Spring 2010, sophomore year. The first time the professors let us use COMPUTER AIDED DESIGN!!!

The project brief was to design a mosque on Cornell’s campus where their student book store is located.

Initially, we researched a number of existing mosques. This led to a focus on the geometric construction of Islamic patterns. Unlike Christianity, Islam does not favor iconography. That does not mean mosques are without ornamentation. In fact, some of the richest geometric design comes from mosques: arabesques, geometric patterns, calligraphy. When it comes to islamic geometric patterns, the circle and square is where it starts. Then these are typically inscribed / circumscribed and you end up with many-pointed stars. Those tiles are then arrayed to make a larger pattern.

My design explored what it means to inhabit a 2-dimension pattern as a 3D form.