CITY CHAPEL – GASALHANA

CITY CHAPEL – GASALHANA

CITY CHAPEL – GASALHANA

Year of design:
2009.
Built:
2010.
Location:
BIJELO POLJE, MONTENEGRO
Client:
ISLAMIC COMMUNITY BIJELO POLJE

CITY CHAPEL – GASALHANA

Year of design:
2009.
Built:
2010.
Location:
BIJELO POLJE, MONTENEGRO
Client:
ISLAMIC COMMUNITY BIJELO POLJE

The facility is intended for preparing the deceased for burial, which in Islam means ritual bathing. In the Islamic religion, the state of birth, life and death are absolutely equal, which is a basic philosophical theme that is taken as an archetype of spatial and compositional concepts.

The three cubes, identical in their design, are allegorically the three essential conditions of each person in the life cycle. The position of these cubes in the spatial composition of the object is placed around the central column, which represents the center of the circular canopy that underlines the path of life that begins with birth, life continues and inevitably ends with death.

The translation of the religious interpretation of the human life cycle in space and the architectural expression represents the basic concept of the object. Avoiding the traditional form of Islamic architecture and the traditional language of all elements, there was a desire for the object to receive a full expression of the time in which it appears and thus articulate the victims of permanent life changes in accordance with contemporary trends. An attempt was made to apply the formal language as a strong spiritual message to every person regardless of their confession. The interior, as opposed to a metaphysical imagined volume, relies heavily on the interior of Muslim residential architecture to emphasize the traditional element that is an essential element of every nation’s culture.