Islamic Architecture: Questions of Sacredness
and Tradition

This talk will discuss sacredness, especially within the architecture of the “Islamic” tradition. But what is ‘Islamic’ tradition? What about its sources and their hierarchy? Are they absolute/ immutable and relative/ mutable? What are the criteria for authentic, traditional Islamic architecture in the past, present, and future? What do we mean by tradition? Is it a final product or circumstantial solution? Or is it a methodology and process? How does all of this relate to the -isms dominating today’s architectural theory within the singular box of Western hegemony and a metaphysics-denying ‘Enlightenment’? 

Speaker: Waleed Arafa is an Egyptian architect, founder & principal of Dar Arafa Architecture. He holds a bachelor’s degree in architecture, urban design and planning from Ain Shams University in Cairo and a postgraduate degree in the conservation of historical buildings from AA School of Architecture in London. Arafa is currently an MA researcher in Islamic art & architecture at the American University in Cairo. His first project Dar Arafa Residence earned an Aga Khan Award nomination in 2010, whilst his project Basuna Mosque has been a finalist and winner of many international awards, including Archmarathon Stone Award 2019, Construction21 Green Solutions Award 2019, AFAMA 2020, and the Middle Eastern Architecture Personality of 2019 Tamayouz Award. He made his international debut through ‘La Maison d’Égypte’ project in Paris, currently under construction, and a number of heritage-related projects in Bahrain. Arafa is currently working on a new university campus, the first to be built using earth construction techniques in Egypt.