M. Hosam Jiroudy completes MPhil research project

Congratulations to M. Hosam Jiroudy who successfully completed his MPhil research project, Traditional Principles in Contemporary Mosque Architecture. Hosam worked with small communities using traditional methods to build homes with an affordable and sustainable composite material made from local stone that he developed. Citing a lack of understanding of the potential for using traditional forms and materials, he set out to explore their validity through designing an urban, community mosque.

He began by defining three approaches within contemporary mosque architecture; traditional, modern and adaptive. Following a traditional approach for his own design, he found the capacity of traditional materials to relate a building to place and 'somehow suggest the structure appropriate for the place.' He also felt that the process, rather than being one of reproducing something from the past, was more 'a journey into the true nature of the physical world'. Designing using traditional materials and forms revealed how meaning and purpose are related to form and particularly the organic influence of building materials on the forms used.

His is currently in the design or construction phase of a summer house, a mid-scale mosque, a boutique hotel, and various other projects, all using local materials and traditional load-bearing construction techniques. We wish him all the best in his future projects.