The paper will focus on the evolution and transformation of the Architecture of mosques worldwide, with a special focus on the socio-cultural aspect.
Predicting Mosques' future evolution goes alongside predicting believers' future practices. In the context of rapidly changing technologies and societal practices, designing a mosque in a classical scheme may become outdated.
Many questions arise when we get to sensitive topics such as Cultic spaces. Searching for the difference between the spiritual, the traditional, and the practical dimension of a Mosque as ‘A Sacred Space’, a ‘Cultic space’, and an ‘infrastructure and prayer facility’.
A historical perspective seems necessary to understand the mentioned dimensions and their evolution in time, within a geo-social context.
Do we experience ‘things’ the same way regardless of our background, history, or in much broader terms ‘CONTEXT’?
The ritual between spirituality and society, to which extent are they linked?
The cultural identity and its impact on the Mosque’s architecture?
A place of service to transcendence vs a place of service to a religion? Where can we situate a Mosque?
Communal practices, suppose the existence of a ‘physical’ or maybe a ‘Virtual’ space for gathering people around a ritual.
The definition of a Mosque will vary from one another, depending on whether it is a constructed image, or an appreciation of a spiritual experience.
What defines an Architectural space, more than a concept, is an Experience. A full immersion in the sensorial dimension of a space with all its components, volume, material, density, detail, depth, height, light, exposure, temperature, sound, smell, proximity, emptiness, brightness, and freshness. To experience a state of peace, contemplation, devotion, and surrender.
Thus, if these experiences can be reached within a metaverse, to take us from the material, the physical, whether; it’s a Mosque, or our own body to the metaphysical dimension we are looking for. To transcend our reality. Can we still call that ‘Space’ a Mosque?
Keywords: Mosques, Architecture, Islamic Arts, Rituals, Spirituality, new technologies, metaverse.