award ceremony took place at the Riyadh National Museum on March 5th, 2023, followed by a 2-day architectural seminar in which the architects explained the design process behind their winning projects.
Looking into mosques between the past, present, and future, the selection took into account each project's contextuality, privacy, its religious and architectural significance, and contribution to the community. Over 200 mosque were submitted from across the world, narrowed down to a shortlist of 22 projects. The five winning mosques, however, were commended for looking beyond common mosque typologies, as they explored the importance of feeling within a religious space, their value as "urban communication tools", and how their architectural languages are re-establishing the values of the religion.
Abrahamic Family House, overview. Image Courtesy of Adjaye Associates
Designed by Adjaye Associates, the Abrahamic Family House is a landmark project located in the Saadiyat Cultural District in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. The center encompasses three separate houses of worship: a mosque, a church, and a synagogue, along with spaces for gathering and dialogue. First announced in 2019 following an international competition, the interfaith complex was officially inaugurated and opened to worshippers on 16th February 2023. Access to the forum and guided tours will be available to visitors from 1 March 2023.
Organized by the Abdullatif Alfozan Award for Mosque Architecture and the College of Architecture at Kuwait University, the 3rd International Conference on Mosque Architecture was held in Kuwait on 14-16 November 2022. Under the theme of “Mosque: a cross cultural building,” 101 architects participated in this year’s edition, showcasing their state-of-the-art designs and how they reimagined religious buildings in a more contemporary context, taking into account the importance of community, privacy, its religious significance, and the environment.
Byzantium, Constantinople and now Istanbul, the many names this city has had over the centuries are proof of the central role it has played throughout history. Founded by Greek settlers in the 7th century, the city served as an imperial capital for a cumulated period of over 1600 years. During the Roman/Byzantine, it played a crucial role in the advancement of Christianity before its transformation into an Islamic center and becoming the sear of the Ottoman Caliphate. Today, Istanbul is a vibrant city with a rich cultural scene and multiple historical layers to be discovered.
Straddling the Bosphorus strait, the city lies in both Europe and Asia, integrating architectural masterpieces that reflect the meeting of European and Asian cultures over the centuries. As the largest city in Turkey with a population of over 15 million residents, Istanbul also serves as the country’s economic, cultural, and historic center. Istanbul is the 15th largest city and the eighth most visited city in the world. The city is also home to several UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
A few weeks ago, this year’s edition of the Serpentine Pavilion opened to the public. Designed by Chicago-based artist Theaster Gates, it’s an evocative project, its cylindrical form referencing American beehive kilns, English bottle kilns, and Musgum adobe homes found in Cameroon.
What the pavilion is named tells the viewer a lot more about its intentions as a spatial experience. Titled Black Chapel, it houses a spacious room with wraparound benches, and an oculus above that allows daylight to filter into the space. It’s a fairly minimal interior – designed as a site for contemplation and reflection. This minimal quality of Gates’ Serpentine Pavilion raises particularly interesting questions. How artists and architects opt for a “less is more” approach when designing meditative spaces, but also how these introspective spaces have been equally enhanced by ornamentation.
