Mosque, Rotterdam

Until a few years ago, nobody in the Netherlands got worked up about the construction of a new mosque. Tolerance was assumed to be an inalienable part of the Dutch character and other countries strove to emulate the Dutch consensus 'polder model'. That all changed in the wake of 9/11, the assassination of anti-immigration populist politician Pim Fortuyn in 2002, and the 2004 murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh who, together with politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali had made the controversial film Submission. Fortuyn's ideas were adopted by several politicians, including Geert Wilders, whose party received over one million votes (6% of the seats) in the last national election held in November 2006. One of his programme items is that no new mosques should be built in the Netherlands.

Against this background, the mosque and its architecture have become politically charged subjects. For example, the construction of a mosque in Amsterdam West (designed by French architects Breitner + Breitner) ran into objections from the district council because of the direct (financial) ties between the mosque's board and the contentious Islamic organization Milli Görüs. The criticism levelled at the under-construction Essalam Mosque in Rotterdam South (designed by Dutch architects Molenaar & Van Winden) was that it is too traditional, which is to say, not sufficiently Dutch either in appearance (oriental) or in usage. In both cities, the height of the minarets (42 m in Amsterdam, 50 m in Rotterdam) led to protests from locals who were afraid that the building would dominate its surroundings too much.

The young architects Ergün Erkoçu and Abdeluahab Hammiche, of Turkish and Moroccan origins respectively but born in The Hague, call the mosques in Amsterdam and Rotterdam 'nostalgia mosques', referring to the fact that the architecture is strongly oriented towards the country of origin. They regard that as contrary to the tradition of Islamic architecture, which is usually closely allied to the local culture and context. In Turkey, Morocco and elsewhere one finds different types of mosques, so why should a Dutch mosque have to be a copy of something in Turkey or Morocco? They also feel that a new mosque should anticipate the spirit of the times, the evolving identity of the (younger) target group and the future value of the building. So for their graduation project they designed a Polder Mosque, an inter-cultural mosque in the form of a modernist structure that is transparent, flexible and sustainable. After graduating in 2003, they set up a socio-critical architectural practice entitled MEMAR•DUT©H architects and continued to develop their Polder Mosque. The progressive plan attracted quite a bit of media interest and led to the commission for the Annasr Mosque in Rotterdam West.

The Polder Mosque concept formed the starting point, but it was adapted to the given situation: a corner plot where the community currently worships in a former church. The principle of dawaa, the invitation to Islam that is a key element of the faith, is the main theme of the design. The composition and sight lines running from the street, via the copious glass in the facades into the interior, along with the generous entrance and various voids, help ensure that it is a very open building that invites interaction among its users. Like other mosques, the complex houses several ancillary functions in addition to prayer halls and associated washrooms: offices, a multi-purpose room, a lounge with Internet facilities, a hairdresser and a shop. Because the functions partially overlap in space and time, the floor plans are flexibly divided. The project's sustainability lies partly in that flexibility but also in the solar panels on the roof, the use of daylight and the deployment of the entrance as a buffer zone in the climate control system. The minaret, too, plays a role in the air circulation within the building. In addition to a symbolic value, the minaret also has a third, contemporary function: the call to prayer is converted into light diagrams that are transmitted to the outside world from the tower.

Although the financing and permits have yet to be secured, the architects are cautiously optimistic that the project will be completed by around 2012.