An interview with Issam Nabulsi and Khalid Bouden, directors of Desypher Architecture

BUILDING COMMUNITIES UNDER THE THEMES OF APPROACHABILITY, PARTICIPATION AND INCALCULATING RESPECT

Desypher is a Melbourne based design office with associated offices in Kuala Lumpur and Dubai, run by Issam Nabulsi, the founding Director and Khalid Bouden, the Design Director.

Assalamu alaikum Issam and Khalid. Can you describe your working experience in Australia and how you get to work on such wonderful projects? Are you entering competitions or being commissioned directly? Are there any issues in the non-Muslim community when it comes to building Islamic architecture in Australia?

IN: Wa alaykum salam. Khalid and I always remind ourselves of how fortunate we are to be working on as you describe “wonderful projects”. Sometimes in the midst of contract variations and struggles with builders and clients we do lose sight of that. It is truly a gifted opportunity from Allah that we are able to serve in this way.

Three years ago we made a pledge to each other that we needed to be more idealistic in our approach to how Muslim communities were responding in a western context. We committed to be proactive in challenging stereotypical thinking both from Muslim and non-Muslim communities as to who Muslims are and what their role is. This has had traction amongst the community and has helped us to win over specific clients.

KB: Competitions give us the opportunity to demonstrate how an Islamic design philosophy can be applied to the most unlikely projects. For example, our entry for the Holocaust Memorial Pavilion in Atlantic City probably raises eyebrows. However, we see it as Islamic in that it actually involved a lot of research into the idea of sin, repentance, forgiveness and making a firm resolve to prevent that sin from being committed again. These are concepts at the core of Islamic inner development. It also allowed us to address the imbalance in recognising other genocides that have been and continue to be committed. In that way our design for the Memorial is more inclusive and maintains its relevancy with today’s affected peoples.

The rest of the article you can read in the magazine.