Publisher's Synopsis
Shortlisted for the 2021 Stirling Prize, this mosque is a truly innovative building, which is sustainable and socially and architecturally integrated into and respectful of its neighbourhood. As well as discussing its design and construction, this book focuses on the creation of a unique place of worship for a community. Setting out historic precedents and influences, it highlights how this mosque breaks new ground in terms of Islamic and English religious architectural traditions and how it reflects the ongoing debates on Islam and Britishness, as well as Islam and Tradition.
The book sets out how the site and then the architects, Marks Barfield Architects, were selected, by winning a limited competition in 2009. The book then discusses the development of the mosque's concept, structure and key design aspects, including the significance of geometry to Islam and the defining feature of Cambridge Mosque - its timber structure. The timber columns, or 'trees', reach up to support the roof using an interlaced octagonal lattice vault structure evocative of English Gothic fan vaulting, famously used at the nearby Kings College Chapel, Cambridge.
The book also includes a useful technical section on the many sustainable features of the building and its carbon neutrality. It explores and thoroughly describes the mosque, inside and out, from its ornamental garden to its prayer hall, screen (movable), minbar, and mihrab. The book concludes with a section which provides a sense of the day-to-day life of the mosque, including interviews with the imam, members of the local community who come from all over the world, and highlights what impact the mosque has had for the wider Cambridge community and beyond, as well as the lessons which can be learnt from it.
