Sancaklar Mosque
Emre Arolat Architecture · Istanbul, Turkey · 2013
Sancaklar Mosque is embedded into a sloping landscape outside central Istanbul, deliberately avoiding the familiar dome-and-minaret composition of Ottoman mosques. Emre Arolat organizes arrival through stone walls and descending terraces toward a cave-like prayer hall where daylight enters through a narrow opening along the qibla wall. Rough slate surfaces and stepped interior floors reinforce the building’s geological character. Completed in 2013, the mosque is a major contemporary reinterpretation of Islamic sacred space in which landscape, material and controlled light replace historical stylistic references.