阿米尔·沙基布·阿尔斯兰清真寺
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这座小型清真寺的设计与建造
这座100平方米的小型清真寺包括对现有砌体交叉拱顶空间的翻新，并在18世纪的旧宫殿旁增建了一座宣礼塔，作为一个象征性的地标。一个新的市民广场在原本的停车场上创建，使清真寺的前面变成了一个公共广场，设有座位、水景、洗手空间和新种植的无花果树下的遮荫。
由于现有结构与朝向麦加的要求方向不一致，设计方案首先设定为通过一系列物理变换和附加来纠正方向。朝向麦加的方向成为塑造新清真寺及其周边环境的唯一工具/语言，涵盖所有尺度，从清真寺内部到户外广场。
在建筑层面上，清真寺的新细长宣礼塔通过一个轻微凹形的屋檐与广场层的弯曲墙体水平连接，为下方的清真寺划定了一个门廊，并在清真寺内部与街道之间创造了一个过渡空间，同时为清真寺提供了外部的隐私。
清真寺的外壳严格由薄切的白色涂漆钢板构成，忠实地与麦加的方向平行。当从一个角度斜视时，钢板堆叠在一起，构成清真寺的完整体量。从正面看，清真寺的体量通过其薄平面性消失，与其视觉上丰富的历史背景融为一体，瞬间让人怀疑其实际存在。
设计并没有采用传统的静态立方体/圆顶/宣礼塔的规范清真寺建筑表现，而是提供了一种对这一类型的更轻盈的解读，呈现出一种短暂的构造存在。新清真寺的凹面/凸面平面与外部广场和街道形成了外向的几何形态，并将其与通常是密闭的内部宗教空间连接起来。正如我们现在所知，这两个空间 “内部的宗教空间和外部的公共街道空间” 在“阿拉伯之春”起义中交汇，城市的公共空间与清真寺的公共空间相交。
结构/装饰/文字/声音
在宣礼塔顶部，字母“Allah”“真主” 从宣礼塔的元素中双轴折叠，成为一个整体结构元素，增强了脆弱的钢架，而不仅仅是装饰性的附加物。没有这些书法，宣礼塔将成为一个脆弱的元素，无法在结构上保持完整。从一侧看，“Allah”以肯定的实心形式呈现，现代书法的解读。从另一侧看，“Allah”则呈现为空洞，带有怀疑的缺失，但也散发出无形和难以言喻的真主观念，指向伊斯兰教中缺乏表现的特性。这也是对这个词的解构，从一个元叙事转变为一个可以被解读的文本，通过创造一个物理而非光学的透镜。在这里，文本字面上是一个构造，书写/阅读发生在字句之间。宣礼塔的高度与周围的树木相同；从正面看时，它变得透明，与其环境融为一体。
在清真寺的弯曲墙入口处，像素化且同样具有结构性的“Insan”“人类” 一词被添加到钢板上，形成了一个黑格尔式的神/人辩证法。两者的并置使人类的概念成为与真主方程式的一个不可或缺的部分，置于一个新的辩证关系中，成为对伊斯兰人文主义传统的提醒，正如著名伊斯兰神学家穆罕默德·阿尔昆在其著作《人文主义与伊斯兰——斗争与提议》中提到的那样，该书将伊斯兰视为18世纪启蒙运动的起源。“Insan”成为广场地面平面的中心。
当人们在清真寺周围移动时，由钢板构成的清真寺的平面阅读变得透明，而两个词 ““Allah”和“Insan”” 则变得更加明显，反之亦然。清真寺的整体轻盈构造与穆赫塔拉宫的石材体量形成了关系上的对比。一棵无花果树为新的广场提供阴凉，与街对面现有的橄榄树形成了一个书本的结尾，暗示《古兰经》中“无花果与橄榄”这一节 “苏拉·阿尔-廷”，同时也指向这两棵树在基督教传统中的重要性。在阈限处，清真寺大厅的入口，容纳男女在同一空间内，采用了一个雕刻玻璃外立面，内嵌两扇悬浮的木门。
内部
在现有结构的内部，最小的干预涉及对拱顶的凹面进行“白化”，使用从叙利亚阿勒颇带来的特殊石灰混合物，并引入一个新的天窗，切割拱顶空间，以标记朝向麦加的朝拜墙的方向，并为米哈拉布空间带来光线。通过天窗，可以看到宣礼塔，形成外部与内部的视觉循环，视觉上连接了典型清真寺中声音与视觉之间的脱节。
同样，米哈拉布用一个凹面反射抛光的不锈钢拱形墙体进行装饰，虽然指向麦加，但通过将其视觉上与更广泛的背景融合，扭曲了清真寺内部的空间感。
在清真寺的后部，实际阅读《古兰经》的地方，设有一个带有“iqra’”“阅读”字样的木墙，字样以浮雕形式呈现。它引用了伊斯兰学者优素福·西迪克的论点和解释，认为《古兰经》中第一个词“iqra’”是一个衍生词，主张对《古兰经》进行批判性和情境性的阅读，作为一种后结构主义的“文本”，而不是盲目背诵的元叙事。
与艺术家劳伦斯·阿布·哈姆丹和尼斯林·霍德尔合作的祷告呼唤，沿用相同的思路重新诠释，作为对规范祷告呼唤的变体，强调以口述而非歌唱的方式进行，让听众专注于意义而非旋律。
总体而言，清真寺的设计庆祝了现代性与抽象、短暂性之间的构造关系，以及与伊斯兰人文主义传统延续的表现关系。它代表了一场文化思想的战争，需要与宗教中的极端主义力量作斗争，这场战争中建筑是武器。
This small mosque of 100m2 included a renovation of an existing masonry cross-vaulted space and the addition of a minaret, grafted onto the existing structure as a symbolic landmark, next to the 18th century old palace. A new civic plaza was created in what was before an adjoining parking space, turning the frontage of the mosque into a public square with seating, water fountain, ablution space and shading under a newly planted fig tree.
Given the non-alignment of the existing structure with the required directionality to Makkah, the design approach was first set to correct the orientation though a series of physical transformations and additions. The directionality towards Makkah became the only tool/language mobilized to shape the new mosque and its surrounding, at all scales, from the interior of the mosque to the outdoor plaza
On the architectural level, the mosque’s new slender minaret is linked horizontally through a gently concave canopy to a curved wall at the plaza level, delineating a portico for the mosque below and creating a transitional space between the interior of the mosque and the street as well as adding privacy for the mosque from the outside.
The envelope of the mosque is strictly formed of thinly sliced painted white steel plates, faithfully angled in a parallel direction to Makkah. When looked at obliquely from an angle, the steel plates stack to compose a complete and comprehensive volume of the mosque. Looked at frontally, the mosque’s volume, through its thin planarity, disappears and blends with its visually rich historical backdrop, momentarily suspending belief in its actual presence.
Rather than the traditional inert Cube/Dome/Minaret volumetric expression of normative mosque architecture, the design offers a lighter reading of the typology, an ephemeral tectonic presence. The concave/convex planar surfaces of the new mosque brace the outside plaza and street in an extroverted geometry, and link it to the interior religious space which would have been usually hermetically enclosed. As we now know, these two spaces (the religious space within and the public space of the street without) were hybridized in the ‘Arab Spring’ uprisings where the public space of the city intersected the public space of the mosque.
Structure/Ornament/Words/Sounds
Atop the minaret, the word Allah (God) is folded bi-axially from the minaret’s elements, becoming an integral structural element that is reinforcing the fragile steel armature, rather than being just an ornamental applique. The minaret becomes a frail element that without this calligraphy would fail structurally and break apart. Seen from one side, Allah is read in an affirmative solid form, a modern interpretation of calligraphy. Seen from the other side, Allah is read as a void, a doubtful absence, but also emanating the immaterial and ineffable idea of God, in reference to the lack of representation in Islam. It is also a deconstruction of the word from a metanarrative to a text that can be interpreted, through the creation of a physical rather than an optical lenticular. Here, the text is literally a construct, and writing/reading happens between the lines. The Minaret itself is the same height as the surrounding trees; and when seen frontally becomes transparent to blend with its context.
Below, at the curved wall entry to the mosque, the pixelated and equally structural word Insan (Human) is added to the steel plates, to create a Hegelian dialectic of God/Man. The juxtaposition of both renders the idea of humanity as an integral part of the equation with God, placed in a new dialectic, and becomes a reminder of the humanistic tradition of Islam, as referenced in noted Islamic theologian Mohammad Arkoun’s book Humanisme et Islam – Combats et Propositions (Paris, Vrin, 2005) which places Islam at the origin of the18th century Enlightenment project.Insan becomes the epicenter of the ground plane of the plaza.
As one moves around the mosque, the planar reading of the mosque formed by the steel plates becomes transparent, while the two words (Allah/Insan) becomes more apparent, and vice versa. The overall lightness of the mosque’s tectonic sits also in a relational contrast to the heaviness of the Moukhtara’s palace stone volumetric. A fig tree shades the new plaza, and creating a book end along with the existing Olive tree on the other side of the street, alluding to the ‘Fig and Olive’ verse (souret at-teen) in the Quraan and referencing the importance of both trees in Christian tradition as well. At the threshold, the entry to the mosque’s hall, which accommodates both women and men in the same space, is articulated with a chiseled glass façade holding two wooden doors that float within it.
Interior
On the inside of the existing structure, the minimal intervention involved a ‘white-out’ of the concave surfaces of the vaults, using special Lime mix brought from Aleppo in Syria, as well as the introduction of a new skylight that cuts the vaulted space to register the direction of the Quiblah wall towards Makkah, and bring light towards the Mihrab space.Through the skylight, one can see the minaret in a visual looping of exterior back to the interior, linking visually the disassociation in typical mosques between the sound and the vision. Similarly, the Mihrab is articulated with a concave reflective polished stainless steel arched wall that, though pointing towards Makkah, implodes this axiality by merging it visually with the wider context, bringing outside in, and distorting the interior spatiality of the mosque.
Towards the back of the mosque where the actual reading of the Quraan would happen, a wooden wall with the word iqra’ (read) is articulated in relief. It references the Islamic scholar Youssef Siddiq’s argument and interpretation that the first word in the Quraan, iqra’, of which the Quraan word is a derivative, argued for a critical and contextual reading of the Quraan as a post-structuralist ‘text’ to be read critically, and not as a meta-narrative to be recited blindly.
The call to prayer, in collaboration with artists Lawrence Abu Hamdan and Nisrine Khodr, was re- interpreted along the same lines as a variation on the normative call to prayer by the idea of having it spoken rather than sung, in a return to the words where the listener focuses on the meaning rather than the melody.
Overall the design of the mosque is a celebration of the ethos of modernity as it relates tectonically to the notion of abstraction, of ephemerality, and representationally to the continuity of the humanism tradition in Islam. It represents a part of a cultural war of ideas that needs to be fought against the fundamentalist forces across religions, a war where architecture is a weapon.