Esenler Mosque & Youth Center

2019, İstanbul, Türkiye

The project site, located in the Fevzi Çakmak neighborhood of Istanbul’s Esenler district, is currently used as a parking lot. Within close proximity to the project site, there are two small-scale mosques; however, these mosques are squeezed into a dense residential fabric thus lacking any capacity to create a public space.

It has been decided to address the project together with the neighboring park in order to provide the neighborhood with a public space. In this way, the youth center will be integrated with the green area, and the sense of community provided by the mosque will be addressed together with the square and pedestrian paths.

A functional and structural complex centered around a versatile public square.

The mosque and youth center have been approached as a complex, complementing each other both functionally and structurally. The square, which is half a floor below street level, is both the area where the last congregation gathers and the meeting point for funerals and other events. It extends to the main pedestrian axis coming from the park.

The main dome is visible, but it is made of bricks and devoid of any ornament, focusing the attention to its mere form and material. The minaret still stands tall but rather than a beacon for vocal communication, but a visual signifier of the holy.

The arched inner wall on the facade of the mosque continues into the youth center, and the roof of the youth center is completed with vaults. The outer skin surrounding the mosque as a sunshade provides both light and climate control, as well as the privacy needed for the worship area. Pressed brick has been designated as the main element of the facade. When laid in sequence, it covers opaque areas, and when laid in a sliding-spaced pattern, it covers transparent areas as a “cage,” creating a natural, tone-transitional, and continuous facade expression.

The mihrab wall is detached from the main structure; the interplay of light and shadow created by the side facade and overhead lighting changes throughout the day. This allows the light and shadow patterns created by different prayer times to be felt even inside the mosque during worship, enhancing the ethereal atmosphere of the space and reinforcing the building’s double-walled, isolated appearance from the outside.

Although the interior is free of excess and adorned with details that are easy on the eye, the traditional decorative approach of mosques has nevertheless been maintained. Calligraphy, especially Kufic script that harmonizes with the architectural language, has been used—without excess—on the mihrab wall, pendentives, and other visible architectural elements.