Kaira Looro

In collaboration with Brian Khoo, George Fung, Kate Lim
Situated in Tanaf, Senegal, Africa
Kaira Looro Architecture Competition Entry

Anuli, a multi-faith space for a community.

Anuli represents a space where the community enables the architecture to become a physical representative of the understanding which helps to bring people together. The multi-faith, multi-use aspect of the architecture involves the different religions and communities coming together in maintaining the same space. In this manner, the only way the space is able to manifest itself as a significant and sacred one would involve the genuine goodwill and intention of the different communities maintaining the space together, where each group’s action and care for the space is a tangible form of blessing wished upon others. Like the the words “Alma kaira siya laa” - God will give you peace.

And like how the Griot (local storyteller) sits in the centre of the crowd, telling stories to help us understand ourselves, we hope the space would be able to be a landmark in Tanaf to help us understand and accept one another.

Anuli is the idea of space which can be shared among people of differing creed and religion, a physical manifestation of mutual understanding between one person to another. Located where the original mosque was, it sits at the centre of the main road where the structure would come to represent the heart of Tanaf.

The multi-faith architecture is a circular form to break down the strong axial associations of various religious spaces, and reinterpreting it in a neutral form of an oculus. The encircling walls, maintains a degree of privacy yet remains fully open. A door is represented by a long corridor that eases the transition from exterior to interior - a space of reflection as well as a buffer from exterior surroundings. Openings through the bamboo frame varying eye level to facilitate views into the sacred space through the action of peeking and listening. A visitor is not compelled to either stay or go, but rather linger comfortably in their own space.

The vast column-less space allow for a variety of activities in arrangement - a centrifugal array of seats, or a stage under the skylight in the night, a quiet prayer toward Qibla, begetting an all encompassing space for the general community.