Mosque Pavilion by Shahed Saleem to Welcoming Ramadan 2023

In a few days, Muslims will welcome Ramadan, a month full of blessings and prayers, which Muslims must have to do fasting. The Ramadan Festival is held in South Kensington until May 1, 2023. A mosque-shaped pavilion at the V&A museum with colorful paint was designed by an architect of Indian descent, Shahed Saleem, based in London.

Mosque pavilion designed by Shahed Saleem

This pavilion is given bright colors like red, yellow, green, and purple to attract visitors' attention. The use of this color is quite prominent compared to the museum building that is the background. 

"Through the colors, finish, and shapes, I wanted to give a sense of fun and playfulness, to suggest a childlike innocence and also to give joy," Shahed Saleem explained.

The use of bright colors for the pavilion attracts visitors

The shape of this pavilion adopts the mosque's architecture with a yellow dome as a symbolic representation. Then the most important part is the mihrab, which shows the direction for Muslims to pray. While the striped red minaret that stands next to the Mosque Pavilion represents the mosque minaret used to call Muslims to perform prayers. To limit the pavilion to the surrounding environment, the non-massive walls of this pavilion are given a purple color with the shape of the identity of the mosque.

The Mosque Pavilion consists of representations of dome, minaret, and mihrab

From the shapes transformed in the design, Shahed Saleem built this Pavilion Mosque from plywood sheet material glued together and screwed with steel brackets and fasteners, while glulam wood was used for structural and reinforcement elements. The structures support each other to reinforce the pavilion. In addition, the span of this green structure is used to support the dome above it to withstand a fairly heavy load.

Detailed structure created by Shahed Saleem

What prompted Shahed Saleem to create the reconstructed design of the Mosque Pavilion with different architectural motifs was that it began with his own life experience as an immigrant. So the purpose of the design is to capture the feelings of Muslim visitors who sometimes feel longing for the motherland. Because the month of Ramadan is always synonymous with the atmosphere of warmth, gathering with family, and carrying out worship.

"I have seen how migrant communities deal with loss and distance from homelands and attempt to reconstruct and reassemble cultural memories and histories in a new place," Shahed Saleem told Dezeen.

The Mosque Pavilion was reconstructed with a different architectural motif

The Mosque Pavilion at the Ramadan Festival is expected to remind Muslim visitors in London of the arrival of a special month full of blessings. In addition, it is also a means of respect between religious people to uphold tolerance wherever we are.