Qods Mosque
Arash H. Tehrani proposed a renovation concept to the Qods mosque, a religious structure in one of most crowded crossroads of Tehran. “The current situation has a confounded landscape with several wrongly installed objects“, says Tehrani. “The mosque consists of a tent-shaped building and an unfinished minaret. The client (Tehran municipality) needed to remove the non-Islamic face of a pyramid mosque and also to renovate the urban landscape“.
The work envisions a semi-transparent urban façade to partially cover the facility, which forms the skyline of a mosque with a dome, gate, porch and a minaret. This façade is also a decoded architectural object of its traditional shape.
Courtesy of Arash H. Tehrani
Eventually, the gesture creates a multi-functional contemporary porch covered by a Persian Islamic pattern. The repeated elements have been derived from an artwork by the late Mahmoud Maheronnaghshan, a traditional Iranian architect and a researcher. “Porches could be seen in every city and building in historic Iran“, Tehrani states. “These porches are one of the most important parts of the historic Persian mosques called ‘Ravagh’. Thus, they are placed for public service. This façade could also provide temporary book shows, a place for religious ceremonies or even a shelter for an old woman to rest in the shadow during a day walk“.
Courtesy of Arash H. Tehrani
The minaret is formed from three cubes with varying programs with volumes rotated extrusions of three squares. The top cube, which represents ‘light’ and ‘fire’, operates as an LCD screen for the residential zone of Darya boulevard. The second cube houses the muezzin’s quarters. Equipped with sounding systems for prayers, one side features a small window-port, which is in axis with the Qibla, while the other side is directed to the Darya crossroads. The third cube has cardinal directions, which references the call, which was one of the most important functions of Al-Masjed Al-Nabawi.
The parts for the façade are all prefabricated in a factory with three types of tiles, all with same size: one including the Ali pattern, one surfaced tile and another with three rings only. The main structure would be installed using steel, followed by the placement of the modules and the inner surfaces of translucent concrete.
Courtesy of Arash H. Tehrani
Project Information:
Architect : Arash H. Tehrani
Location : Tehran, Iran
Project Year : 2011
Client : Tehran municipality, Region 2
By:Delia Chang
