Rooted Transience: AlMusalla Prize 2025

“Rooted Transience” examines the typology of musallas—temporary prayer spaces that can materialise wherever they are needed—and the architectural possibilities that emerge when we learn from material practices rooted in transience and adaptability. It highlights the multivalent natures of musalla spaces, exploring the entangled relationships between the historical, material, and contemporary registers within which musalla spaces emerge.

The exhibition includes full-scale fragments of the AlMusalla Prize’s winning design by EAST Architecture Studio in collaboration with artist Rayyane Tabet and engineering firm AKT II, alongside works from shortlisted firms AAU Anastas, Asif Khan, Dabbagh Architects, and Office of Sahel AlHiyari for Architecture. The projects are presented alongside a series of archival images and documents related to the architectural history of musallas, placing the contemporary work in dialogue with historical spatial practices in Islamic societies.