Central Mosque of Pristina

THE CONCEPT Geographically, Kosovo is more or less the same distance from Rome, Athens and Istanbul. This exceptional position makes this country an ideal land to bring together different cultures. At the same time, historically, Kosovo paid a high price due to its position, being a meeting/clashing ground for different civilizations. Today this nation has a unique opportunity to transform its suffering into something different, drawing on its diversity to promote a new culture of tolerance. Architecture is one of the best instruments to make show of the noble goals of a nation. The project that we are here proposing for the Central Mosque of Pristina, has the ambition to bring to the surface the co-existence of Islamic and Roman/Christian culture in this part of the world. Nobody has been able to express better than Mimar Sinan this fusion between two great traditions: He, a Christian later converted to Islam, began his long career at Saint Sophie’s, and has since designed the most beautiful mosques in the Islamic world. Next to the aim of uniting different cultures, the main other guideline of our project is the idea of modernity. This now abused word has for us a very precise meaning: For us it means spending a great deal of attention to current matters like eco-sustainability, new technologies, and especially to new aesthetic ideas, characteristic of the ever-changing era we find ourselves living in. The result is a building that welcomes all those classical elements which by now are part of the semiotics of mosque architecture and adding a modern twist, an opening towards the contributions offered by contemporary architecture. We have: - The cascades of domes that echo the mosques of Istanbul ; - The Minaret, that while maintaining its symbolic and semiotic importance, is enriched by a new technologic function, following the principles of energetic sustainability; - The rectangular prayer room that brings to mind the one used by the Prophet; - The arcade (Hayat), typical of the historical mosques of Kosovo; - The Mihrab and the Minbar that are integrated in the wall of the Qibla;