I always dreamed of building a mosque in the shape of a flying saucer: a strange object landing on our earth from the sky! For this would be the best metaphor for a space where people send out their prayers to the sky… A prayer vessel!
At the same time, it has been my endeavor all these years to create a Modern Iranian architecture and this science-fiction air would project the mosque paradigm into the future. The flat dome and the semi-circular windows all around it are inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright’s Marine County Center as much as the Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque, and the number of the openings is 12 just as in the Lotfollah. The exterior of the dome is covered by enameled ceramics going from large to very small semi-circles, reminding us of fish scales, and their color goes from light turquoise to dark lapis lazuli blue. Under the dome very sparse mirror works reflect the interior and give a glitter to the interior.
Inside the mosque, for the first time, there is a small interior garden with palm trees growing in real earth and flower beds: I think bringing in earth, flowers and trees into the space of prayer is primordial: it is like a small microcosm of our earth, while the dome is the representation of the sky.
The water basin for ablutions would be placed outside in the entrance courtyard.
This is one of those architects’ daydreams which will never be realized…
