Located in a humble, peripheral neighborhood of Dhaka, in Bangladesh, the Bair Ur Rouf Mosque was built after a long fundraising process, in which the local population participated actively. The construction was interrupted several times due to lack of financing, with most funds coming from small private donations. Raised on a plinth that symbolically delimits the perimeter of the sacred space, the building reinterprets and synthesizes the traditional mosque type, but with neither a dome nor a minaret. The piece consists of a cylindrical volume of loadbearing walls inserted into a square that is gently rotated in search of the best orientation towards Mecca. This geometric composition generates a completely covered central space – the prayer hall – and four courtyards where toplight comes in and glides down the brick walls, which become symmetrical screens cut out of the dark lit atmosphere of the prayer hall. Bangladesh has a tropical monsoon climate, so temperature inside the building is maintained by avoiding direct sunlight and also with perforations on the perimeter walls to facilitate natural ventilation. Delimited by eight brick columns flanking the courtyards, the prayer hall is a column-free space that looks towards a crack on the wall of the Qibla, which subtly makes reference to the traditional mihrab...
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