Islamic Architecture

Islam architecture spread over the years, which influenced many countries in the world to use Islamic characteristics in their buildings. In the earlier days, Arab architectural designs were developed and influenced by culture and religion.  The Arab architects were inspired by the design and details of the Prophet’s house. The house was built with sun-dried bricks, a courtyard, and an open porch, which is made from palm trunks. The porch of the Prophet’s house became a prayer hall and its roof was supported by rows of columns. There were also rows of arches and domes, which are the traditional architectural forms of Islamic architecture. The minaret, is a  squared tower and the Mihrab, is an empty niche set. These forms are in every mosque.

The Prophets house that was turned into a Mosque in the Madina

There was an exchange in culture between Islam and Byzantium which can be seen in AlHambra the great mosque in Spain.  Arab artists used geometric patterns, plant forms, and Arabic scripts for decorations. Islamic architecture was also affected by the culture of Persia. Their architecture inspired new forms of mosques that can be seen in the Friday Mosque at Isfahan.  This mosque had an iwan which is a hall set on each side, which was something standard and common in Persia. 



 AlHambra mosque in Cordoba, Spain that was built by Muslims when they wrote most glorious chapters in Islamic history.







A Dome from inside of AlHambra mosque in Cordoba, Spain.





 Arches in the  AlHambra mosque in Cordoba, Spain.



Visuals of Traditional Architecture

These pictures show some traditional architecture:




     

 A museum in Dubai, UAE



 

Traditional houses in Dubai, UAE



Al Fahidi Fort in Dubai, UAE

               

"Old Is Gold"

 Traditional architecture is a type of architecture that is usually designed based on the society and culture. Although, it comes from an old design it never goes out of style. Traditional architecture represents each country’s identity in which you can read the past of each country from their old construction.

 Unlike other countries, United Arab Emirates’ traditional materials consist of coral, mud brick, wood, dry stone, and thatch. In the oasis areas, they built the lower parts of their walls from large stone blocks, which supports the houses from water and wind destruction. Also, there were houses that did not last for a long time such as: the houses that are made up of palm fronds and on a wooden frame such as, the houses that were built in Al-Ain on the Omani border. Other  houses that were built in the mountains were made up of irregular-shaped blocks laid without mortar. These houses were built on the ground and their roofs were made up of palm fronds. There are also round stone houses in central mountains of the United Arab Emirates. There are towns in the Gulf Coast that were deeply influenced by their Iranian neighbors in which they took the Iranian designs of their houses such as, the wind towers. These houses can be found in the Bastakiya quarter of Dubai.

Al Bidiya Mosque, Dibba, UAE

There are little or very few old mosques in the United Arab Emirates, but the old ones that can be found are usually in the small villages. However, the large old mosques of the cities have undergone renovation and reconstruction. One of the oldest mosques in the United Arab Emirates is the mosque of Bidiya, which is near Dibba. The Bidiya mosque is designed as a rectangular building with a central pillar that supports four flat-topped domes with pointed finials which is an architectural device carved in stone. It also includes a deep-set mihrab and a fixed minbar of four steps.

Stepping Into Architecture

         Architecture represents each country as itself when it comes to the society, culture, religion, and tradition; it reflects a country’s social and cultural values.  It is a beautiful form of art and science because of the technical knowledge needed to apply a design created from scratch. There are many factors to consider before designing anything such as, materials, texture and mass, which are needed for any architectural form. Theses factors differ from one architecture type to another.   

The Story

"The mother art is architecture. Without an architecture of our own we have no soul of our own civilization" - Frank Lloyd Wright

      Our blog will concentrate on the following areas of architecture: traditional, Islamic, modern, and vernacular architecture. We are three girls who are trying to impress people by starting this blog for our English class in Zayed University. Despite that reason we hope that we will be sharing interesting and new information about architecture.