The KAFD Grand Mosque in the King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, designed by Saudi-based firm Omrania essentially is one of the excellent contemporary mosque designs of this era. The KAFD’s balanced, sustainable, and well-organized design set the tone for this architectural masterpiece.
Site Analysis: Understanding the Immediate Context and the KAFD
The KAFD Grand Mosque is located on a 10,000 square meters plot at the junction of the sunken urban plaza network called Wadi in King Abdullah Financial District, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The King Abdullah Financial District in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, is one of the top-tier smart cities designed by Henning Larsen Architects, featuring world-class offices, state-of-the-art retail spaces, the finest hospitality towers, and contemporary residences complemented by an organic network of wadis traversing the district redefining city architecture.
Inspired by the traditional Wadi, the KAFD Wadi is a network of sunken landscaped streets seven meters below the road level. It is a sustainability initiative tackling issues like the urban heat island effect, air pollution, nonpermeable surfaces, lack of socio-cultural depth, and limited priority given to pedestrians in newly developed districts.
Moreover, to address the socio-cultural aspect, several cultural institutions, including the KAFD Grand Mosque, KAFD Science Museum & Geo-Climate Center, the Museum of the Built Environment, etc., were set up along the Wadi as public attractors. The Architects set certain guidelines while designing on the Wadi edge, which the KAFD Grand Mosque was also subjected to as it was situated at the intersection of three Wadis.
The Philosophy Driving the Design of the KAFD Grand Mosque
The designers from Omrania and Associates thoroughly studied the urban fabric of KAFD and devised a design approach to seamlessly blend the design of the KAFD Mosque against the backdrop of the business district, respecting the design of KAFD while also considering the Arabic and Islamic culture and traditions.
The site and context essentially shaped the design of the KAFD Grand Mosque as more than just a mosque. The prominent location of the site at the intersection of KAFD Wadis and the sustainable initiatives and the sociocultural richness of the broader site context of KAFD directed the designers to develop the Grand Mosque as a community hub and a gathering space, adding to the urban character of the KAFD, featuring the Grand Mosque as an integral part of the business district.
The designers from Omrania and Associates have definitely done justice to the urban ideas put forth by the designers of the new financial district in Riyadh by cultivating the cultural project as part of the urban fabric rather than as a stand-alone sculpture in divorce with the rest of the site promoting placelessness. Nevertheless, this noble intention to blend the project with the context didn’t restrict the architects from playing around with the form, visibility, or spatial programming of the mosque.
The Parametric form of the KAFD Grand Mosque
While the grand mosque’s design is firmly rooted in the context, what distinguishes it from its surroundings is its striking form that was generated by the radial repetition of a single mass similar to the Islamic geometric patterns.
Approximately occupying 6,100 square meters of land, the wide-spread and short-heightened main mosque building with a distinguished dynamic parametric form sits on the landscaped plaza complemented by two striking minarets that soar high up to 60 meters, piercing the sky.
The main attraction of the mosque’s form is the smooth transfer from the sunken wadi to the raised podium or plaza and the seamless transition from the multi-faceted walls to a geometrically intricate roof, further enhanced by the appropriate choice of locally sourced tessellated stone, also respecting the architectural language of the surroundings and serving as a sustainable solution.
Due to this seamless changeover, the main body of the mosque complex appears to be one solid unified mass emerging from the ground. Complemented by the continuous linear window slots appearing to be arranged along the two inclined sides of a triangle on the vertical faces of the mosque emphasized with linear lighting, the mosque shines like a stunning crystal arising from underground during the night.
The KAFD Grand Mosque has earned the name “Desert Bloom,” but why? While its parametric form partially answers this question, identifying the designer’s inspiration is fundamental to understanding the reason behind this tag that the KAFD Grand Mosque has acquired.
In line with the design philosophy, the architects drew inspiration from the local contexts, ranging from the architectural language of surrounding towers to the tiny sand crystals called Desert Rose found in the massive deserts of the nation. Mimicking the intersecting crystalline plates of the sand crystals that appear like a flower in a bird’s eye view, the main mosque complex sitting on the plaza seems to rise from the ground like a blossom.
Transforming Design Constraints into Opportunities
The designers didn’t assume the site surrounded by a jungle of towers and the sunken Wadi to be a constraint in the design process restricting the view or limiting the visibility of their design. Instead, the designers churned out an opportunity to showcase the complete form of the mosque with an emphasis on the roof, which usually is an unnoticed space that conceals the service systems to the major audience of their project, the inhabitants of the surrounding towers. Owing to this, the inspiration of the desert rose rightly paved the way to the composition of a fifth façade, drawing the attention of the people in the high-rise buildings towards the roof or the fifth façade.
Nevertheless, the designers didn’t forget to craft the visual experience of the mosque for the pedestrians in the wadi. The raised podium plaza disturbs the visual permeability partially. However, the unique composition of geometric facets partially hidden by the podium plaza gradually unveils as the pedestrians in the Wadi approach the podium,m evoking an awe factor. The visual experience is varied during different times of the day, creating interest.
An Overview of the Spatial Programming of the Mosque
Lacking domes and arcades, the structural features and form of the KAFD Juma’a Mosque are different from traditional mosques. Yet, the Spatial Programming of the Juma’a mosque is similar to that of traditional mosques.
The KAFD Juma’a mosque complex contains the main mosque building, the minarets that can be accessed from the wadi, and an outdoor plaza connecting the Mosque, the surrounding towers, and the Wadi.
The mosque complex comprises almost 1500 prayer spaces split across two floors: the main prayer hall at the podium level and the smaller everyday prayer hall at the mezzanine level. In addition to prayer halls, other fundamental spaces that support them, including the mihrab, ablution area, and toilets, are present.
The Structural System, Substantial of the Technological Innovations
The Architects desired to design a large column-free interior space in order to facilitate a hassle-free spiritual experience within the Mosque premises, which was quite a challenge. Further, the mezzanine floor only aggravated this conundrum. How does this marvelous piece of architecture stand erect without columns?
In addition to creating a column-free space, it was necessary to conceal the HVAC systems, wires, pipes, and ducts to continue the aesthetics of the exterior in the interior. The solution was to integrate all the structural and mechanical systems within a 2.8m deep hollow reinforced concrete structure in the building envelope. Further, the integrity of the mezzanine floor was ensured with the help of hanging supports that transfer the load to the structural skin of the mosque. In this way, all the loads are transferred via the structural skin of the building leaving the interior column less.
The execution of this integrated system wouldn’t have been possible without cutting-edge technologies and BIM software. In order to realize this structure, different professionals, including architects, engineers, fabricators, and contractors, communicated, coordinated, and worked on a shared 3D BIM Model to ensure the success of this simple yet efficient and elegant idea.
Interior Design and Lighting of the Mosque, Enhancing Spirituality and Elegance
While the captivating form of the mosque draws the people towards the building, it is the interior design and lighting that give the space a desired ambiance, enabling distraction-free prayers.
The main idea behind the interior design was to reflect the dynamic form of the exteriors in the interiors, incorporate familiar mosque elements like mihrab and muqarnas, and ensure soothing lighting providing a transcending divine experience elevating the spirits of the worshippers.
The integrated structural and mechanical skin of the building envelope ensures an uninterrupted interior surface which was further complemented by suspended geometric ceiling panels that reflect the multifaceted exterior form. These ceiling panels that serve as an abstraction of traditional muqarnas that are decoration corbels also improved the acoustic and lighting performance.
The mihrab that indicates the qibla or the direction towards the holy Mecca is of immense significance in a mosque. In virtue of this fact, the stained crystalline glass mihrab was designed as a major attraction and the focal point of the KAFD Grand Mosque both from the outside and inside.
The vertical faces of the parametric form on the western side converge into this mihrab as planned by the architects as the centerpiece of the mosque and the culminating point of the worshipper’s journey. As the worshippers enter the Mosque from the east below the mezzanine floor, they catch a glimpse of this 16-meter-high glass mihrab featuring colored triangular segments filtering light into the interiors and move towards the mihrab symbolically towards the holy Mecca to offer their prayers.
In addition to the slotted windows on the elevated ridges of the roof, the triangular windows on the floor level accentuated by an imprinted abstraction of Arabic verses of an Islamic Hadith permeate light interiors during the day and glow at night in the Wadi, completing the spiritual experience not only in the Mosque but also, in it’s surrounding.
Pushing Sustainability Forefront, A Step Closer towards Environmental Stewardship
Following the footsteps of King Abdullah Financial District, which is the world’s largest LEED Platinum-certified and stage 2 mixed-use business district, the KAFD Grand Mosque strives to achieve both environmental and sociocultural sustainability.
In addition to KAFD’s central plant cooling and LED lighting, the availability of ample daylight shining through windows illuminating the interiors and the idea of restricting the use of the large prayer hall on the ground floor during the sparsely populated weekdays have optimized energy consumption.
Expanding on the idea of weekday restriction posed on the main prayer hall – the floating mezzanine was constructed as a separate praying zone for women, but as women attended only Friday prayers and very few men attended the weekday prayers in the mosque, to save energy it was decided that the main prayer hall in the ground floor will remain inoperative during weekdays.
The prior scheduling of the use of the mezzanine and ground levels and the other measures discussed above have reduced energy consumption by 15% from the baseline. Further, in the pursuit of environmental stewardship, the investors obtained Renewable Energy Credits.
Water efficiency was essential to the project, especially for obtaining LEED certification. Only Grey water (recycled water) was used for irrigation in spite of a hefty 78% reduction in irrigation water consumption.
As a general general rule, USGBC calculates the water usage for a 50:50 male-to-female ratio. Still, KAFD Grand Mosque has a 60:40 male-to-female occupant ratio, which created further hurdles in acquiring the LEED certification. However, with the help of Edge consultants, the LEED certification was obtained apart from achieving a reduction of 32% in overall water consumption.
Besides post-completion sustainability measures, during construction, the KAFD Grand Mosque Design and Construction team ensured that almost 60% of the excavated debris was diverted from landfills, and around 20% of the materials by cost used in construction were from recycled sources. Owing to the exemplary sustainable solutions implemented and the efforts of Edge consultants, the KAFD Grand Mosque was awarded the LEED silver certification by USGBC.
Felicitations Pouring in for the Desert Bloom, A Moment of Great Pride and Recognition
As a result of numerous innovative, technologically sound, and sustainable design solutions, the KAFD Grand Mosque bagged several awards, including the International Architecture Prize in the 2017 World Architecture Festival awards as well as the Religious Buildings category for the Year 2020. The KAFD Grand Mosque was announced in 2021 as one of the seven winners of the third cycle (2017–2020) of The Abdullatif Al Fozan Award for Mosque Architecture.
KAFD Grand Mosque: A Blossoming Innovation, Rooted in Tradition, & Anchored to the Context
There is no doubt that the mosques were urban centers around which the typical Islamic cities hierarchically developed earlier, but today, things have changed. Yet, the designers have made a humble attempt to revive this tradition by promoting the KAFD Grand Mosque, the Juma Mosque, as the civic center of the King Abdullah Financial District with the intervention of a public plaza, a podium from which the mosque rises.
Besides, the mosque’s bold, parametric, unique design testifies that the designers and investors neither overlooked innovation nor feared novelty in their attempt to respect traditions and historical precedents of mosque architecture.
Yet, the designers were sensitive to traditional mosque architecture by ensuring that all significant components of the mosque, that is, the mihrab, prayer area both open and enclosed, separate prayer area for women, minarets, and ablution area, were present within the mosque’s precinct.
Further, the design team ensured that the praying space would be column-less to avoid any hindrances to the worshippers and installed features present in historic mosques like the hanging muqarnas and a stunning mihrab to create a familiar praying environment.
The KAFD Juma’a mosque serves as a significant example of parametric architecture that respects religious and cultural traditions, considers the context, prioritizes functionality, and equally weighs sustainability, redefining Contemporary Mosque Design.
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