MYAA
Qatar Faculty of Islamic Studies
Photo credits: MYAA & Qatar Foundation
The Qatar Faculty of Islamic
Studies (QFIS), is located on the
Education City Campus, Doha.
The scheme provides world class
teaching and faculty space and the
Education City campus mosque.
FIS is based on the Islamic ‘Kulliyya’ or ‘place where
all knowledge is sought’ and the building provides a
progressive learning environment which places the
institution at the forefront of contemporary Islamic
pedagogy countering the pejorative image of Islamic
education.
The Kulliyya implies that knowledge and faith are
interwoven but that all knowledge ultimately comes from
faith. This relationship is explored in QFIS through the
infinite spiral building plan and multiple routes that bind
faculty to mosque.
Uniquely for the Muslim World, the scheme gives male
and female students parity by providing co-educational,
non-hierarchical space where men and women have
equal consideration. The layout places the large volume
of the mosque at one end, with the library, classrooms and
faculty offices in the middle, culminating with two 90m
high minarets symbolizing ¨knowledge and light¨.
The mosque is lifted by the ‘five pillars of Islam’ inscribed
with Qur´anic verse referring to Hajj, Fasting, Charity,
Prayer and Belief and the pillars provide a cool undercroft
leading to the student entrance.
Teaching accommodation is both formal and informal
while including the use of corridors, lounges, and
learning in the landscaped Islamic garden. The faculty is
symbolically separated from the mosque by a four story
ablution cascade wrapped around an undulating stair
acting as point of meditative calm before entry into the
scared space of the mosque.
The scheme is intrinsically sustainable; the large south
facing mosque self-shades the scheme. The undercroft is
a tempered shaded space. Classroom are provided with
cool courtyards and the ceramic cladding reduces solar
heat whilst permitting natural light. Elevations incorporate
a two skin modulated façade that changes around the
buildings to mitigate solar radiation. The Islamic garden
creates microclimates enabling outdoor learning for nearly
5 months in a year. Native planting uses little water and is
irrigated using grey water from the mosque ablution.
QFIS has rapidly become a focal point not only for students
but for the wider community, enabling the building
to break down barriers of class and social-status. In a
troubled world, QFIS suggests that an Islamic space can be
contemporary, progressive and inclusive but, above all, can
act as a beacon of hope in opposition to nihilistic conflict
that has gripped the Middle East region.