S M Akhtar, appointed by the Central WAQF Board last week as the Consultant Architect of the Ayodhya Mosque Complex, opts to put on blinders concerning its political-communal past so he can focus on completing the 5-acre project with the 15,000sqft mosque at Dhannipur.
“This is just another project and as a professional architect, I am just doing my job,” says the Professor & Founder Dean Faculty of Architecture & Ekistics, Jamia Millia Islamia, poker faced at his Jasola Vihar residence. “Unfortunately, for many, religion comes with fear psychosis that you will get punished for your wrongdoings,” he says, pointing at a framed document bearing the Al-Asma-ul-Husna (99 names of Allah) on the wall behind him.
“Almost 95 are about the good side of god, so why look at the 4-5 regulatory ones? No matter what happened in the past, we can setup Khidmat Khalq or Manav Seva – service to humanity – and make everyone coming here feel free.” Edited Excerpts:
Are you engaging with fellow Muslims on their expectations from the Complex?
No. Whatever I do, there is bound to differences of opinion, so why get into it when you can save yourself ? You don’t want to meddle with things other people are doing because you also don’t want to be meddled with. You have to define your own premise, and mine is to design this institution, give the best shape to all the specified units and components. How the WAQF Board mobilises and manages the money is not my headache or domain.
Where do you draw inspiration from?
You might not believe me but I am not asserting myself when I say architecture comes from within. With the mosque, I am about to start churning my mind in that direction, and when it will totally grow inside me, I will get the vision for the design when I am sleeping. I usually get up to work between 2:00am to 4-5:00am. I have completed all my writing, publishing assignments this way.
Will you apply your knowledge of Ekistics to this project?
Ekistics is applied while creating entire townships, but the Ayodhya Mosque Complex can have a reflection of this. The allotted location is not very good. It has only rice fields, and for basic health facilities, locals run to Lucknow, Gorakhpur, Benaras. So, the Complex will be an integrated system with a hospital, a space to sample local cuisines, and these environments can blend because those coming to pray or avail the medical facilities will also want to eat.
“Why should we continue to build vulgar copies of our past glory?” wrote Habib Rahman (on whom you wrote a book) in his design proposal to resolve the Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi issue in The Statesman (July 28, 1990). You appear to be on the same page.
My book ‘Habib Rahman – The Architect of Independent India’, implied mental liberation derived from expanding one’s vocabulary of expression. When all buildings after 1947 were built with the same arches and domes of the British legacy, Rahman established a separate Indian vocabulary. Like him, I am very clear that architecture cannot be replicated. Architecture has to be living and vibrant, and respond to present and future challenges.
Whatever is Medieval or past is archaeology. We were dependent on different technology, materials and challenges. Thick walls were constructed to hold the heat. Now we use thin walls and have to use secondary air-conditioning, figure out fire compliance, and parking spaces. The common perception associates Islamic architecture to the Medieval Period, implying that Islam was relevant only to that period, which is not true. Karnataka has Badriya Jum’a Masjid, a zero-energy intake mosque that produces energy via solar and windmills. Denmark, Germany, Europe, have contemporary masjids with ancillary activities. Our own Raj Rewal’s design for the Lisbon Ismaili Centre, is very earthy.
Any elements you will not contemporise?
The Mihrab must face Mecca, and the sahn (courtyard for a large gathering to pray in rows) must be present.
This could mean no qubba (dome)?
When the Kabba at Mecca – the founding place of Islam – has no dome, then why do mosques need it? Europeans and Greeks incorporated the dome in their design, that came to dominate the construction industry for over 1,000 years, and when Islam began to emerge, it just adopted the style. There’s no taboo about incorporating traditional elements like the Mughal jaali – a thermal control device – but only in contemporary format.
A whisper from the Babri Masjid’s Mihrab could be heard 200ft [60m] away. Can we expect similar acoustics at the new structure?
The acoustics at Babri Masjid were special. Just as when you clap at the entrance of Golconda Fort, Hyderabad, it can be heard at Bala Hisar pavilion, 1km away. Or when you strike a match at one end in Bhool Bhulaiya, Bara Imambara in Lucknow, you can hear it at the other end. What that the arrangement of lime mortar and brick, and conductivity could do, that knowledge is almost lost, but concrete can do something new.
Will we get the typical ‘all-white’ contemporary aesthete or even colour to go with the ‘Indianness’?
It could be both. Clean lines, free flowing forms...whatever defines contemporary, in combination
with another colour.
Contemporary design can run into the danger of appearing gimmicky.
If an architect is market-oriented or only interested in money, if the client has a corrupt intention... it will all translate into the building’s design. The same architect can produce different jobs for different clients. If the Board had called for a design bid, many would have applied and suggested cost-cutting measures that could have compromised the focus – giving back to society.
Will the pandemic impact the architecture of the Complex?
COVID-19 will linger only for a few months. Architecture is completely economy-driven. When India was heavily constrained after 1947, only functional spaces and fundamental buildings were built. After money came in, Rabindra Bhavan, and other culture, art academies were established, and then the Delhi Zoo (National Zoological Park) was completed at a slow pace because money was being directed to it gradually.