The Al Kawthar Educational Centre and Mosque by Stanley Paulus Architect Inc. is a two-storey, 20,000 square-feet community centre for the Shiite Muslim Community that recently opened in Surrey, B.C.
The Centre serves as a mosque for prayers and religious rituals, a school of theology and place for exchanging ideas and knowledge with other schools, and a community centre with activities for different groups, particularly youth.
This building design blends elements of Islamic and Mesopotamian architecture into western design and planning concepts, and uses modern building techniques that aims to reflect timeless architecture while complying to the BC Building Code.
The main building components include the mosque, a multi-purpose lecture and event hall, two child daycare facilities, and two outdoor playgrounds. Hallways on both floors open into an inner courtyard that reflect the Mesopotamian House courtyard concept while the exterior of the building utilizes a blend of repeated panels, designed with specific proportions and embossed with Islamic architectural motifs, along with light window lattices with similar patterns.
Interior walls were built with cold-formed steel members and drywall. The minaret is a combination of 50’ high tilt-up concrete panels, braced with a steel frame that is wrapped with frosted glass. This combination proved to be very efficient in developing complex buildings with various details.
The building emphasizes on the mihrab at the front part of the mosque, as well as the concrete and frosted glass minaret, portraying Islamic architectural elements in an industrial look.
The building also includes an inner courtyard, which is a key element of the traditional Middle Eastern house design. Stepping into the carefully landscaped courtyard is a unique experience of calm and tranquility.
The site is within a newly planned industrial park where façades reflect a modern industrial look. As a result, the solution was to use concrete façades with repetitive elements that are rich in detail. This objective was achieved through the use of the Tilt-Up Concrete Construction System for all exterior walls, along with a steel frame and composite floor decks.
