Prayer & Meditation Pavillion by Studio Tamassociati- Simple Stunning Architecture 1o

In Sudan, a pavilion for prayer and meditation for all faiths by Studio Tamassociati + one of the winners of year 2oo8 AR Awards for Emerging Architecture, comprising Shirley Blumberg (KPMB, Toronto), Jo Noero (Cape Town), Peter Davey (Former Editor of The Architectural Review), Shuhei Endo (Osaka), Peter Cook (London), and Paul Finch (Editor of The Architectural Review and Chairman) as the awards juries.

"create an enclave that could be spiritually neutral, yet still evoke a sense of the numinous" in a region that is suffering from religious and ethnic strife.
-Studio Tamassociati.
This independent building is an integral part of the recently realized Cardiac surgery centre in Sudan, built by the Italian humanitarian organization, Emergency NGO + is the only one of its kind to provide free health-care to patients in an extensive area within a 1o million square km radius and counting 3 hundred million inhabitants.

Planned and designed by Studio Tamassociati, Venice-based Italian architects, it is simply 2 cubes subtlely floating on a large reflecting pool, a powerful symbol of physical sustenance in sub-Saharan Africa, which also separates the pavilion from the hospital and wider world. There is just a narrow walk-path leading towards spaces with no symbols and elements that are specific to only one religion because the Popular Republic of Sudan is a country that, over the past twenty years, has been scourged from numerous Inter-ethnic as well as Inter-religious wars.

"We obviously had to seriously consider the Muslim faith, which is the religion of the majority of the Sudanese, along with the religion’s rules (ablutions, separation of men and women), but we decreased the contextual impact of those rules in order not to make them appear dominant. This was made possible by concealing all symbols and elements that are specific to only one religion. For example, the ablution area is nothing more than a higher water spray that, before entrance, allows for washing without connoting a strong religious symbol, and it is simply perceived as an element of the water pool." -Studio Tamassociati.
a+. studio tamassociati via via