> [!NOTE]+ Meta > Reference:: https://architectureau.com/articles/punchbowl-mosque/ > Date:: 2024 > Tags:: #warp #Australia #Turkey > WeftLinks:: [[Spiritual value of craft]] > Claim:: [[Claim - Craft plays an important role in worship]] > [!SUMMARY] Summary > Craftsmen from Turkey and Iran were commissioned to paint calligraphy on the domes of a new Sydney mosque. ### Highlights The Punchbowl Mosque in Sydney blends traditional Islamic architecture with contemporary design, featuring a unique minaret that serves as a women's entry. Inside, the prayer hall showcases a sculpted concrete dome and warm timber elements, creating a spiritual atmosphere. Designed by Angelo Candalepas, the mosque reflects a harmonious balance between modernity and tradition, aiming to inspire peace and contemplation. > It has taken more than twenty years to plan, fundraise, commission and deliver the Punchbowl Mosque. The congregation has raised the twelve million dollars needed, an extraordinary testament to the community’s commitment to the project. > > The brief called for a three-hundred-year lifespan; the architect proposed a thousand. > > In traditional Islamic architecture, *muqarnas* is applied ornamental squinches repeated in crystalline exuberance. In Punchbowl, as elsewhere, the squinches are deployed to negotiate the transition from circle to square. The Topkapi Scroll, dating from fifteenth-century Iran, contains some of the earliest pattern drawings for *muqarnas*, which has no intrinsic boundary or scale but can be repeated and scaled at will. In this, the muqarnas reminds me of Madigan’s tetrahedral grids, which he extended in drawings and on site, creating vectors and vertices to order the world around his buildings. > > There are one hundred and two domes in all, and ninety-nine will receive calligraphic ornament. Each will be unique, inscribed with one of Allah’s ninety-nine names and the *hilya*, an ornamental calligraphy that describes the qualities of the Prophet. Craftsmen from Turkey and Iran have been commissioned to paint the inscriptions directly onto the concrete. The Prophet said, “Allah has ninety-nine Names, one-hundred less one; and he who memorized them all by heart will enter Paradise.”