Description

In northern Rome, sandwiched between sports buildings and playing grounds on one side and Monte Antenne on the other, lies an elongated 30,000 square metres large plot. The building is arranged in two parts on the rectangular, almost pentangular site: two long low buildings face northwest and a rectangular block faces southeast. The two annex buildings contain a cultural centre with library and auditorium in the lower storey and two colonnades on the upper storey that lead to the courtyard in front of the rectangular block containing the mosque. The symmetrical complex is clad in pale-red brickwork. The rich use of brown travertino and green peperino on the façades is likewise a Roman tradition.

One approaches the building from a circular plaza, which leads on towards the ends of the two annex buildings. Broad steps on the left, right and in the centre lead the visitor to the upper level where slightly bowing colonnades draw one towards the portal of the mosque. The prayer hall measures 40 by 40 metres and is modelled on a hypostyle hall. The room is organised on a five-by-five grid. The axis from the portal to the mihrab defines the orientation of the space while the central dome emphasises the centre. Light comes from three sources: from small windows in the vertical steps of the dome, large windows in the qibla wall, and from window strips at approximately half height around all four walls which are covered by baffles inscribed with words from the Koran.

The spatial appearance of the prayer hall is defined less by its enclosing walls than the extraordinarily dynamic interplay of its 32 columns and 17 white concrete domes. All the columns consist of four identical shafts which draw together slightly towards the capital before spreading out like buds opening. Long black columns inserted between the shafts bear the weight of the seven rings of each cupola. The eight intersecting branches interwoven across each cupola serve to join the columns and do not support the weight of the domes. The blue shimmer of the prayer hall is due in part to the colour of the carpet on the floor as well as the colour of the rings of the cupola. The roof is coated with encaustic plaster, a traditional technique in which coloured pigments are applied using heated wax.

In the design for the Mosque of Rome, which was originally undertaken in 1975, the leading architect – whose name remains synonymous with the motto “La Presenza del Passato” from the 1st Architecture Biennale in Venice in 1980 – attempted to draw on influences from oriental as well as occidental architecture. The design exhibits clear references to early Arabic hypostyle mosques as well as the later Ottoman domed mosques, and to sacred architecture from the Baroque, such as the work of Francesco Borromini and Guarino Guarini. The influence for the tiered circles of the dome, however, derives from an earlier project by the architect for the ceiling of the Chiesa della Sacra Famiglia in Salerno, Italy.

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Originally published in: Rudolf Stegers, Sacred Buildings: A Design Manual, Birkhäuser, 2008.