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THE SOCIAL LOGIC of the MOSQUE: a Study in the Relationships Between Building Typology and Urban Morphology 059

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THE SOCIAL LOGIC of the MOSQUE: a Study in the Relationships Between Building Typology and Urban Morphology 059 THE SOCIAL LOGIC OF THE MOSQUE: a study in the relationships between building typology and urban morphology 059 Ziad Aazam Keywords: The Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University Mosque City Urban element Interface Social logic Ziad Aazam The Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University Bute Building, King Edward VII Avenue, Cardiff CF10 3NB, Wales U.K. [email protected] Abstract To use the idea of building type comprehensively as a method in the design process (Colquhoun, 1967), the socio-spatial knowledge of the architectural artefact has to be retrieved (Hillier and Hanson 1984, Markus 1993). Based on the fact that each building type is a unique socio-spatial configuration that requires different methods to unpack its relationships, this paper argues that the congregation mosque, the chosen type for this study, requires a socio-spatial organisational analysis beyond that of its boundary. Building on formal theories of type which consider the traditional city as the source of typology (Vidler 1976, Rossi 1982) and space syntax idea of 'interface', this study aims at defining the relationships between this particular building typology and urban morphology. The analysis answers these questions: Can a relationship be established between the mosque's internal socio-spatial organisation and the city's local and global structure? And, will such a relationship contribute to our understanding of the phenomena of this building type? To investigate these relationships, the study explores 12 case studies of mosques selected from diverse cities representing the Islamic world's cultural diversity and historical continuity. It accomplishes this aim using the visibility graph analysis to show the building's relations to its contexts at the local dimension, and the axial analysis to show the building's integration within the city's local and global structure. The results show a tendency towards greater similarities among the diverse cases in exhibiting a relatively high integration, visually at the local level and structurally at the local and global levels. The paper concludes that contrary to the typical spatial discontinuity between the inside of the building's boundary and the city, the mosque shows a high degree of spatial continuity with the city's local structure. The spatial continuity and high integration indicate a strong agreement with its concept as an institutional form, which is based on Islamic principles and intentions and operates within rules and responsibilities of culturally diverse Muslim societies (Hakim 1986, Akbar 1988). Introduction This paper is an extension of the investigation that seeks different ways of understanding a particular building type. The architectural conventions confine the study of building typologies to the building’s boundaries and assume that any venture beyond these boundaries is Proceedings, 6th International Space Syntax Symposium, İstanbul, 2007 Aazam; The Social Logic of the Mosque: A Study in the Relationships between Building Typology and Urban Morphology a crossing to the realm of urban designs and policies. Although it is clear that the building becomes an urban element among others at the local and global scales of the city, particular building types remain characteristically strong to the degree of defining the city itself. Of Figure 1: such building types, the religious and cultural buildings come to the Satellite images of the 12 fore. With such building types, an attempt to explore their role in the mosques in their local city beyond the confinement of their boundaries may contribute to our context understanding of them. 059-02 (Google Earth images except for FEZ and DJN) The writings of Rossi (1982) and Vidler (1976) advocate the idea that the city itself is our source of typology unlike the earlier typologies that were based on nature and machine. The view of architecture that takes the construction of the city as an embodiment of history, values, and cultures can be used as a base for a new typology. Vidler stated in his study “The Third Typology”: “We might characterize the fundamental attribute of this third typology as an espousal, not of an abstract nature, nor of a Proceedings, 6th International Space Syntax Symposium, İstanbul, 2007 Aazam; The Social Logic of the Mosque: A Study in the Relationships between Building Typology and Urban Morphology technological utopia, but rather of the traditional city as the locus of its concern. The city, that is, provides the material for classification, and the forms of its artifacts provide the basis for re-composition” (Vidler 1976, p. 1). Vidler’s concept was motivated by ‘a desire to stress the continuity of form and history against the fragmentation produced by the elemental, institutional, and mechanistic typologies of the recent past’ (p. 2). In such a process of formation, the city becomes a whole with its past and present as manifested in its physical structure. While such a view takes a formal coherence of the city as its objective, it fails to address the human aspect without which the city does not exist in the first place. 059-03 The aim this paper is set out to reach is based on the view that for a typology based on the city architecture to contribute to its formal cohesion, an understanding of the social cohesion in space has to complement such a typology. To investigate a particular building type with a possible role in the city, the congregation mosque is chosen as a religious building type. The sample of 12 mosques and their cities (Figure 1) selected for this study is representative of historical continuity and geographical diversity of the traditional Muslim world. These cases are explored spatially at the city’s global and local levels from the view of the building itself. The concern then is to what degree the building can be understood in relation to the city’s global and local structures? And in what way such a relationship can contribute to our understanding of the phenomena of this building type? To answer these questions, the study is based on the assumption that the ‘living traditions’ which characterise the sample of historical cases, continue to demonstrate little deviation of its social and spatial organisation from its original intent; and that such a historical continuity is indicative of the cases persistence to represent the values of the society. The cases, therefore, render themselves suitable phenomena for the exploration. The objective is to find a general tendency that characterises the building’s performance at the city’s global and local levels. The paper is divided into two parts. The first part is concerned with introducing the congregation mosque as an urban element representing an important institution of the Muslim society. The second part analyses the building’s spatial role within its city’s global and local settings. Concepts Concerning the Mosque Type City and Mosque Religious scholars emphasised the presence of the mosque as a condition for a society to fulfil its Islamic way of life in the city. As Hakim (1986) noted from his study of the Islamic literature that the city should have a congregation mosque, masjid al-jami, in which the Friday sermon was given and in which the city’s residents and its surroundings were served. This importance was first established by the construction of the Prophet’s mosque in Madinah. The mosque served both as a place of worship and as a community centre for the city, and thus played an important function in the formation of the new society. Its relationship with the city continues to be significant. Categories of Space Some of the mosque’s spaces can be categorised not only as part of the building’s interior but also as part of the building and city’s local relationships. The gate space is an obvious example that expresses a Proceedings, 6th International Space Syntax Symposium, İstanbul, 2007 Aazam; The Social Logic of the Mosque: A Study in the Relationships between Building Typology and Urban Morphology threshold between the busy exterior and the quiet interior of the mosque. The location of the gate and its count in the case are indicative of the role the building in its urban context. A less obvious spatial category within this classification is the transition space in the exterior of the mosque before the gate. This particular condition shows that the transition space belongs both to the mosque and to the street, an indication of a direct integration with the immediate context. A possible spatial category that the sample reveals is the courtyard of the mosque. The possibility of a direct link with the surrounding streets renders this category a candidate for an urban role beyond that of its 059-04 interior architectural function. The final category in this brief exposition is the drinking water fountain and public bath facilities attached to the mosque but accessed from the outside. Although, this function may not be found attached to the mosque, it is possible to find the service in a nearby building and within easy access to and from the mosque. These particular settings extend the range of the mosque functions outside that of its boundaries. Islamic Laws and Rules One of the relationships found between the interior and the exterior settings of the mosque is the orientation to the Qibla. It is the most evident in the city urban fabric. For the worshippers, from any part of the world, to line up facing the Kabah in Makkah, the Qibla wall along with the entire structure has to follow this orientation. The process leads to a necessary adjustment of the interior walls of the mosque from that of its surroundings in the case of the mosque being built in an established context. In the case of being built prior to a complete development of the context, the urban fabric may adjust to the mosque’s orientation.
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