AWARD FOR ADAPTIVE REUSE / REPURPOSE
Pratt House , Vassar College Poughkeepsie , NY L . E . FT Architects
L . E . FT
The workshops conducted at the existing Pratt House at Vassar College among diverse theological participants were dynamic yet respectful and formulated new interpretations of sacrality , spirituality , and iconography .
The project fundamentally transformed the house ’ s existing spaces , with minimum alterations . The primary strategy was one of un-doing . Interior elements were reconfigured to achieve the new spatial goals . Removing the second-floor ceiling , for example , allows the new shared prayer hall a generous height , integrating the historic pitched roof and exposing its wooden rafters . A new skylight provides natural ventilation and light . During disassembly , structurally superfluous wood beams were reused to support the roof ridge .
Hybrid built-in components were designed to serve the liturgical needs of the multireligious community : for example , a kosher kitchen that also functions as a halal kitchen . The builtins include the first ADA-compliant ablution basin in the United States , while a reconfigurable table system supports the varied communal feasts .
A desire for material and spatial economy of the interior was extended to the exterior landscape . The college ’ s building activities and material wastes were mapped , and excess materials , from brick to bluestone , were identified and upcycled to con- struct a processional meditation labyrinth on the center grounds . The overall architectural resolution is hybrid . Taking inspiration from the long tradition of reuse found in historical religious architecture , it transforms Pratt House ’ s structure into a layered condition of interwoven spaces and religious practices .
JURY COMMENTS : The project promises great equity in use , appropriate for all students , accomplished with a minimalist architectural vocabulary . The timber employed is rendered as a gorgeous material , and there are many examples in the project of thoughtful upcycling for emulation .
HONOR AWARD FOR RELIGIOUS ARTS
Jerba 366 : Gravel Mosque Jeddah , Saudi Arabia L . E . FT Architects with Iheba Guermazi and Beya Othmani
According to a popular myth , the Island of Jerba off the coast of Tunisia hosts 365 mosques , one for every day of the year . This points to the unusual density of Muslim spaces of worship on this small island . For centuries , Jerbians adopted ingenious spatial strategies to face pressing social and environmental challenges . The scarcity of natural resources , especially water , and the risk of social conflicts between different ethnic and religious groups pushed Jerbians to shape an innovative territorial model . The islanders chose not to have a central urban center and divided their densely populated territory into small , equitable agricultural patches where each extended family could be entirely self-reliant . Consequently , small-scale , rural , family-run mosques populated an island that viewed urban
agglomerations as a threat to its fragile social and ecological balance .
For our installation , we wanted to follow the Jerbian tradition and imagine for the gallery space in Jeddah a 366th private mosque prototype . Prototype 366 represents a “ de-composed ” mosque for one person . The installation consists of the minimum elements of a Jerbian mosque ( a stand-alone mihrab , a washbasin , and a seat ), fabricated out of coldrolled carbon-steel plates emerging from a pile of basalt rocks . The mosque user can circumambulate this 17-cubic-meter volume of natural rocks when performing the necessary liturgical steps in preparation for prayer . The installation wall displays steel plates with etchings of representative mosque plans from the island .
JURY COMMENTS : The artistic forms incorporated into this sacred space are meaningful and elegant . They contribute a sense of interactivity with the space and suggest habitation even when the space is void of worshippers . It is occupied even when it is empty .
L . E . FT
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