World Building of the Week

AlMusalla at the Islamic Arts Biennale 2025

John Hill | 3. February 2025
Islamic Arts Biennale 2025 (Photo: Marco Cappelletti, courtesy of the Diriyah Biennale Foundation)
What were the circumstances of receiving this commission?

The AlMusalla Prize is an international architecture competition for the design of a Musalla, a space for prayer and contemplation built on the site of the Islamic Arts Biennale — the Western Hajj Terminal at King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The Diriyah Biennale Foundation announced the winner of the 2025 AlMusalla Prize in October 2024: a collective composed of EAST Architecture Studio, based in Lebanon and the UAE; international engineering firm AKT II based in the UK; and Beirut- and San Francisco-based artist Rayyane Tabet. The inauguration of the Musalla coincided with the opening of the second edition of the Islamic Arts Biennale on January 25, 2025.

The competition brief asked architects to form teams that included an artist and engineer, and to collaboratively design a Musalla that is a versatile, modular space for prayer that welcomes both Muslim and non-Muslim visitors. The brief specified that the structure should meet all the requirements for prayer, be of at least 150 square meters in size, and be sustainable in its method of construction. The brief also stressed the importance of the structure being easily disassembled and reassembled, emphasizing the afterlife and the legacy component of the project — for the structure to live past the duration of the Islamic Arts Biennale.

Islamic Arts Biennale 2025 (Photo: Marco Cappelletti, courtesy of the Diriyah Biennale Foundation)
What makes this project unique?

The project celebrates the architectural legacy of Muslim societies. AlMusalla reimagines future spaces of worship as modular, empowering, and transient. It not only pushes the paradigms on sustainable design and cutting-edge technology, but also emphasizes opportunities for dialogue and community building — reclaiming the true essence of a musalla space. The winning proposal features a structure inspired by regional weaving traditions and relies on waste materials derived from local date palm trees. The design consists of an open central courtyard and prayer spaces that form a structure that resembles a loom, addressing togetherness and proximity, which are core dimensions of prayer in Islam. This adaptable structure will be accessible to all visitors throughout the Biennale’s run.

Islamic Arts Biennale 2025 (Photo: Mansor Alsofi, courtesy of the Diriyah Biennale Foundation)
What is the inspiration behind the design?

Titled “On Weaving,” AlMusalla brings together three disparate histories: the legacy of courtyard typologies in spaces of worship, the tradition of using date palm trees as building material in Saudi Arabia, and the art of weaving, referencing ancient textile making techniques, indigenous to the Gulf region.

AlMusalla speaks to diverse audiences. It welcomes visitors through a central courtyard around which a prayer hall and other programs are organized. Through beauty and artistry, AlMusalla offers exceptional spatial, tectonic, and aesthetic qualities, evoking tranquility and spirituality.

The structure celebrates the Saudi date palm tree by utilizing its waste as a primary building material; using palm fronds to rethink columns and beam, and palm fiber to compose a hand-woven textile that envelops the pavilion. The result is a truly carbon negative structure.

Islamic Arts Biennale 2025 (Photo: Mansor Alsofi, courtesy of the Diriyah Biennale Foundation)

The interior of AlMusalla conveys the delicate, sublime beauty of woven fabric with a layered structure that is rooted in the ground and tapers gently as it soars upwards towards the canopy of the Hajj Terminal. It is situated in a landscape that is defined by a 6 x 6-meter grid, referencing palm-tree plantations in Saudi Arabia.

AlMusalla contemplates togetherness and proximity, the verticality of which is simultaneously constructed and deconstructed, resulting in a shared paradigm that reconciles into a steady center of gravity, composing space and initiating spatial experiences. Its character is rooted in the past, while its mind is set towards the future, a true act of conciliation between history and contemporaneity, and exercise in optimism and reinterpretation.

Islamic Arts Biennale 2025 (Photo: Mansor Alsofi, courtesy of the Diriyah Biennale Foundation)

AlMusalla pays homage to a predominant material culture that emerges from nature, shaping the contextual specificities of the region, but incrementally revealing an interpreted typology for communal and meditative experiences.

The material quality of AlMusalla is substantially vernacular but progressive and forward looking, where local natural materials are engineered, simultaneously composed and decomposed, yielding a visionary architectural response. Drawing inspiration from traditional methods of building in Jeddah, in particular AlBalad, the city’s historic district, AlMusalla proposes a revitalization of these vernacular forms, through technological advancement and contemporary building methods. It introduces a modular tool kit of parts that can be assembled and disassembled to travel to other parts of Jeddah and beyond.

Islamic Arts Biennale 2025 (Photo: Mansor Alsofi, courtesy of the Diriyah Biennale Foundation)
How did the site impact the design?

The design is both grand and intimate, offering visitors an experience that is simultaneously shared and deeply personal. This echoes the space of the Hajj Terminal — designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and a winner of the 1983 Aga Khan Award — in microcosm. The terminal’s monumental architecture serves as a symbolic gateway for pilgrims on their journey to the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah. The Islamic Arts Biennale also brings visitors from around the world together at the Hajj Terminal, with the arts of Muslim societies as a unifying focal point. The AlMusalla bridges art and spirituality, inviting audiences to contemplate the artistry that has been inspired by Islamic faith over centuries, and through to the present day.

Islamic Arts Biennale 2025 (Photo: Mansor Alsofi, courtesy of the Diriyah Biennale Foundation)
How does the building relate to other projects in your office?

Under the banner of preservation as practice, our studio engages with contemporary society and traditional culture, building the past into the design of the present and future uses of the spaces we work with, and within. Whether we are given a site in a natural setting or at a complex urban intersection, our approach builds on the idea that preserving the meaning of the extant needs to prevail. Preservation talks to memory; it reclaims context and builds upon it. We believe in preservation as a driver of design thinking because we’re concerned with reactions and interpretation of places and environments. Following this thinking, AlMusalla looks at the past, preserves practices and projects them into the future. By extending its legacy and cultural continuity linked to materiality, construction techniques and assembly procedures, it imagines a set of honest possibilities that encompasses societal change and technological advancement.

Email interview conducted by John Hill.

Islamic Arts Biennale 2025 (Photo: Mansor Alsofi, courtesy of the Diriyah Biennale Foundation)
Project: AlMusalla at the Islamic Arts Biennale 2025
Location: Hajj Terminal, Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Client: Diriyah Biennale Foundation – Ministry of Culture
ArchitectEAST Architecture Studio, Beirut
  • Design Principals: Nicolas Fayad, Charles Kettaneh
  • Project Architect: Riwa Karanouh, Maya Hobeika
Structural Engineer: AKT II
MEP/FP Engineer: Sweco
Artist: Rayyane Tabet
Site Area: 2,025 m2
Building Area: 300 m2
AlMusalla 2025 (Drawing courtesy of EAST Architecture Studio)
AlMusalla 2025 (Drawing courtesy of EAST Architecture Studio)
AlMusalla 2025 (Drawing courtesy of EAST Architecture Studio)
AlMusalla 2025 (Drawing courtesy of EAST Architecture Studio)
AlMusalla 2025 (Drawing courtesy of EAST Architecture Studio)
AlMusalla 2025 (Drawing courtesy of EAST Architecture Studio)
AlMusalla 2025 (Drawing courtesy of EAST Architecture Studio)
AlMusalla 2025 (Drawing courtesy of EAST Architecture Studio)

Related articles 

Other articles in this category