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Yaama Mosque
Tahoua,
Niger, Africa, 1962 to 1982.
Style:
Islamic
"Yaama
is a village in the semi-desert region of Niger. Even after more
than 60 years of French colonization (which ended in 1960), the
area is remarkably untouched by outside influence. So when the
village decided in 1962 to build a Friday Mosque in which everyone
could gather for prayers they chose to use traditional methods:
everyone made a contribution, from the landowner who donated the
site, to the people who made mud bricks, carried the water and
gathered wood.”
“Initially,
the mosque was a simple, severe hypostyle hall with the column
spacing determined by the spatial demands of kneeling worshippers.
In 1975-1976, the original roof structure was replaced by a series
of bentwood vaults covered in mud (a method not traditional to the
region but adapted from models seen by Barmou on his pilgrimage
across Africa to Mecca [Makkah]). At the same time, one of the
columns was removed to allow a more or less central dome to be
constructed over a clearing among the forest of hypostyle columns.
In 1978, towers were built at the four corners and in the next few
years galleries were built between them.”
—Peter
Davey. "The Aga Khan 1986 Awards for Architecture". P.
87.
“It
is a remarkable structure, noteworthy for its innovative approach
to the use of traditional materials and building techniques. It
uses sun-dried mud brick and wood. Its simple volumes and external
masses were described by the AKAA [Aga Khan Award for Architecture]
jury as ‘breathtaking.’ The building, which took so long to
build, is the focus of village life in the whole Sahel Region.”
—Dennis
Sharp. Twentieth Century Architecture: a Visual History. P. 370.
Details
The
village of Yaama chose Falké Barmou to supervise the work and
“Barmou, who (like everyone else in the village) earns most of
his living as a farmer, made a design which has been cumulatively
refined and made more monumental since the project was started in
1962.”
—Peter
Davey. "The Aga Khan 1986 Awards for Architecture". P.
87.
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