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9/99 26/66 13 Designing foff r a Moslem Learning Expxx erience: Al Jamea in Nairobi Campus Design Competition

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DESIGNING FOR A MOSLEM LEARNING EXPERIENCE: AL JAMEA IN NAIROBI CAMPUSDESIGN COMPETITION

Designing for a Moslem Learning Experience Al Jamea in Nairobi Campus Design Competition By Paul Spreiregen

Winning entry by FxFowle/Schwartz/Andropogon/Burhani Design (click to enlarge) If there are still any doubts about the profession of architecture being a global phenomenon, they arefully dispelled by the recent competition for the Al Jamea campus in Nairobi, Kenya. Sponsored by aMoslem group in India, and managed by a professional adviser in California, this invited campus plancompetition involved designers from the U.S., Great Britain, and India.The Competition SponsorThe Dawoodi Bohra, acting as both the client and competition sponsor, is a sect of Islam within theFatemid or Shi’a branch of Islam. “Bohra” derives from the word for trader, denoting the branch’s origins.“Fatemid” derives from the name of Mohammed’s daughter Fatima, whence the Shi’a emanated. TheBohra originated in Yemen and Egypt, but because of conflict with both the Suni and Shi’a, eventuallyestablished their base in India. The Bohra number about one million worldwide, and their center is in theIndian city of Mumbai. Their principle university is to be found in the north in the city of Surat, where theAl Jamea tus Saifiyah Surat, is located.As a highly structured, hierarchal, religious and social community, the Bohra’s everyday lives areconducted according to the strictures and requirements of Islam as presented in the Koran. In particular,the Bohra are devoted to works of social benefit and learning, the two being inseparable. The curriculumat their major university in Sarat, which dates from 1814, centers around the study of the Koran, andexpands to what westerners would call the liberal arts in all its parts, as well as mathematics and science.Branches operate in Mumbai and Karachi, and at smaller scales elsewhere. A feature of theireducational system, prevalent in Islam, is the complete memorization of the Koran. They are, in short, asociety with firm roots in the religious past, but equally very much participants in the modern world. It wasthis worldview that led to the idea to stage a competition for a new campus. A member of the Bohra, whostudied architecture at the University of Southern California, and was aware of the impending project forthe new campus in Nairobi, thought a competition would be an ideal solution for selecting an architect. Itwas then that he contacted San Francisco-based architect, Bill Liskamm, FAIA, who had a long trackrecord of running successful competitions in California and elsewhere.The SiteLocated in East Africa astride the Equator and bordering the Indian Ocean, Kenya achievedindependence in 1964 after almost a century of British colonial rule. It is has a surface area of almost225,000 square miles and a multi ethnic population of 43.5 million, of which 11.2% or just fewer than 5million are Moslem. Its settlement by Arab Moslems goes back many centuries, mainly on its east coast,the result of sea trade. Kenya’s capital city, Nairobi, and the site of the proposed university, is 1°17′S

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36°49′E, only three degrees further west than Mecca. Nairobi, well inland, is more than a mile above sealevel, and so enjoys a mild and salubrious climate. The site for the university covers 43 acres, andborders the northern side of a Bohra residential community, Saifiyah Park. This community is composedof spaciously sited individual houses and multi-family apartments.The ProgramThe program for the campus closely resembles the curriculum developed for the other Bohra campuses– the liberal arts, sciences, and mathematics – again, all centered about the study of the Koran.Developed over a period of a year by the competition sponsor, the final brief was a refined version,recast for competition purposes by the professional adviser, Liskamm.The program was specific in describing spatial requirements as well as the relative positions of thecomponent parts of the university campus. The center was to serve for communal gathering andreligious ceremonies. Radiating from that, to east and west, would be academic areas and, at the furtheredges, student dormitories, whereby male and female students were to be fully separated. At the fareastern edge would be a residential area for faculty and staff.The campus, with its inner circulation system, would also have connecting paths to an existing residentialarea to its south, as well as a path connection to a sports area on the southwest portion of the site. Themain north-south connection between the campus and the existing residential community would be aprincipal axis for the entire complex, leading to the heart of the ceremonial and prayer area, andoriented so that it pointed directly to Mecca.All four designs reflected this program, interpreting it in various ways. Those variations proved quitesignificant, and became the basis for later evaluation by the jury. A set of criteria was composed to aid inthis evaluation, and the competitors were given these criteria as part of the program information. Thejury was instructed in their deliberations for selecting the winning design, based on the criteria, togetherwith a scoring system.The CompetitionThe competition was “invited”, starting with a “long list” of design teams, narrowed down to nine, andculminating in four teams commissioned to submit designs. Each team in turn was composed of severalparticipating design firms, representing architecture, campus planning, landscape architecture, site andbuilding engineering, sustainable design, and construction. All teams were required to have acombination of “western” as well as Bohra firms familiar with their traditions and practices. This wouldassure that the best in western design technology and Bohra sensibilities would be combined. Eachteam would be paid an honorarium of $US 50,000 to prepare their designs and for their expenses.*The four teams, their member firms were:

FXFowle Architects and Frederic Schwartz Architects (New York), Andropogon Associates(Philadelphia) in association with Burhani Design‐Build (Chicago), and Triad Architects (Nairobi)Christopher Charles Benninger Architects (Mumbai) in association with MruttuSalmann &Associates (Kenya)John McAslan + Partners (London) in association with F S Group Architects (Houston, TX)

Rangwala Associates in association with Moule & Polyzoides Architects (Los Angeles, CA)To launch the design phase of the competition the members of the four teams visited the Nairobi site.During the course of their design work they had two “midpoint” review sessions via the internet with thesponsor, during which they were able to pose questions and receive comments on their general designconcepts. This system worked to the benefit of both competitor and sponsor, whereby competitorsgained assurances that their designs were within the parameters of the client’s intentions. The sponsor,in turn, could begin to see the translation of their intentions into conceptual reality. This “test of concept”assured that the resulting designs would be fully practicable.Although the Professional Adviser had recommended an independent, outside, professional jury, or atleast adequate representation of independent jurors for the design evaluation and selection process,that was not to be the case. Instead, the sponsor named twenty representatives from its own ranks, allmembers of the Bohra community. However, they did include individuals from the architectural andengineering professions with significant building experience. Still, the lack of outside jury professionalsand absence of the Professional Adviser during the proceedings—at the insistence of the client—didcast somewhat of a shadow over the proceedings. Also, it had been the understanding of the qualifyingteams that a professional jury would be involved in the adjudication process. Finally, the absence of theprofessional adviser from the presentation session precluded the possibility of a well ordered jury report,which would have provided more value to the process, and resulted in a better understanding of thewinning design.At the conclusion of the design phase the four competitor teams presented their designs in Mumbai,where each was given a half day to make their presentation. Two of the teams,FxFowle/Schwartz/Andropogon and Rangawala/Moule-Polyzoides, survived for further consideration andwere asked to be present at an additional two-hour session the following day. Three days after that Q&Asession, FxFowle/Schwartz/Andropogon emerged as the competition winner. They subsequently enteredinto a contract for their architectural and engineering services with the sponsor, and at this writing arewell into the development of schematic design.**Sylvia Smith, FAIA, a Senior Partner at FXFOWLE Architects, who led theFxFowle/Schwartz/Andropogon team at the presentations, said that there were about 50 people presentin the room where the initial event took place. Because of the separation of the sexes, women were alsoincluded in the process, but viewed the proceedings from behind a screen. In addition, the event wasbeing sent out by video to be viewed by many in the community. Although forty minutes were reservedfor questions, this segment lasted for more than an hour. Smith’s impression of this Q&A andsubsequent conversations was that the community was primarily interested in the creative (ideas)process that led to the final design. After the initial presentation, the

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FxFowle/Schwartz/Andropogon/Burhani team, which was led by three females, was able to visit with thewomen, who had viewed the presentations out of view. Among those who greeted them was thePrincess, who Smith thought may have had some input into the final decision-making process. (TheseBohra women were not accessible to the other teams, as they were all made up of men.) Asked whatmay have tipped the scales in her teams’ favor, Smith suggested that it was partially their radiatingconcept of the site, but also probably the value they placed on interpersonal relationships. According toher, it was pretty obvious that the client was not interested in replication—there were any number ofarchitects in that room, who could have easily accomplished that. They were looking for something morethan that—a creative solution.After the second presentation day, the two finalist teams were invited to visit the Al Jamea tus SaifiyahSurat University. Upon their departure, the teams were told that it might take some time to reach the finaldecision. Upon arriving back in New York, Smith was greeted by an email with the message that they hadwon! The Winning DesignFxFowle/Schwartz/Andropogon/Burhani Design (New York/New York/Philadelphia/Chicago)

Aerial rendering by FxFowle/Schwartz/Andropogon/Burhani Design (click to enlarge)

This design followed, as did all four designs, the overall requirements for the disposition of the principalcomponents of the campus. But it did so with a thoroughness and inventiveness that exceeded the otherdesigns. For example, it had not one pedestrian circulation system but two, one on the ground and oneat third level. Its many other attributes included a most sensitive and appealing landscaping system, withits various courtyard and walkways treated in appropriately different ways. The roofs of all the buildingsare to have solar panels for generating electricity. Like all other designs it is best appreciated bystudying the drawings.



Drawings and renderings by FxFowle/Schwartz/Andropogon (click images to enlarge)

RunnerupRangwala/Moule-Polyzoides (St. Louis/Los Angeles)

Presentation board by Rangawala/Moule-Plyzoides (click to enlarge)

This design was a close contender for selection as winning design. Its particular strength was theartfulness of the disposition of open spaces and building blocks. The open spaces – linear corridors andspatial reservoirs, streets of varying scale for getting about, plazas for gathering, and intimate quietgardens for repose and socializing – reflected the best of tradition and would have worked very well. Thesuggested architectural expression looked to the forms of an assuring past.In the words of the designers themselves …“The organizing principle is a determined focus on designing the void, which is the space betweenbuildings and careful arrangement of buildings around the void. The buildings are designed along theClassical (refined) to Vernacular (organic) spectrum.”



Presentation boards by Rangawala/Moule-Plyzoides (click images to enlarge)

FinalistBenninger/Mruttu Salman (Mumbai/Nairobi)

Renderings by Benninger/Mruttu Salman

Here again is a design that offered an excellent composition of circulation network and buildings. Toimagine walking through this design, experiencing it on foot, is to imagine a fascinating even magicalpassage. The design, unhesitatingly contemporary, reflects a system long in use in Arab architecture,particularly in Souks or covered markets, as well as Madrasas or schools, as in Istanbul.Theirs was a plan to house the entire campus in a system of narrow but graceful barrel vault roofs. Thedesigners developed this system so that it could be varied as need demanded, including changing theorientation of the vaults, some north-south, others east-west. Their adaptation of this system wasingenious. Unlike many strict modular structural systems, which give order at the price of needed variety,this gave both. It would have given a remarkable structural unity to the campus without sacrificing scaleor spatial intimacy where that might be appropriate.



Drawings and renderings by Benninger/Mruttu Salman (click images to enlarge)

FinalistMcAslan/F S Group (London/Houston)

Rendering by McAslan + Partners

In comparison to the three other designs, this one proposed the clearest and most direct configuration ofspace and structure, of plazas and passages, of the building masses forming those spaces. It was alsomost advanced and even courageous in proposing systems of contemporary decorative and utilitarianembellishment, such as perforated screens, as traditional an element as can be found in Arabarchitecture. They function to control sunlight as well as to afford privacy for women who traditionally sitbehind them out of sight while observing activities in the streets below them.Their formulated plan made very clear, even celebrated physically, the centrality of the prime gatheringand worship space of the campus by proposing a system of radiating rings, expanding well beyond thecentral campus, and doing this with great promise. The overall clarity of this design could well havesuited the campus and its learning objectives, symbolically as well as visually conjoining the university’smulti-faceted curriculum into an overall and purposeful unity.



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Renderings by McAslan + Partners (click images to enlarge)

Paul Spreiregen, FAIA, an editorial board member of COMPETITIONS, has written extensively on designcompetitions, and was Professional Advisor for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and IntelsatHeadquarters in Washington DC, the ATT/Bell Laboratories Solid States Technologies Laboratory inAllentown PA, and the City County Buildings in Mobile Al, among others.

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9/99 26/66 13 Commentaryon Competitions and the Al Jamea Competition in Particular

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COMMENTARY ON COMPETITIONS AND THE AL JAMEA COMPETITION IN PARTICULAR

Commentary on Competitions & the Al Jamea Competition in Particularby Paul Spreiregen, FAIA

Paul Spreiregen flying paper airplanes at the National Building Museum in Washington D.C.

There have been numerous international design competitions in the past. They go back centuries, andfor both architecture as well as town planning. This is hardly the first. Yet it demonstrates somecharacteristics of considerable portent.It is also a long condition of design in general that design predilections of many strains find their waysfrom their places of origin to places that are far different. Developing countries have long drawn on thedesign systems, “styles” if you prefer, of more developed neighbors. Even within the same cultureborrowing from a distant past for present needs is hardly new. To borrow the old for use in the new hasbeen a characteristic of architecture. It can be seen as a search for identity and order througharchitectural form. Many a university, in Europe and certainly in the US, owes its campus form to some predecessordesigns. Oxford and Cambridge are adaptations of Benedictine monasteries. Many east coast Americanuniversities are adaptations of the forms of Oxford or Cambridge. Many western American universitiesare transports of eastern “Ivy League” campuses. Religious architecture particularly has frequentlyderived forms from its own history.

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9/99 26/66 13 Commentaryon Competitions and the Al Jamea Competition in Particular

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But paralleling these phenomena has been the development of new forms for new needs. That’s beenthe story of western architecture for at least the past two centuries, new needs generating new forms,not to mention new industrial processes. It is what architecture has come to expect of itself. And it is whatrequires contemporary architects to look somewhat beyond their normal expectations.All the while the most basic generating condition of all architectural design does not change. That is thehuman body, how it moves, how it sees, the accommodations it requires, including social interaction.That remains a constant, as old as human evolution. We can and do walk paths that may have been setdown a thousand years ago. We can occupy houses equally old, or in towns built and rebuilt overcenturies past. We may enjoy these even more than the new, because they provide an added dimensionof time and memory.The Al Jamea CompetitionThe four plans for Al Jamea tus Saifiyah Nairobi are well seen from this perspective. While they draw onancient precedents in Arab building experience they do so with reason, intelligence and sometimesinventiveness. The forms they draw on are not superficial, but rather the basic stuff of architecture, theorganization of space for human purpose. In this regard of course the designs vary.All four design proposals demonstrate communality in the way they are structured around systems ofspatial corridors and special reservoirs – linear streets and passages combined with enclosed gardensand plazas. That system for organizing space is ancient, a product of the evolution of cities since timeimmemorial.Further, all four designs made use of decorative motifs from historic Arab architecture, some moredirectly derived, some more contemporary in sensibility. On that score, the often exquisite artisanship ofthe Arab world’s golden years cannot be expected to be replicated, but it can be emulated using modernindustrialized means of fabrication, as some of the designers have successfully attempted.And all four designs employed gardening and planting, one of the great traditions of Arab architecture,the garden constituting paradise as described in the Koran. With that, water was well employed asanother element of design, both for its visual delights as much as its practical cooling effects.All of this recalls earlier precedents in Arab architecture. Among them are the accomplishments of theOttoman architect, and contemporary of Michelangelo, Koca Mimar Sinan (the writer’s favorite architectof all time) or the more contemporary Egyptian architect Hassan Fahti. This same level of architecturalexcellence is to be seen in the contemporary works recognized by the Aga Kahn Foundation.Finally, the larger and even obvious portent of this competition for modern architecture deserves to berecognized. This competition managed to balance the best of contemporary western architecturalthinking with the best of traditional eastern sensibilities. May this be the larger gift of the Al Jamea tusSaifiyah Nairobi design effort.Considering the research, presentation requirements, and amount of travel required—one trip toNairobi, a trip to Mumbai for the final presentations—all to be covered by this stipend, the only individualteam to have a slight advantage here was the Benninger / MruttuSalmann team, in that they werealready headquartered in Mumbai and did not have to travel for the final session.This subject was most complex and highly demanding. The graphics required to portray the designswere commensurately extensive, but not excessive for the task at hand. So the problem devolves back tofee. The competition reviewed here is typical of what sponsors have now come to expect as the “newnorm.” That is not likely to change. But it does not advance the competition system to underpayparticipating competitors.Paul Spreiregen, FAIA, has written extensively on design competitions, and was Professional Advisor forthe Vietnam Veterans Memorial and Intelsat Headquarters in Washington DC, the ATT/Bell LaboratoriesSolid States Technologies Laboratory in Allentown PA, and the City County Buildings in Mobile Al,among others.

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