Rooted Transience: AlMusalla Prize 2025

What architectural possibilities can emerge when we reorient towards spatial practices rooted in transience and adaptability?
A musalla emerges whenever and wherever the need for individual or communal prayer arises, reimagining fixed spatial practices and adapting to its immediate environment. From urban conditions that become temporary prayer spaces to pauses along a traveller’s journey and the most expansive open fields for Eid prayers, the typology of the musalla embodies design principles rooted in transience and adaptability. Coinciding with the inaugural AlMusalla Architectural Prize, awarded to EAST Architecture Studio in collaboration with Rayyane Tabet and AKT II for the design of a space open to Muslims and non-Muslims alike, Rooted Transience highlights the multivalent natures of musalla spaces and explores the entangled relationships between the historical, material, and contemporary registers within which they emerge.