Mosques have been a reason for intense debates both within the Muslim community and outside of it. Maryam Eskandari, an architect at the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at Harvard and MIT, currently has a traveling exhibit on American Mosques. She brings a new angle to the debate discussing the role of architecture as an identity issue. Her exhibit, Sacred Space: (Re)Constructing the Place of Gender in the Space of Religion is touring the nation. We sat down with the architect and artist for an interview.
How did you choose this topic for your exhibit?
This “mosque” project actually started 5 years ago when I was working on another project in Seattle Washington. It was during the holy month of Ramadan. I got an opportunity to engage with the Muslims in Seattle, in which they commissioned my firm to design their mosque. During the design process, we constantly were confronted with, allocating an accurate space for the performance of prayers. It is amazing to see how emotional people get when the issue of space is discussed. What was fascinating to see is how this particular community was able to come together during their mosque project. From my first mosque, it led me to numerous projects for the various Muslim communities throughout the States. However, one project was confronted with a huge obstacle. While we were designing, and going through case studies of various mosques in the states, we started to realize that as Muslims, we do not necessarily have an identity, an American Muslim identity, when it comes to mosques, while other countries—particularly in the Middle East do. So the questioning of identity and gender kept coming up in the design projects. That was when finally last summer; the Aga Khan Program in Islamic Architecture funded my research to visit 32 American Mosques that reside in a highly dense Muslim population across the US. However, while engaged in the project, it lead to over 100 mosques and it still continues. We were able to capture the history, space, and architecture of each mosque, along with the stories that either the community would share with us, or our own adventures that we had.
This Solo Exhibit installation focuses on the use of photography to capture the architecture of mosques in the United States. What does this architecture mean for you?
I think that through the notion of architecture a lot of debates can be discussed. One has to remember that architecture is just a medium, it’s like music, art, or any source of media arts—and it has to clearly express that. Architecture is constantly changing with technology, and we should embrace that. We are very lucky to be living in a country that is on the forefront of cutting edge technology, we should take that technology and start implementing them into our architecture, and start pushing the boundaries of “Islamic Architecture.”
How important is creating a new identity of a modern American Mosque versus the traditional Middle Eastern architecture that is brought over?
I personal believe that it is very vital in creating a new identity of American Mosque. Here is the situation, if every time we are to cut and paste a mosque that the previous generation built, then we are not creating our own history and to make matters worse, we are implementing architecture that is not responsive to the “climate” that we are residing. For example, we cannot take a mosque with all of its architecture that is located in Saudi Arabia and put it in the middle of some land in Alaska, that is not responsive architecture. And being responsive also means taking in account the political and social situations that are happening in the area. Take the skyscraper for example, Mies Van der Rohe, the finest example of “modern” architecture. It was in response to a fast paced, multifaceted and prefabricated parts of architecture, the introduction of that style of architecture has flourished, yet we have challenged and pushed the boundaries of the very first skyscraper in New York, the Seagram building, to today’s Burj Khalifa and the rotating floor plates that are being designed in Dubai. We are able to see how other artist are able to do it—look at the music industry—musicians are changing the whole notion of rap, they are able to rap about political and social issues in response to the Muslim American identity along with creating music videos that correspond to the same issues. Muslim American want to have a new identity for “American Mosque”—they want their mosques to be a space that is modern, just like the current generation of Muslims residing in the states, malleable to the needs of the religion and each mosque responsive to the identity of the culture of the place. The mosque in New York will be different than the mosque in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Architecture is an expression of a group’s social identity. In your opinion is it the Architects job to push for change in identity or is it societies role to change the social identity of American Islam?
Architects are merely a tool to respond to the needs of the user and to the clients. However in this particular issue: the identity of Muslim American, mosques, and the spaces that are often allocated to women in the mosque—all are issues that I have been heavily involved in, because of my own identity. Hence, in these special cases, I too become the user and the client, therefore I have to respond to my needs along with the generation that is demanding the same needs as mine. I personally believe that an architect’s role is to be an activist, a teacher and a mediator. As an activist, we have the ability to answer to the political and theological affairs that are highly debated in the current affairs of today. As a teacher, we are to educate the community not only of responsible, sustainable, and design excellence of architecture; rather we are also able to teach theology, technology and science through the architecture. An excellent architect has the ability to use the building as a teaching tool to be an advocate for the particular subject that is in demand.
How does Architecture and art correspond to each other?
Architecture is a type of art and just like art it is constantly changing with time. Architecture has the ability to be a symbol or an identity of our time. Just like art that is an expression, it is bounded by rules and theory that is modified and expressed to resonate in the landscape and accommodate the present and the future generation. Art becomes architecture, when a space is created in a void. Hence in this exhibit, I took the art of photography, and laid it out through the space that was created. We took the notion of the Ka’aba, a place where the expression of equality is highlighted—deconstructed and shifted it off to create an exterior and interior space. All the images of mosques that are on the exterior of the exhibit correspond to the interior of the mosques. The cube is shifted to create a void space in the middle. It is fascinating to watch the users circulate the exhibit. Some have taken the time to pray in the space, others look at the images of women’s spaces that are documented and comment that they feel the tightness and darkness of the women’s spaces; while some have used the space created as a reading room.
How was Sacred Space chosen for the exhibition?
I believe it had to do with perfect timing, I mean when the Aga Khan Program in Islamic Architecture decided to give me the grant for the project, the Swiss Minaret situation had already happened, yet the topic hadn’t made its way to the US. For research purposes, I gave both Harvard and MIT the rights to my images; once they saw the images they were interested in exhibiting them. However, being the architect, I couldn’t just exhibit them, I had to create a space with the images. At this point the debates on Mosque in America had already started.
What message do you hope to convey through your Photographic Installation?
I believe that as Muslims, we are responsible for accommodating and realizing the needs of our fellow Muslims and the next generation. As an architect it is my responsibility to create new things, test new ideas, push design boundaries and be responsible as I leave my design impressions on earth. Through this photographic installation, one is able to see, feel, and experience the space that a new architectural expression of American Mosque needs to be conducted. As the future Muslim American generation grows, we must celebrate through architecture. It is time to answer the call of the next generation of American Muslims.
Maryam Eskandari is an Architect and is at the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at Harvard and MIT. Follow her on Twitter @maryameskandar or her blog Intellectual Design Means…
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