QATAR FACULTY OF ISLAMIC STUDIES

The scheme located on the Education City Campus, Doha is the world’s first contemporary Islamic university integrating academic space with spiritual/prayer space which uniquely for the Muslim world, provides equality for male/female students through co-educational learning. The scheme has become a focal for the campus and wider neighbourhood providing opportunities for social interaction. Based on the Islamic ‘Kulliyya’ or ‘place where all knowledge is sought’, the scheme accommodates theological research with the campus mosque. The Kulliyya implies knowledge and faith are interwoven and this relationship is expressed through the infinite spiral plan and multiple routes binding faculty to mosque. The scheme rekindles a high point of Islamic civilization where architecture has a central role but using new pedagogies, we seek to counter the pejorative image of Islamic Education For self-shading/sustainability, the large mosque is at the south, with the library, classrooms and offices in the middle, culminating with two minarets symbolizing ¨knowledge and light¨. The mosque is lifted by the ‘5pillars of Islam’ inscribed with Qur´anic verse creating a cool undecroft leading to the student entrance. Teaching accommodation is both formal and informal, including corridors, lounges, and learning in the Islamic garden. The informal approach provides areas for inter-faculty encounters.