Inside Australia’s stunning 99-domed mosque

A new 99-domed mosque in Australia is attracting attention for its bold, brutalist design. But the architect behind the project, Angelo Candalepas, is hoping that his creation can do more than win plaudits – he wants it to help improve interfaith relations in the Sydney suburb of Punchbowl.

Scheduled to open in time for Ramadan this May, the mosque has been designed to feel welcoming to the whole community, regardless of religion.

“The courtyard enables all people to embrace the use of the building,” Candalepas said in a phone interview. “The doors are absolutely directed to the street front, such that it will always have its doors open to the people.”

At a September event called “Meet the Aussie Mosque,” the unfinished building was opened to the public as part of the Sydney Architecture Festival. Architects led tours of the mosque, while members of Punchbowl’s Muslim community spoke to visitors about their faith and the fundraising drive behind the A$12 million ($9million) project.

“We wanted to bring the great work of the modern mosque out in the open, and to normalize the building as a work of architecture,” said the festival’s director, Timothy Horton, in a phone interview. “The Punchbowl mosque is a modern architectural masterpiece. It is set to be one of the new icons in Sydney’s west, one of the most cultural diverse and fastest growing parts of Australia.”

Reimagining mosque design

Candalepas’ eye-catching concrete design also challenges preconceptions about how a mosque should look, according to Horton.

“The outside has been totally reimagined,” he said. “Gone is the central dome with four minarets planted like garden stakes at the corners. Candalepas’ mosque strings (together) smaller spaces, like washrooms, along the boundary while scooping light in as you would see in a high-end art gallery.”

Commissioning a contemporary design (and a high-profile architect) was a response to the reported difficulty of obtaining planning permission for new mosques, according to the vice president of Punchbowl’s Australian Islamic Mission, Zachariah Matthews.

“Our main concern, initially, was, ‘How do we get approval given that other projects have encountered many obstacles?’” he said.

In recent years, public opposition has delayed or permit the construction of a number of proposed mosques in Australia.

Last year, permission for a new mosque in the Gold Coast suburb of Currumbin was denied on the grounds that it was “too big” following a high-profile opposition campaign in which a councilor reported receiving death threats. Another proposed mosque in Victoria only got the green light this July after three years of legal hurdles and ongoing media attention. A Facebook group opposing the building has almost 70,000 members.

Yet, Matthews said that plans for his mosque were unanimously approved by the local council. Of Australia’s more than 340 mosques, almost half can be found in Punchbowl’s state of New South Wales.

An act of faith

Finding a religious architect was another key priority for Punchbowl’s Muslim community, according to Horton.

“It gave them confidence that the foundations of their faith would be incorporated into a building that may not appear … to be a traditional mosque, but would retain all of the meaning that is so much a part of sacred spaces,” he said.

Candalepas, who is a Greek Orthodox Christian, said that he hesitated when first approached by the Australian Islamic Mission in Punchbowl a decade ago.

“I never imagined myself as someone who would build a mosque,” he said. “It wasn’t anything negative (but rather) a sense of not having been aware that I could create something for a faith that I knew nothing about.

To find inspiration, Candalepas traveled to Ahmedabad and Agra in India while forming his vision of a mosque that could represent Australia’s Muslim community.

“I wanted a building that looked both ways – forwards as well as back,” he said. “There’s no point in ignoring history – that wouldn’t make it relevant.”

The traditional dome is still present in his design, but it has been reimagined as 99 half-domes cascading down from a larger, central one. In January, calligraphers will arrive from Turkey to spend a month inscribing the domes with Allah’s 99 names in Arabic.

Candalepas said that much of enthusiasm for the project stems from the building’s longevity. After hearing that the brief called for a lifespan of 300 years, he proposed 1,000.

“In the past, people knew it was important to create things that would last,” he said.

Community architecture

By eroding fear and suspicion through design, Candalepas follows in the footsteps of Pritzker Prize-winning Glenn Murcutt, the architect behind another new mosque in Melbourne. Opened in the suburb of Newport this year, the building’s doors are made entirely of glass.

“We choose glass because we wanted the building to be very transparent,” explained designer Hakan Elevli, who collaborated with Murcutt on the project. “People walking past on the street can see what’s going on inside. We wanted to show that there is nothing to hide.

“The Newport mosque also has a library, cafe, women’s community center and a visitor’s center which, like the mosque itself, are open to all.”

Murcutt’s design eschewed the more obvious Ottoman and Arabic influences found in many Australian mosques. The minaret is a soaring concrete wall, while the roof is composed of 96 triangular lanterns. Colored glass filters the light, acting as sun dial and a substitution for domes, with shades of red, green, gold and blue representing those typically used in mosaics.

“When a lot of people look at the building, they see it as a contemporary building and not something normally associated with Islamic architecture,” said Elevli. “But as soon as you walk inside, you see that it’s Islamic, with Arabic lettering and the ‘minbar’ (pulpit).”

world architecture festival

The following buildings, shortlisted by the 2015 World Architecture Festival, challenge design notions of sacred spaces.

world architecture festival

Cardedeu is situated in the picturesque mountains surrounding Lake Coatepeque in El Salvador. "We didn't want Cardedeu to compete with nature, we could see and feel God in it. We just wanted to create a space that would enhance the focus in nature and feel connected to a person's beliefs and emotions. For us, it had to be simple, it had to be unadorned," says Gabriela Siman, project manager at EMC Arquitectura of the building's design.

world architecture festival

"It was intended as a scene for the landscape and handled as a unique space developed with a single material, concrete, to highlight the lake and mountains," says Gabriela Siman, project manager at EMC Arquitectura. The design's informal reticular pattern deliberately limits the visitor's view to the lake, enticing the visitor to explore its greater surroundings.

world architecture festival

Hiroshi Nakamura, CEO of Hiroshi Nakamura & NAP Co. Ltd, says the chapel's form-defying design symbolizes the union of marriage: "Just as two lives go through twists and turns before uniting as one, the two spirals seamlessly connect at the top to form a single ribbon. By entwining two spiral stairways, we realized a free-standing building of unprecedented composition could architecturally embody the act of marriage. At this chapel, bride and groom ascend the stairs separately to be joined together at the top, ask for heaven's pardon, and declare their marriage."

World Architecture Festival

The wedding chapel is built on the grounds of a resort hotel overlooking the Seto Inland Sea. Part of the design's circular plan was informed by its surroundings -- a thick forest that would block views of the sea. The chapel's form was therefore extended higher than the trees and its 360 degree views work as an idyllic observation platform for visitors.

©MYAA

The Qatar Faculty of Islamic Studies is located in Education City, on the outskirts of Doha. The building, which includes spaces for learning and a mosque, imparts Islamic values and education in a modern and progressive setting. The taller south facing mosque is intended to provide shade to the main courtyard.

©Qatar Foundation

According to Mangera Yvars Architects, the design incorporates the ethereal qualities of Islamic space --the use of light, the reverberation of prayer, the use of calligraphy, geometry and ornamentation. Calligraphy and Qur'anic verse decorates the building's facade. The design of the building's acoustics enable the call to prayer to resonate throughout the building.

world arhictecture festival

The Light of Life church is located on the outskirts of Seoul, South Korea, on the south side of Bori mountain. The exterior of the church resembles a modern green-house pyramid, and encases a wooden dome.

World Architecture Festival

The church's interior takes note of its mountainous and heavily forested surroundings -- its interior looks like an inverted treehouse, made of 834 differently sized pieces of Siberian red cedar wood. A cross is fixed in the middle of a pool of water.

world architecture festival

The Catholic City Hub was directly commissioned by the Catholic church in Singapore. Located in the heart of the city, the building functions as a community center, with office spaces, a café, multi-purpose function halls, and a library.

World Architecture Festival

The rippling lines of the building's facade are based on the score of a Gregorian chant. Project architect Christopher Khoo of Eco.id Architects, says the inspiration behind the building's facade was church instruments. "We wanted to use a simple material, in this case, lightweight aluminum. It resembles wind chimes or organ pipes. The aluminum tubes were used to give the building a modern look."

world architecture festival

This church's design is made of three concentric ovals and its warm, intimate interior is lined with timber. Teak wood slats are horizontally secured onto steel frames. Director of the Indonesian branch of Denton Corker Marshall, Budiman Hendropurnomo says the use of these materials and structure of design are intended to create acoustics that "would have the likeness of singing inside a violin."

World Architecture Festival

This catholic church was designed to seat up to 500 people in its canoe-like balconies. Natural materials such as stone and timber are used throughout the design.

World Architecture Festival

This monastery was re-designed with the intention of creating a modern center for Buddhist practice and culture, with a special emphasis on Buddhist art. Its facade is inspired by the golden colors and geometric patterns found on the cassock, or robe, of Buddhist monks.

World Architecture Festival.

The circulation through the monastery is a mix of indoor and outdoor spaces, gardens and water features that give pause for reflection.

world architecture festival

The temple was rebuilt on a former Ming Dynasty temple site destroyed during the Sino-Japanese war. Since its opening, it has been frequented by Buddhists and the wider public.

world architecture festival

The design is a modern take on traditional Buddhist temples, and embodies Zen ideas of emptiness and anatta, or the denial of a self. Its poetic name is a nod to its location "floating" in a wetland park in southwest China, as well as Buddhists concepts of cause, effect, completeness and incompleteness, which resemble the physical form of a moon.

world architecture festival

The word pagoda usually evokes images of tiered towers with upturned eaves. Pagoda, in this case, is stripped down to a single slab of rock -- a place of solitude and worship. "We wanted to create a stone pagoda that could fulfill the objectives of a temple -- as a pure place full of love, a space where people can practice meditation and find peace and a quiet stillness within," says architect Toan Nghiem of a21 Studio.

World Architecture Festival

This structure was inspired by an image of Buddha sitting under the Bodhi tree in Nepal, where he attained enlightenment. Architect Toan Nghiem of a21 Studio says the firm is concerned about Buddhism's decline, and its struggle to adapt to modern society. "We would like to use our architecture as a medium to solve spiritual problems. This is a simple work, but significant enough to spread a powerful idea."

The mosque was also designed to promote integration and demonstrate the diverse make-up of Australia’s Muslims, who account for almost 3% of the country’s population. Typical curves and arches were abandoned in favor of straight lines and linear shapes – features often found in Australian architecture.

“More than anything, (Newport’s Muslim community) wanted something Australian,” said Elevli. “They wanted to show non-Muslims that a mosque can be something that relates to the Australian way of life.”