Islamic Architecture: Between Tradition and Aestheticism

The review of the concept “Islamic architecture” and its relevance in engendering a sustainable architecture for contemporary Muslim societies is timely and worth to undertake. The vast array of living Islamic monuments and urban sites as well as the increase of patrons advocating its style prove its resilience in the age of modernism. Despite the fact that the subject of Islamic architecture has been overwhelmingly debated, this paper attempts first to draw a conceptual and critical theoretical framework, emphasizing the significance of the adjective “Islamic” next to the word “architecture.” It argues the one-sided academic approach to canonize Islamic architecture as a set of dead artifacts with a monotonous aesthetic discourse distant from its contemporary milieu and people. The resilience of the socio-cultural or ethico-mythical (Ricoeur, 1965) dimension of architecture is currently a vital element for several worldwide communities and places. This paper is therefore a review of Islamic architecture in terms of spiritual, cultural and regional sustainability in a contemporary static global architectural context.