Chandgaon Mosque is nominated for the Aga Khan Award for Architecture

The projects shortlisted by the independent Master Jury are now being technically reviewed by a select group of architects, urban planners and engineers. The reviews will be submitted to the Master Jury before the Award recipients are chosen. The final Award recipients will be announced at a ceremony to be held at the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar in November 2010.

Chandgaon Mosque

Location: Chittagong (Bangladesh)
Architect: Kashef Mahboob Chowdhury
Client: Faisal M. Khan
Design: 2006
Completed: 2007
Built Area: 1,048 m²

Photo above: From the adjacent approach road. © Copyright Aga Khan Award for Architecture / BKS Inan

Photo: Master plan. © Copyright Kashef Mahboob S Chowdhury

This mosque on the suburban periphery of the port of Chittagong in Bangladesh seeks to fulfill the traditional role of a mosque as both a place of spirituality and as a gathering place for the community.

Photo: View of the front court and the dome of the prayer hall. © Copyright Aga Khan Award for Architecture / BKS Inan

Photo: Entrance of the mosque. © Copyright Aga Khan Award for Architecture / BKS Inan

The architect began by identifying the essential elements of a mosque to create a new form and articulation for a typology that goes back for a millennium and a half. The result is this monolithic and spare mosque, pared down to two identical cuboid structures. The first is the front court, its heavy masonry walls punctuated with low, wide openings onto the surrounding landscape, with a large eyelike opening above. In the second volume, the naturally lit mihrab wall is balanced by an iconic, cut dome. While the apertures give a sense of openness and draw in light and ventilation by day, by night they allow light to shine out of the mosque like a beacon.

Photo: Night view of the front court. © Copyright Aga Khan Award for Architecture / BKS Inan

Photo: Side view of the front court. © Copyright Aga Khan Award for Architecture / BKS Inan

Photo: Entrance of the prayer hall.  © Copyright Aga Khan Award for Architecture / BKS Inan

With its stark, geometric clarity, the Chandgaon mosque stands apart from many such structures that have reduced architectural features associated with the usual mosque type to the level of kitsch. It makes a definitive architectural statement in a different direction, pointing to the contemporary, to a desire to live in spaces that reflect the universal values of the present day.

Photo: Interior view of split dome and light aperture. © Copyright Aga Khan Award for Architecture / BKS Inan

Photo: Sun lights on the mihrab. © Copyright Aga Khan Award for Architecture / BKS Inan

Photo: Surrounding of the mosque, view from the main courtyard. © Copyright Aga Khan Award for Architecture / BKS Inan

Source: Press release, http://www.akdn.org/architecture/project.asp?id=3503