C 27 67
I had no interest in studying architecture at
that point and my memory faded over time
in terms of the architectural references I had
visited as a child. This meant looking further
back and thinking about the characteristics of
architecture of Muslim civilization. Not just
in Iran but in many different places. But of
course, above all, I looked at Persian archi-
tecture because of my own background. There,
one finds buildings that are very simple on the
outside and more complex inside. This exter-
nal simplicity makes buildings appear grand
from afar, but as you get closer, a smaller-
scale, more subtle ornamentation becomes
visible, mostly to do with the intricacy of brick
or mosaic tiling. In contrast, the inside is
exuberant and richly decorated with exposed
structure and geometric tiling patterns.
BT: Also, in contrast with Christian tem-
ples, Islamic tradition avoids all manner of
symbolism, so I suppose that the references
you work with are very different, right?
FM: Exactly. Religious symbolism, the very
idea that an image represents the religion,
does not exist in Islam. So we had to gener-
ate the sense of silence and reflection using
space, geometry, structure, and light. I found
the Ismaili Center Houston to be a fantastic
opportunity to think about the experience of
people, independent of function and symbols.
BT: Well, we could say that this is about
congregating people. So there is a function.
That’s why it’s important that the space is not
too anodyne or too odd. The community has to
be able to feel that the building is something
that belongs to them. It’s not easy, there’s a
very fine line. In the case of our church, for
example, most of those who go there are very
humble people, so the spaces and the art can-
not be too exclusionary. This became one of
the more interesting challenges of the project.
FM: Symbolism is a highly complex sub-
ject. How did you tackle it?
BT: We had a person with us who was
an expert in theology. He was a liturgist,
so he knew about the significance of the
rituals, and he explained to us what ev-
erything meant. For example, to get across
to us what exactly it was that we had to
achieve, there was this very simple example:
if a child follows a stray football through
the church door and doesn’t stop, that is,
doesn’t immediately realize that he has en-
tered a sacred space, it means that we have
failed. I think we achieved this in the end,
a special feel, because people stop as they
cross the threshold. It’s like the church itself
makes you change your attitude. You realize
you’re in a special place.
FM: We were fortunate to have the Aga
Khan much involved in the design process.
You know, for every Ismaili Center he has
intentionally gone to a different architect, to
pursue new paths, not repeat. As a result,
each Ismaili Center has a different expression.
BT: Was it difficult to have him as adviser
and client at the same time?
FM: Honestly, he was the perfect client
because he was always pushing us to go
deeper and rework things. He asked a lot of
questions but they were never impositions.
And it’s just the kind of person he is. The
biggest challenge was how to give the center
a unique architectural character based on
principles of traditional Islamic building, but
also incorporating elements from Houston
and contemporary building technology. Tra-
ditional Islamic buildings were, above all,
working with abstraction, so they were about
achieving singular qualities of space using
geometry, structure, and craft, rather than
images. Over time, however, the Muslim world
has accumulated a vast history of significant
buildings and structures, and to continue that
history, it has repeated features of it. But if
you look at the mosaic work in old mosques
or palaces, they are never the same as any
other building. They are unique creations, and
that is how they were supposed to be: unique
works of art. I think it is a contradiction that
how Islamic architecture is viewed today re-
lates to patterns of the past being repeated
and thought of as symbols. What we had to
navigate was how to bring the Ismaili com-
munity something that was in and of its own,
unique, and yet it drew inspiration from the
architecture of the Muslim world.
BT: How interesting! As for us, we too tried
to go to the essential, reduce it to the elements
of the primitive church. Those elements are
always the strongest, most expressive, and
most timeless. For example, we have a big
cross flying in the space, made of beams we
found in an old palace nearby. They were
dismantled and remounted like a beam. And
I think this idea of reusing something that
belonged to the city did much for the project.
“Those primitive elements are
always the strongest, most
expressive, and most timeless”
