Gastvortrag: Negar Hakim über islamische Gegenwartsarchitektur.
16. Dezember 2025
16:15 - 18:00 Uhr
KU Linz: Hörsaal 1
Paradise – as a mythical-religious point of origin, an idealized living space, and an eternal object of longing – has long shaped conceptions of ideal space and the good life. Whether religiously motivated or secularly imagined, the idea of a better world finds expression in imagery and architectural visions that go far beyond purely functional or aesthetic concerns.
This lecture series “(Re)Constructing Paradise: Religious and Transcultural Perspectives on Ideal Spaces" focuses on spatial designs that understand architecture as an expression of social, religious, and political orders – as imagined worlds that create community, represent power, and materialize transcendent ideas of a better world.
Attendance is free - no registration required! / Eintritt frei - eine Anmeldung ist nicht erforderlich!
Between Tadition and Transformation: New Paradigms of Islamic Sacred Architecture in the 21st Century
Negar Hakim (Wien)
In the context of advancing urbanization and increasing societal pluralism, Islamic sacred architecture in the 21st century is undergoing a profound transformation. Mosques, historically conceived as enclosed and hierarchically organized cultic buildings, are now increasingly designed as open, multifunctional spaces that extend far beyond purely religious use. This paradigm shift affects both architectural forms and the sociocultural functions of mosques within urban environments.
Designing a mosque today therefore entails more than the incorporation of traditional symbols such as domes or minarets; it requires consideration of new parameters shaped by individualization, globalization, digitalization, and climate change. Architects are thus challenged to envision, after 1,400 years, a new image of spiritual space that responds to the needs of younger generations while also engaging established communities. Over the past two decades, numerous Islamic sacred buildings have been realized that embrace transformation as an opportunity to question the traditional typology and redefine its architectural vocabulary.
About the Speaker
Univ Ass Mag Dr Negar Hakim, born in Isfahan (Iran), is an art historian, curator, and expert in transcultural and interdisciplinary mediation in the fields of art and architecture. She studied art history at the University of Vienna and has been engaged for many years in the research, contextualization, and mediation of artistic and architectural practices within the framework of intercultural exchange processes between Europe and the WANA region (West Asia and North Africa).
Since 2021, she has been working as a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Art History, Building Research and Monument Preservation at TU Wien (Vienna University of Technology). Her research focuses on contemporary architectural developments in West Asia and on the transformation of sacred architecture in the context of social and religious change.