This final-year project is about day-to-day issues, about life and death and about second generation minority ethnic communities in the Netherlands. With the shift in perspective for a large ethnic minority group from temporary to permanent residence in this country, there is now the need for a place where deceased Muslims can be buried with dignity. Islam has been placed in a negative light in recent years. This project is my attempt to make a positive contribution to the discourse on integration and the Islamic idiom in a Dutch context.

The motive is to create for this segment of the population a place where they can engage in their religious and cultural practices undisturbed and without the feeling that they are disturbing others. The plan is rooted in a classical schema of exemplary mosques and gardens. My project examines whether it is possible to slot this classical principle into the modern Western context by transforming it in a particular way.

The site, the Erasmus Park in Amsterdam West, has been so chosen that the building engages in dialogue with society and with the built environment. It sits on the rim of the park which does duty as an antechamber for the cemetery. The two access routes act as a funeral route from the city. The peninsula provides a subtle balance between the autonomy required by a cemetery and its insertion in the urban fabric. An enclosed garden at the centre of the design refers to the Garden of Paradise. A suggestion of horizontality vigorously counters the stasis in the seclusion of the cemetery garden. Openings cut in the walls act as seating for a double spectacle: the reality of the landscape against the ideal image of the garden.

The enclosed garden is simultaneously enclosed and open, inside as well as outside. There is a gradual transition from internal to external spaces. Geometric principles taken from historical examples, such as the structure of dome and columns, have been abstracted into a composite form. The columns imbue the four large spaces - central courtyard, main assembly space, reception room and prayer hall - with an atmosphere of devotion. The ornamentation so important to Islamic architecture takes on a concentrated form in the mural reliefs and balustrading. The structural facades are assembled from blocks of Spanish limestone, with concrete framing the holes in the walls. The solid exterior contrasts with the open structure of the interior, giving a sense of seclusion and safety. If the exterior seems introverted, inside all is air and light. The building's secluded aspect does not immediately betray its use, as the subtly placed openings give only a glimpse of its inner world and open up to the landscape, thereby referring to Al-Batin (the Hidden) and Al-Zahir (the Manifest), two of the 99 names of Allah. The manifest God is the landscape, the hidden God is the soul.

More about this project: www.puuur.nl (only in Dutch)

Place of education: Amsterdam Academy of Architecture
Specialization: architecture
Tutors: Tijmen Ploeg, Herman Zeinstra, Bruno Doedens, Machiel Spaan