CONTEMPORARY BRITISH MOSQUE ERA
Fast forward to the contemporary period, the recent mosques designed since the 2000s have all recognized that the British mosque is no longer a mosque influenced by Pakistani origin, or Gujrati, Indian culture, but rather it is a collective of the British Muslim identity in a cohesive and diverse nation. It is also important to understand that the term ‘Islamic architecture’ does not refer to Islam as a religious connotation, but rather represents the architectural styles, features, and archetypes of the Islamic World. Therefore, domes, minarets, calligraphic art, and curved windows and doors are not an Islamically religious necessity within mosques but rather an architectural language that has long been affiliated with Islamic sacral architecture and thus migrated all over the world within mosques and Islamic places of worship. Each Muslim dominant geographical region has its adaptations to these features, so it is only appropriate to understand the evolution of sacral architectural needs and features of the rapidly growing British Muslim population.
Opposite - Figure 29: Timber Mihrab, Cambridge (Albakar Mukadam, 2020)
53
