“We Don’t Want a Multicultural Minaret, We Want an Islamic Minaret”: Negotiating the Past in the Production of Contemporary Muslim Architecture in Britain

Abstract

Most of the 1800 mosques in Britain today have been formed through the conversion and adaptation of existing buildings; some 200 are purpose built. With the larger adaptations and purpose-built mosques, Muslim communities have attempted to represent their identities in the West architecturally. This has commonly been through the replication of easily identifiable architectural elements drawn liberally from the history of Islamic religious architecture, elements such as domes, minarets, arches and arabesque decoration. The result is a British Muslim architecture largely designed by mosque committees and characterized by the replication and reinterpretation of traditional and historic Islamic architectural forms. In this essay I explore how the symbolic meaning of the mosque created by mosque committees is challenged by the design process and ideologies of the professionally trained architect. Referring to a specific mosque design project, I explore how the mosque client and the design professional relate to and deploy Islamic architectural symbols and interpret their cultural meanings.