icma user – 379 - International Conference on Mosque Architecture

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1st Track

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Research paper Title

What Makes Mosques Meaningful? Examining Impacts of Character-Defining Elements on Architectural Meaning

Personal Biography

Ahmed AbdelMoneim Ahmed Ph.D. is an architect and a researcher who is known for the study of architectural conservation and specialized in the architectural heritage of the city of Alexandria. He has been working for the library of Alexandria since 2003 in the Alex Med research center (2003-2017) and the Center for Islamic Civilizations Studies (2017-2024). He is a co-author and editor of many publications concerning architecture in the Islamic world with a special concern for the city of Alexandria. His current work is related to the phenomenology of the human senses and perception in the field of architecture.

Paper Abstract

Revisiting the question: “What makes mosques meaningful?”, This research aims to examine the nature of interaction between mosque users and architectural character-defining elements that contribute to the mosque's architectural meaning. This question is applied within the context of the mosques in Alexandria's Ottoman town. The preceding sequential study to this one focused on the description of the physical character-defining elements of the architecture of 42 significant mosques. These buildings' reliance and value made them stand as examples of historical and cultural richness throughout half a millennium. This time, richness, resilience, and architecture combined with human interaction managed to build an interactive meaning creation for the users of these buildings. The study transcends simple architectural documentation to investigate how these elements, when combined with human engagement, create spaces of spiritual and cultural meaning. The study of meaning creation by human interaction with architectural elements in historic buildings represents a gap in existing research. This research aims to address this gap by using a mixed research method approach. Where it combines qualitative research methods such as computational phenomenology, which employs NLP “natural language processing” to process and analyze the user’s responses to certain questions on their interaction with the buildings, and quantitative research methods utilizing frequency analysis and other methods to validate the qualitative results. Among the resulting aspects of meaning creation examined in this study are space navigation, emotional associations, functionality, etc. The findings demonstrate how architectural elements and human interaction together are essential to the meaning that mosque architecture conveys. The study concludes that a mosque's essence extends beyond its physical form to include its users' lived experiences and cultural contexts. This study, along with the previous paper, “What Defines Mosques?” claim to provide a comprehensive methodological and conceptual framework for understanding and assessing mosque architectural significance by incorporating the dynamic interactions between architectural elements and human meaning creation. In addition, they help architects and scholars to find, evaluate, and create a mosque's architectural elements of significant meaning to users.

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What Makes Mosques Meaningful? Examining Impacts of Character-Defining Elements on Architectural Meaning.

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https://icmamosques.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/What-Makes-Mosques-Meaningful_Ahmed-A-resized-1.docx

Reference

1. Ahmed, A. (forthcoming) Alexandria Mosque of the Ottoman Town. Bibliotheca Alexandrina.
2. Ahmed, A. (2023) Conservation Parameters and Architectural Space DNA: Towards an Analytical Definition of the Intertwined Characteristic Aspects of Architectural Space. (Unpublished PhD thesis), Alexandria University, Faculty of Engineering.
3. Batakoja, M. (2015) ‘Frames of Reference: Art Museums as Unique Visual Media’, Journal of Arts and Design, (October 2015).
4. Cohen, J.-L., (2014) ‘Le Corbusier’s Modulor and the Debate on Proportion in France’, Architectural Histories, 2(1), p.Art. 23. Available at: http://doi.org/10.5334/ah.by (Accessed 15/6/2025)
5. Creswell, J. W. (2024) Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches, 3rd ed. Sage Publications.
6. Feilden, B. M. (2003) Conservation of Historic Buildings. Architectural Press.
7. Forty, A. (2004) Words and Buildings: A Vocabulary of Modern Architecture. Thames & Hudson.
8. Giedion, S. (1941) Space, Time and Architecture: The Growth of a New Tradition. Harvard University Press.
9. Hayden, D. (1995) The Power of Place: Urban Landscapes as Public History. MIT Press.
10. Heidegger, M. (2013) ‘Building, Dwelling, Thinking’, in M. Heidegger, Poetry, language, thought. Translated by A. Hofstadter. Harper Perennial Modern Thought, pp. 149-160.
11. Heotis, E. (2020) ‘Phenomenological Research Methods: Extensions of Husserl and Heidegger’, International Journal of School and Cognitive Psychology, 7(2), pp. 221.
12. Jelić, A., & Staničić, A. (2022) ‘Embodiment and meaning-making: interdisciplinary perspectives on heritage architecture’, The Journal of Architecture, 27(4), pp. 473-484.
13. Lefebvre, H. (1991) The Production of Space. Translated by D. Nicholson-Smith. Blackwell.
14. Leopold, C. (2006) ‘Geometry Concepts in Architectural Design’, in Proceedings of the International Conference on Geometry and Graphics (August, 2006).
15. Merleau-Ponty, M. (2010) Phenomenology of Perception. Translated by C. Smith. Routledge & Kegan Paul.
16. Norberg-Schulz, C. (1971) Existence, Space & Architecture. Praeger Publishers.
17. Norberg-Schulz, C. (1980) Genius Loci: Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture. Rizzoli.
18. Norberg-Schulz, C. (1984) The Concept of Dwelling: On the Way to Figurative Architecture. Electa Editrice.
19. Pallasmaa, J. (2009) The Thinking Hand: Existential and Embodied Wisdom in Architecture. John Wiley & Sons.
20. Pallasmaa, J. (2011) The Embodied Image: Imagination and Imagery in Architecture. John Wiley & Sons.
21. Pallasmaa, J. (2012) The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses, 3rd ed. John Wiley & Sons.
22. Pérez-Gómez, A. (2016) Attunement: Architectural Meaning After the Crisis of Modern Science. The MIT Press.
23. Sabeti, E. T. (2022) ‘An Analysis of Theoretical Foundations in Sound and Place Studies From Architectural Acoustics to Auditory Place’, Bagh-e Nazar, 19(106), pp. 51–64.
24. Smith, J. A., Flowers, P., & Larkin, M. (2009) Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis: Theory, Method and Research. Sage Publications.
25. Spence, C. (2020) ‘Senses of place: architectural design for the multisensory mind’, Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, 5(1), pp. 46.
26. Tuan, Y.-F. (1977) Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience. University of Minnesota Press.
27. Üngür, E. (2011) Space: The undefinable space of architecture. Proceedings of ARCHTHEO ’11: Theory of Architecture Conference.
28. Van Manen, M. (1990) Researching Lived Experience: Human Science for an Action Sensitive Pedagogy. State University of New York Press.
29. Warren, D. (1998) ‘Kant and the Apriority of Space’, Philosophical Review, 107(2), pp. 179–224.
30. Zumthor, P. (2010) Thinking Architecture, 3rd expanded ed. Birkhäuser. Zumthor, P. (2010). Thinking Architecture, 3rd expanded ed. Birkhäuser.

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