The article "Reimagining Everydays of Divine Space with Taksim Mosque," which I co-authored with Oğul Öztunç, has been published in PLAT Journal, a publication that bridges theory and practice within the discipline of architecture. In this article, we draw on Jane Rendell's concept of "critical spatial practice," which highlights how spatial practices inform both the design and occupation of buildings. Through the critical lens of research by design, we aim to explore and rethink the spatial possibilities of religious architecture
While the manifestation of the divine and its rituals are inseparable parts of everyday life in traditional cultures, today we are somewhat conditioned to accept that the space of 'divine' is shaped by exclusion from the space of everyday life. This unattainable distance between the inside and outside of the sacred space causes architecture of the divine to become a detached image plate or a barrier between the life itself and divine realms. However, as Alberto Perez Gomez pointed out that the origins of architecture in human cultures are closely related to manifestation of the divine and ritual actions, the separation between ecclesiastical space and everyday life does not have to be inherent for humankind.
Through our speculative projection of Taksim Mosque, we challenge the exclusion of performative and ritualistic aspects of the divine from daily life by proposing a rethinking of architecture’s role in connecting the divine with the everyday. Our project unfolds a radical alternative scenario, using the tools of Architectural Imagination and Representation to open up a speculative spatial dialogue.
