The Diriyah Biennale Foundation launched a new international architecture competition at the iconic Western Hajj Terminal that celebrates the architectural legacy of Muslim societies. The AlMusalla Prize reimagines future spaces of worship as modular, empowering, and transient. It not only pushes the paradigms on sustainable design and cutting-edge technology, but also emphasizes opportunities for dialogue and community building – reclaiming the true essence of a musalla space.
The winning proposal by EAST Architecture Studio in collaboration with artist Rayyane Tabet and engineers AKT II features a structure inspired by regional weaving traditions and relies on waste materials derived from local date palm trees. The design consists of an open central courtyard and prayer spaces that form a structure that resembles a loom, addressing togetherness and proximity, which are core dimensions of prayer in Islam. This adaptable structure will be accessible to all visitors throughout the Biennale’s run.
On Weaving, the winner of the Diriyah Biennale Foundation’s inaugural AlMusalla Prize, reconciles the historic and contemporary, giving new life to the ancient architectural traditions of Islamic prayer. It brings together the legacy of courtyard typologies in places of worship, the tradition of using date palm trees as a building material in Saudi Arabia, and the art of weaving, referencing ancient textile making techniques that are indigenous to the Gulf region.
According to the architects, the structure brings together three realities: repurposing palm waste into structural timber elements, drawing inspiration from courtyard typologies to create a central gathering space, and integrating weaving as both a craft and structural mechanism. The woven elements, made from 200 kilometers of palm fiber, serve as privacy screens and structural connections, embodying the convergence of architecture, art, and engineering. Overall, two-and-a-half tonnes of waste from 150 palm trees was used in the construction of the musalla.
“The idea was to reclaim that waste and to engineer it into timber elements that form a modular system of varying heights, creating a collection of membranes that come together to compose or to conceal space,” said Nicolas Fayad, Co-founder of East Architecture Studio and an alumnus of the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. “The starting point – or really the center of gravity of our musalla at the 2025 Islamic Arts Biennale – is the central communal gathering space that is in conversation with the Hajj terminal.”
Set within the Western Hajj Terminal at King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah, the gateway for pilgrims to Mecca and Medina, the design of the modular musalla – meaning a space for prayer – is an exemplary study in materiality, craft, contextuality and communality. Created for the Islamic Arts Biennale in January 2025, the musalla is designed and engineered by EAST Architecture Studio in collaboration with international engineering firm AKT II, and Beirut and San Francisco-based artist Rayyane Tabet.
Not shy in scale to the vast semi-conical vents of the Hajj Terminal’s roof above, designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the musalla’s grand, modular date palm structure pays homage to Saudi Arabia’s culture and climate. Date palm, one of the region’s most prevalent natural resources, usually a waste product, is here used in abundance – creating a truly carbon-negative structure. Set within a landscape grid inspired by the layout of palm-tree plantations, used for shade by local populations for millennia, the musalla is in dialogue with the wider desert environment.
Drawing on regional craft and the tradition of weaving, the structure’s open central courtyard and woven-like prayer spaces evoke a loom, while its facades weave together palm fronds and fibres. Gaps in the translucent facades conduct and diffuse the light. Conversations continue back in the generous, communal central courtyard, whilst the prayer spaces – more contained – create a meditative atmosphere. Modular and multifunctional, the musalla, which can be dismantled and reassembled, will have a future life after the Biennale in Jeddah and beyond.
According to Fayad, weaving becomes a model for creativity, serving not only to form screens that provide privacy through concealment but also as a method of connecting timber elements. The weave moves in and out of these elements, creating the impression – when viewed from the outside – of a large-scale woven façade. In this way, weaving is both a structural and aesthetic device, seamlessly integrating the timber components.
In certain places, the weave has been partially dyed with colors extracted from local plants, beginning with red (representing the earth) at the lower level, followed by blue (water), green (nature), and yellow (the sun). Essentially, the construct as a whole, when you’re in it and experiencing it, is as if you’re standing in a field of 150 palm trees, surrounded by these flowers that give us these colors. It’s really a building as landscape, and that’s where all of these elements come together at a very conceptual level, but also at the very literal level when you’re in the space and in very close proximity to these natural materials.
“We’re very interested in the concept of preservation, not conservation per se, but preservation as a way of practicing architecture. This approach sets us apart because we always look for inherent practices within a specific culture and use them as design solutions for each project. In the case of the musalla, we looked at the past while projecting ourselves into the future. I believe the architectural language bridges this gap by transferring a skill set deeply rooted in how things were traditionally done in our region while fully engineering it for today. In this case, the timber is fully engineered, yet its material quality remains deeply vernacular, speaking to a historical tradition,” said Fayad.
